Part 24

INDIAN MUSH.--Have ready on a clear fire a pot of boiling water. Stir into it, by degrees, (a handful at a time,) sufficient indian meal to make a very thick porridge, and then add a very small portion of salt, allowing not more than a level tea-spoonful to a quart of meal. You must keep the pot boiling all the time you are stirring in the meal; and between every handful stir hard with the mush-stick, (a round stick about half a yard long, flattened at the lower end,) as, if not well stirred, the mush will be lumpy. After it is sufficiently thick and smooth, keep it boiling an hour longer, stirring it occasionally. Then cover the pot closely, and hang it higher up the chimney, or set it on hot coals on the hearth, so as to simmer it slowly for another hour. The goodness and wholesomeness of mush depends greatly on its being long and thoroughly boiled. It should also be made very thick. If well made, and well cooked, it is wholesome and nutritious; but the contrary, if thin, and not sufficiently boiled. It is not too long to have it three or four hours over the fire, first boiling, then simmering. On the contrary, it will be better for it. The coarser the corn meal the less cooking it requires. Send it to table hot, and in a deep dish. Eat it with sweet milk, buttermilk, or cream, or with butter and sugar, or with butter and molasses; making a hole in the middle of your plate of mush, putting some butter into the hole, and then adding the sugar or molasses.

Cold mush that has been left may be cut into slices, or mouthfuls, and fried next day, in butter, or in nice dripping of veal, beef, or pork; but not mutton or lamb.

INDIAN HASTY PUDDING.--Put two quarts of milk into a clean pot or sauce-pan. Set it over the fire, adding a level tea-spoonful of salt, and, when it comes to a boil, stir in a lump of fresh butter about the size of a goose egg. Then add (a handful at a time) sufficient indian meal to make it very thick, stirring it all the while with a mush stick. Keep it boiling well, and continue to throw in indian meal till it is so thick that the stick stands upright in it. Then send it to table hot, and eat it with milk, cream, or molasses and butter. What is left may be cut into slices, and fried next day, or boiled in a bag.

INDIAN MEAL GRUEL.--This is an excellent food for the sick. Having sifted some indian meal, mix in a quart bowl three table-spoonfuls of the meal with six of cold water. Stir it smooth, and press out the lumps against the side of the bowl. Have ready a very clean sauce-pan, entirely free from grease, with a pint of boiling water. Pour this, scalding hot, on the mixture in the bowl, a little at a time, and stir it well, adding a pinch of salt. Then put the whole back into the sauce-pan. Set it on hot coals and stir it till it boils, making the spoon go down to the bottom to prevent the gruel from burning. After it has come to a boil, let it continue boiling half an hour, stirring it frequently, and skimming it. Give it to the invalid warm, in a bowl or tumbler, to be eaten with a tea-spoon. It may be sweetened with a little sugar. When the physician permits, some grated nutmeg may be added; also, a very little wine.

RYE MUSH.--To make smooth rye mush, sift a quart or more of rye meal into a pan, and gradually pour in sufficient cold water to make a very thick batter, stirring it hard with a spoon as you proceed, and carefully pressing out all the lumps against the side of the pan. Add a very little salt. The batter must be so thick at the last that you can scarcely stir it. Then thin it with a little more water, and see that it is quite smooth. Rye, and also wheat flour, have a disposition to be more lumpy than corn meal, when made into mush. When thoroughly mixed and stirred, put it into a pot, place it over the fire and boil it well, stirring it with a mush-stick till it comes to a hard boil; then place it in a diminished heat, and simmer it slowly till you want to dish it up. Eat it warm, with butter and molasses, or with sweet milk, or fresh buttermilk. Rye mush is considered very wholesome, particularly in cases of dyspepsia.

COMMON HOE-CAKE.--Take an earthen or tin pan, and half fill it with coarse indian meal, which had best be sifted in. Add a little salt. Have ready a kettle of boiling water. Pour into the indian meal sufficient hot water (a little at a time,) to make a stiff dough, stirring it with a spoon as you proceed. It must be thoroughly mixed, and stirred hard. If you want the cakes for breakfast, mix this dough over night; cover the pan, and set it in a _cool_ place till morning. If kept warm, it may turn sour. Early next morning, as soon as the fire is burning well, set the griddle over it, and take out the dough, a handful at a time. Flatten and shape it by patting it with your hands, till you form it into cakes about the size of a common saucer, and half an inch thick. When the griddle is quite hot, lay on it as many cakes as it will hold, and bake them brown. When the upper side is done, slip a broad knife beneath and turn them over. They must be baked brown on both sides. Eat them warm, with buttermilk, sweet milk, butter, molasses, or whatever is most convenient. If you intend these cakes for dinner or supper, mix them as early in the day as you can, and (covering the pan) let them stand in a cool place till wanted for baking. In cold weather you may save trouble by mixing over night enough to last the next day for breakfast, dinner, and supper; baking them as they are wanted for each meal. Or they may be all baked in the morning, and eaten cold; but they are then not so palatable as when warm. They will be less liable to stick, if before each baking the griddle is dredged with wheat flour, or greased with a bit of fat pork stuck on a fork. You may cover it all over with one large cake, instead of several small ones.

This cake is so called, because in some parts of America it was customary to bake it on the iron of a hoe, stood up before the fire. It is better known by that name than by any other.

COMMON GRIDDLE CAKE.--A quart of indian meal, sufficient warm water to make a soft dough, a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the indian meal into a pan, and add the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the meal, and pour in a little warm water. Then mix it with a large, strong spoon, adding, by degrees, water enough to make a soft dough. Flour your hands, and knead it into a large lump--divide it into two equal portions. Flour your pasteboard, lay on it the first lump of dough, and roll it out about an inch thick. Then, (having already heated your griddle,) lay the cake upon it, spreading it evenly, and make it a good round shape. It should cover the whole surface of the griddle, which must first be greased, either with butter or lard tied in a rag, or with a bit of fat fresh pork. Bake it well; and when one side is well browned, turn it on the other, taking care not to break it. Send it to table hot, cut into three-cornered pieces--split and butter them. As soon as the first cake is sent in, put on the other to bake.

This is one of the plainest and simplest preparations of indian cake; and is very good when warm.

PLAIN JOHNNY CAKE.--A quart of indian meal, a pint of warm water, a level tea-spoonful of salt. Sift a quart of indian meal into a pan. Make a hole in the middle, and pour in a pint of warm water, adding the salt. With a spoon mix the meal and water gradually into a soft dough. Stir it very hard for a quarter of an hour or more, till it becomes light and spongy. Then spread the dough, smooth and evenly, on a stout, flat board. A piece of the head of a flour barrel will serve for this purpose. Place the board nearly (but not quite) upright, and set a smoothing-iron or a stone against the back to support it. Bake it well. When done, cut it into squares, and send it hot to table, split and buttered. You may eat molasses with it.

VERY PLAIN INDIAN DUMPLINGS.--Sift some indian meal into a pan; add about a salt-spoon of salt to each quart of meal, and scald it with sufficient boiling water to make a stiff dough. Pour in the water gradually, stirring as you pour. When the dough becomes a stiff lump divide it into equal portions; flour your hands, and make it into thick flat dumplings, about as large round as the top of a glass tumbler, or a breakfast cup. Dredge the dumplings on all sides with flour, put them into a pot of boiling water, (if made sufficiently stiff they need not be tied in cloths,) and keep them boiling hard till thoroughly done. Try them with a fork, which must come out quite clean, and with no clamminess sticking to it. They are an excellent appendage to salt pork or bacon, serving them up with the meat; or they may be eaten afterwards with butter and molasses, or with milk sweetened well with brown sugar, and flavored with a little ground cinnamon. On no account boil them with meat.

INDIAN MUFFINS.--A pint and a half of yellow indian meal, sifted; a handful of wheat flour; a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; a quart of milk; four eggs; a very small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the milk into a sauce-pan. Cut the butter into it. Set it over the fire and warm it till the butter is very soft, but not till it melts. Then take it off, stir it well till all mixed, and set it away to cool. Beat four eggs very light, and when the milk is cold, stir them into it alternately with the meal, a little at a time, of each. Add the salt. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed. Then butter some muffin-rings on the inside. Set them in a hot oven, or on a heated griddle; pour some of the batter into each, and bake the muffins well. Send them hot to table, continuing to bake while a fresh supply is wanted. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey. These muffins will be found excellent, and can be prepared in a very short time; for instance, in three quarters or half an hour before breakfast or tea.

This mixture may be baked in waffle-irons, as waffles. Butter them, and have on the table a glass bowl with powdered sugar and powdered cinnamon, to eat with these waffles.

CORN MEAL BREAKFAST CAKES.--A quart of indian meal; a handful or more of wheat flour; a large salt-spoon of salt; a quart of warm water; an additional pint of lukewarm water; a bit of pearlash the size of a hazle-nut, or the same quantity of soda or saleratus. Mix over night, in a large pan, the indian meal, the wheat flour and salt. Pour on gradually a quart of warm water, (warm but not hot,) and stir it in with a large wooden or iron spoon, so as to form a very soft dough. Cover the pan, and set it on the dresser till morning. In the morning thin the dough with another pint of warm water, so as to make it into a batter, having first dissolved in the water a salt-spoonful of powdered pearlash or saleratus, or a bit the size of a hazle-nut. Beat the mixture hard. Then cover it, and let it stand near the fire for a quarter of an hour before you begin to bake it. Bake it in thin cakes on a griddle. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter and molasses, or honey.

INDIAN RICE CAKES.--Take equal quantities of yellow indian meal and well boiled rice. Mix them together in a pan, the meal and rice alternately, a little at a time of each. The boiled rice may be either hot or cold; but it will be rather best to mix it hot. Having first mixed it with a spoon, knead it well with your hands; moistening it with a little milk or water, if you find it too stiff. Have ready, over the fire, a heated griddle. Grease it with fresh butter tied in a clean rag; and having made the mixture into flat round cakes, bake them well on both sides. Eat them with butter and sugar, or butter and molasses, or with butter alone.

PUMPKIN INDIAN CAKES.--Take equal portions of indian meal, and stewed pumpkin that has been well mashed and _drained very dry_ in a sieve or cullender. Put the stewed pumpkin in a pan, and stir the meal gradually into it, a spoonful at a time, adding a little butter as you proceed. Mix the whole thoroughly, stirring it very hard. If not thick enough to form a stiff dough, add a little more indian meal. Make it into round, flat cakes, about the size of a muffin, and bake them over the fire on a hot griddle greased with butter. Or lay them in a square iron pan, and bake them in an oven.

Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter.

EXCELLENT BUCKWHEAT CAKES.--A quart of buckwheat meal, sifted; a level tea-spoonful of salt; a small half pint or a large handful of indian meal; two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh brewer's yeast or four table-spoonfuls of home-made yeast; sufficient lukewarm water to make a moderate batter. Mix together the buckwheat and indian meal, and add the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the meal, and pour in the yeast. Then stir in gradually, from a kettle, sufficient tepid or lukewarm water to make a moderately thick batter when united with the yeast. Cover the pan, set it in a warm place, and leave it to rise. It should be light in about three hours. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, it is fit to bake. Have ready a clean griddle well heated over the fire. Grease it well with a bit of fresh butter tied in a clean white rag, and kept on a saucer near you. Then dip out a large ladleful of the batter, and bake it on the griddle; turning it when brown, with the cake-turner, and baking it brown on the other side. Grease the griddle slightly between baking each cake, or scrape it smooth with a broad knife. As fast as you bake the cakes, lay them, several in a pile, on a hot plate. Butter them, and if of large size cut them across into four pieces. Or send them to table to be buttered there. Trim off the edges before they go in.

If your batter has been mixed over night, and is found sour in the morning, dissolve a salt-spoon of pearlash or saleratus in a little lukewarm water, stir it into the batter, let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then bake it. The alkali will remove the acidity, and increase the lightness of the batter. If you use soda for this purpose it will require a tea-spoonful.

If the batter is kept at night in so cold a place as to freeze, it will be unfit for use. Do not grease the griddle with meat-fat of any sort.

NICE RYE BATTER CAKES.--A quart of lukewarm milk, two eggs, a large table-spoonful of fresh, brewer's yeast or two of home-made yeast; sufficient sifted rye meal to make a moderate batter; a salt-spoon of salt; having warmed the milk, beat the eggs very light, and stir them gradually into it, alternately with the rye meal, adding the salt. Put in the meal, a handful at a time, till you have the batter about as thick as for buckwheat cakes. Then stir in the yeast, and give the batter a hard beating, seeing that it is smooth and free from lumps. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. When risen high, and covered with bubbles, the batter is fit to bake. Have ready over the fire a hot griddle, and bake the cakes in the manner of buckwheat. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter, molasses, or honey.

Yeast powders, used according to the directions that accompany them, and put in at the last, just before baking, are an improvement to the lightness of all batter cakes, provided that real yeast or eggs are also in the mixture. But it is not well to depend on the powders exclusively; particularly when real yeast is to be had. The lightness produced by yeast powders alone, is not the right sort; and though the cakes are eatable, they are too tough and leathery to be wholesome. As _auxiliaries_ to genuine yeast, and to beaten eggs, yeast powders are excellent. But not as the sole dependence.

Indian batter cakes may be made as above; or rye and indian meal be mixed in equal proportions.

INDIAN CUP CAKES.--A pint and a half of yellow Indian meal; half a pint of wheat flour; a pint and a half of _sour_ milk; (buttermilk is best;) a small tea-spoonful of saleratus or soda dissolved in warm water; two eggs; a level tea-spoonful of salt. Sift the indian and wheat meal into a pan and mix them well, adding the salt. If you have no buttermilk or other sour milk at hand, turn some sweet milk sour by setting a pan of it in the sun, or stirring in a spoonful of vinegar. Take out a small tea-cupful of the sour milk, and reserve it to be put in at the last. Beat the eggs very light, and then stir them, gradually, into the milk, alternately with the meal, a little at a time of each. Lastly, dissolve the soda or saleratus, and stir it into the cup of sour milk that has been reserved for the purpose. It will effervesce; stir it while foaming into the mixture, which should be a thick batter. Have ready some tea-cups, or little deep tins. Butter them well; nearly fill them with the batter, and set them immediately into a rather brisk oven. The cakes must be thoroughly baked all through. When done, turn them out on large plates, and send them hot to the breakfast or tea-table. Split them into three pieces, and eat them with butter.

The soda will entirely remove the acidity of the milk, which will effervesce the better for being sour at first, adding therefore to the lightness of the cake. Taste the milk, and if you find that the slightest sourness remains, add a little more dissolved soda.

All the alkalies, pearlash, saleratus, soda, and sal-volatile, will remove acidity, and increase lightness; but if too much is used, they will impart a disagreeable taste. It is useless to put lemon or orange juice into any mixture that is afterwards to have one of these alkalies, as they will entirely destroy the flavor of the fruit.

CAROLINA RICE CAKES.--Having picked and washed half a pint of rice, boil it by itself till the grains lose all form, and are dissolved into a thick mass or jelly. While warm, mix into it a large lump of the best fresh butter, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Pour into a bowl a moderate sized tea-cupful of ground rice flour, and add to it as much milk as will make a tolerably stiff batter. Stir it till it is quite smooth, and free from lumps. Then mix it thoroughly with the boiled rice. Beat six eggs as light as possible, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture. Bake it on a griddle, in cakes about as large round as a saucer. Eat them warm with butter; and have on the table, in a small bowl, some powdered white sugar and nutmeg, for those who like it.

AUNT LYDIA'S CORN CAKE.--Sift into a large pan a quart of yellow corn meal, and add a level tea-spoonful of salt, (not more.) Have ready a pint of boiling milk, sufficient to make a soft dough. Mix the milk hot into the corn meal, and add about a quarter of a pound, or half a pint of nice fresh butter. Having beaten five eggs till very light and thick, stir them gradually into the mixture, and set it to cool. All preparations of corn meal require much beating and stirring. Have ready some small tin pans, about four or five inches square, and two or three inches deep. They are especially good for baking such cakes, (far better than patty-pans,) and are made by any tinsmith. Grease the pans with the same butter you have used in mixing the cakes. _Fill the pans to the top_ with the above mixture, that the heat may immediately catch the surface, and cause it to puff up high above the edges of the pan. If properly mixed, and well beaten, there is no danger of it running over. If only half filled, and not very light, the mixture when baking will sink down, and become heavy and tough. Set these cakes immediately into a moderate oven. Bake them brown, and send them to the breakfast table hot. Split and butter them.

They may be baked in muffin rings, but the small square pans are best.

This is the very best preparation of Indian cakes. If _exactly followed_, we believe there is none superior; as is the opinion of all persons who have eaten them. The cook from whom this receipt was obtained, is a Southern colored woman, called Aunt Lydia.

The above quantities will furnish cakes only for a small family. If the family is of tolerable size, double the proportions of each article--as for instance, two quarts of Indian meal, one quart of milk, half a pound of butter, and ten eggs, with a level table-spoonful of salt. Let them be well baked; not scorched on the top, and raw at the bottom.

We recommend them highly as the perfection of corn cakes, if well made, well baked, and with all the ingredients of the best quality.

Use yellow indian meal in preference to white. The yellow is sweeter, has more of the true corn taste, and its color shows at once what it is. The white has less flavor, and may be mistaken for very coarse wheat. It is difficult to keep corn meal good for the whole year. Before the new corn meal is in market, the old is apt to become musty. If you live in a city it is best to buy it as you want it; a few pecks at a time. If in the country, sift your barrel of corn meal soon after it is brought; divide it, and keep it in several different vessels, always well covered.

SHORT CAKE.--As this requires no rising, it may be mixed and prepared at half an hour's notice. Take a quart and a pint of wheat flour, sift it into a pan, and divide into three parts three quarters of a pound of nice fresh butter. Cut up one piece into the pan of flour, and mix it into a dough with a broad knife, adding, as you proceed, as little water as will be barely sufficient. The water must be very cold. Roll out this lump of paste, dredge it slightly with flour, fold it up, and roll it out again. Then cover it with a second division of the butter, put on the sheet of paste with the knife, and dispersed at equal distances. Sprinkle it with flour, fold it, and roll out the sheet again. Put on the remainder of the butter as before, in bits equally dispersed. Fold, dredge, and roll out the dough into a rather thin sheet. Cut it into small round cakes with the edge of a tumbler, or something like it, using up the clippings of paste left at the last to make one more cake. Have ready a hot griddle or oven. Put on the cakes so as not to touch each other, and bake them light brown on both sides. Send them to table hot, to be split and buttered. Mix and roll out these cakes as fast as possible, and avoid handling them more than you need. Paste made _slowly_ is never light or flakey. Mix quick and roll quick. This is a good plain paste for fruit pot-pies or dumplings.

You may make common short cake for very healthy people, with two quarts of flour, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of lard, mixed into the pan of meal with a very little cold water, and a second quarter of lard spread all over the sheet of paste, after rolling it out. Fold, sprinkle, and roll it out again into one round griddle cake, or two if you have enough of dough. Take care, in baking, not to have it smoked or blackened at the edge. When done, cut it into "pie pieces," and send it to table to be split and buttered.

HALF MOONS.--Of this paste you may make half-moon pies. Cut the paste into round cakes. On half the circle, lay plenty of stewed fruit well sweetened, (for instance, stewed dried peach,) fold over it the other half, pinch the two edges together, and crimp them. Bake them in an oven, and eat them fresh. If you have fruit in the house ready stewed, half-moon pies can be got up for a plain dessert on an emergency. Either mince meat, or sausage meat, may be baked in half-moons. They will bake very nicely, laid side by side, in large square tin pans, first dredged slightly with flour.