Chapter XIII: Preface (12)

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.

SOFT MUFFINS.--Warm a quart of milk, and melt in it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, cut into bits. When melted, stir it about, and set it away to cool. Beat four eggs till very thick and light, and stir them gradually into a pan of milk, and butter when it is quite cold. Then, by degrees, stir in enough of sifted flour to make a batter as thick as you can well beat it. Then, at the last, stir in three table-spoonfuls of baker's or brewer's yeast. Cover the pan of batter with a double cloth, and set it on the hearth (or some other warm place) to rise, but it must not be allowed to get hot. It should have risen nearly to the top of the pan, and be covered with bubbles in about three hours. The griddle being heated, grease it with nice butter tied in a rag; take a ladleful of batter out of the pan, pour it into the ring, and bake the muffins. Send them hot to table, and split and butter them. These are superior to all muffins. Those who have eaten them will never desire any others, if this receipt has been faithfully followed. Try it.

SALLY LUNN CAKE.--This is a favorite tea cake, and so universally liked that it is well to make a liberal quantity of the mixture, and bake it in two loaves. Sift into a large pan three pounds of fine flour. Warm in a quart of milk half a pound of fresh butter, and add a small tea-spoonful of salt, six eggs well beaten, and add, gradually, two wine glasses of excellent fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the pan, (a little at a time) and beat the whole very hard. Divide this quantity into two equal portions, and set it to rise in two pans. Cover it with thick cloths, and set it on the hearth to rise. When quite light, grease two loaf-pans with the same butter used for the cakes, and bake it in a moderate oven, keeping up the heat steadily to the last. It should be thoroughly done all through. Send it to table hot, cut in slices, but the slices left standing as in a pound cake at a party.

The Sally Lunn mixture may be baked on a griddle, as muffins in muffin rings, and split and buttered at table.

In mixing this cake, add neither sugar nor spice. They do not improve, but spoil it, as would be found on trial. It is the best of plain tea cakes, if properly made and baked.

DELAWARE CAKES.--This is a plain tea cake. Sift into a pan two quarts of flour. Cut up half a pound of fresh butter, and rub it into the flour with your hands. Beat five eggs very light and thick; make a hole in the centre of the flour, and gradually stir the beaten eggs, in turn with a pint of milk. Then add a jill of fine fresh yeast. Mix the whole thoroughly with a broad knife. Transfer it to large square tin pans. Cover it with a clean flannel, and set it on the hearth to rise. When it is quite light, and cracked all over the surface, divide the dough into cakes and bake them in muffin rings, on a griddle or in a stove. If baked in one large cake, there is a risk of their being made heavy, by cutting them when hot.

To make sweet cakes with the above mixture, add gradually to the flour in the pan, half a pound of powdered sugar before you rub in the butter, and after the eggs and milk. Stir in a wineglass of rosewater, or less, if it is very strong, (which rosewater seldom is) and also it loses much of its strength in cooking. Or, substitute the yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and some powdered nutmeg. They will then be a cake for company; otherwise, they will be for family teas.

Either plain or sweet they are very good. We rather prefer them plain. If plain, omit even sugar. Sugar, without other flavoring, gives plain tea cakes a faint sickly taste, and is better left out entirely, except for children--and they like any kind of sweetness, however little.

MARYLAND BISCUIT.--Take two quarts of sifted wheat flour, and add a small tea-spoonful of salt. Rub into the pan of flour a large quarter of a pound of lard, and add, gradually, warm milk enough to make a very stiff dough. Knead the lump of dough long and hard, and pound it on all sides with a rolling-pin. Divide the dough into several pieces, and knead and pound each piece separately. This must go on for two or three hours, continually kneading and pounding, otherwise it will be hard, tough, and indigestible. Then make it into small round thick biscuits, prick them with a fork, and bake them a pale brown.

This is the most laborious of cakes, and also the most unwholesome, even when made in the best manner. We do not recommend it; but there is no accounting for tastes. Children should not eat these biscuits--nor grown persons either, if they can get any other sort of bread.

When living in a town where there are bakers, there is no excuse for making Maryland biscuit. Believe nobody that says they are not unwholesome. Yet we have heard of families, in country places, where neither the mistress nor the cook knew any other preparation of wheat bread. Better to live on indian cakes.

HOME-MADE BREAD.--You cannot have good bread without good flour, good yeast, good kneading, and good baking, all united. Like many other things, the best flour is always the cheapest in the end. There is none better than that which comes from the mills of Hiram Smith, Rochester, New York. All flour should be kept in a dry place, damp being always injurious to it. Good flour goes farther than that of inferior quality, and is both whiter and lighter. No skill will avail either in making or baking bread, if the flour is of bad quality. Flour will keep much better if, as soon as a new barrel is brought in, the whole of it is sifted, and divided in several buckets. Flour buckets, made for the purpose, are short and wide, are broader at the bottom than the top, and have handles and lids. They are to be had of all coopers. Yeast must always be of the best quality, strong and fresh. With too much yeast the bread will be bitter; with too little it will be heavy; with stale yeast it will be heavy, sour, and dark-colored. If baked too little, it becomes tough and clammy. We deprecate the practice of putting hartshorn in bread. It gives it a bad taste; and even if it produces a sort of factitious lightness, it also renders it tough and difficult to masticate, however nice it may look. Also, it is very unwholesome.

The oven should be heated in time, to set in the bread as soon as ready. When once it has risen to its utmost lightness, it will fall and turn sour if permitted to stand. The only remedy for sour bread is, to melt a table-spoonful of soda or pearlash in tepid water, and sprinkle it over the dough, which must then be kneaded again, after it has rested half an hour. In summer, do not begin your bread over night; it will certainly be sour before morning. In winter you may do so, but keep it all night in a warm (though not a hot) place. If the dough freezes, you may throw it away at once.

To knead, double up your hands, put them deep into the dough, and work it with your knuckles, exerting all your strength. When the dough sticks to them no longer, but leaves your bent fingers clean and clear, it is time to cease kneading, for you have done enough for that time.

Sift into a deep pan, or large wooden bowl, a peck of fine wheat flour, (adding a large table-spoonful of salt,) and mix the water with half a pint of strong fresh brewer's yeast, or near a whole pint if the yeast is home-made. Pour this into the hole, in the middle of the heap of flour. Mix in with a wooden spoon, a portion of the flour from the surrounding edges of the hole so as to make a thick batter, and having sprinkled dry flour over the top, let it rest for near an hour. This is called "_setting the sponge_," or "_making the leaven_." When it has swelled up to the surface, and burst through the coating of flour that covered the hole, pour in as much more lukewarm water as will suffice to mix the whole gradually into a dough. Knead it hard and thoroughly, leaving no lumps in it, and continue to knead till the dough leaves your hands. Throw over it a clean thick cloth, and set it in a warm place to rise again. When it is quite light and cracked all over the surface, divide it into loaves, and give each loaf a little more kneading, and let it rest till it has risen as high as it will. Have your oven quite ready, and (having transferred the loaves to pans, sprinkled with flour,) bake them well. Try the heat of the oven by previously throwing in a little flour. If it browns well, and you can hold your hand in the heat while you count twenty, it is a good temperature for bread. If the flour scorches black the oven is too hot, so leave the oven open a little while till it becomes cooler. As soon as the bread is quite done, take out the loaves, wrap each tightly in a clean coarse cloth, damped by sprinkling it with water, and stand them up on their edges. This will prevent the crust from becoming too hard. Keep the loaves wrapped up after they are deposited in the bread box.

ROLLS--Are made as above, except that they are mixed with warm milk instead of water, and a little fresh butter rubbed into the dough.

TWIST BREAD.--Before you put the dough into the baking pans, divide it equally into long thick rolls, (smaller at the ends) and plait or twist three together.

BRAN BREAD--Is made like any other, only of bran meal; and in setting the sponge, put _wheat_ flour into the hole, and add to the liquid half a tea-cupful of nice brown sugar. Bran bread should look very brown. It should be eaten fresh. When stale, it is too dry and hard. Bran batter cakes are made and baked like buckwheat.

RYE BREAD.--Is made like wheat bread, but that it requires more kneading and baking. Rye batter cakes, made like buckwheat, should have one half corn meal.

BREAD BISCUITS.--When making bread after the dough has risen very light, take from it a quart or more; knead into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and form it into tall rolls. Bake them in an oven, and when done break them apart, but do not cut them with a knife--or, bake them in flat biscuits, to be split and buttered. Bread dough, with some butter added to the mixture, will make plain cakes for children, with the addition of white sugar, powdered cinnamon, some good raisins, (stoned,) cut in half, and dredged well with flour, to prevent their clodding or sinking. A beaten egg mixed into the dough is an improvement. Children, (accustomed only to plain living,) like these cakes very well, but they must be light and well baked.

BREAD CAKES.--Take slices of stale wheat bread, that has been well made and light. There should be enough to fill a pint bowl, closely packed. Put the bread into a deep dish, and pour boiling water upon it. While the bread is soaking, mix in a crock or jar a pint of milk, and a pint of wheat flour. Put the soaked bread into a cullender, and let the water drain off. When the water is drained away, beat the bread _lightly_ with a fork, but do not press or mash it. Beat two eggs very light and thick, and gradually stir them into the flour and milk. Then stir in the bread. Bake the mixture on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes, and eat them hot with butter. This quantity is for a small family of four persons.

For a family of moderate size, take a quart of stale bread, a quart of milk, a quart of flour, and four eggs.

For a large family, two quarts of bread, two quarts of milk, two quarts of flour, and eight eggs. This quantity will not be more than sufficient for a large family, as they will all like these cakes.

If you have not enough of stale bread in the house, send for a stale loaf, rather than not have the proper proportion for the cakes.

MILK BISCUIT.--Warm a pint of milk on the top of the stove, and cut up in it half a pound of fresh butter, to soften, but not to melt. Sift into a pan two quarts of flour; make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour into it the milk and butter. Beat two eggs till very thick and smooth, and pour them in also. Lastly, pour into the hole two wine-glasses of strong fresh brewer's or baker's yeast; or, three of good home-made yeast. Mix altogether with a broad knife, till it becomes a lump of soft dough. Then knead it well on your pasteboard, and make it into round rolls or balls. Knead every ball separately. Flatten them with your hand into thick biscuits, and prick every one with a fork. Lay them separately in buttered square pans, and set them to rise. If all is right, they will be light in little more than an hour. When quite light, (risen high and cracked all over) set them in a moderate oven, and bake them a light brown. They should be eaten quite fresh.

RUSK.--Sift a quart of flour into a pan. Make a hole in the centre, and pour in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, cut up and softened in half a pint of milk warmed on the stove. Beat two eggs very light, and mix them gradually into the hole in the pan of flour, in turn with a small wine-glass of rose water; or a table-spoonful of the rose water if as strong as it should be, adding a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Lastly, a wine-glass and a half of fresh brewer's yeast. Mix those articles well into the flour, till it becomes a lump of soft dough. Knead it well on your pasteboard, and divide it into pieces of equal size. Knead each piece separately. Form them so as to be tall and high, when finished. Butter an iron pan, lay the rusks in it side by side, and set them in a warm place to rise again. When quite light, bake them in a moderate oven, and sift sugar over them when cool.

DRY RUSKS.--Dry rusks are used for infant's food, and for invalids. They are made plain, without any butter, spice, or rose water, and after being once baked are split, and baked over till they are all crisp and browned on the inside. Use them dissolved, by pouring on a little warm water or milk, and beat them with a spoon to a thick pap.

CROSS BUNS.--Pick clean a pound and a half of dried or Zante currants; wash, drain, and dry them on a large flat dish placed in a slanting position near the fire, or in the sun. It will be still better to substitute for the currants a pound of Sultana (or seedless) raisins, each raisin cut in half. When quite dry, dredge the fruit _thickly_ with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding in the cake. Sift into a deep pan two quarts of flour, and mix thoroughly with it a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar. Cut up three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter, into a large half pint of rich milk. Warm it till the butter is quite soft, but not till it melts. Make a hole in the centre of the pan of flour, and pour in the mixed liquid, adding a jill (or two wine-glasses) of strong fresh yeast. Mix in the flour by degrees, beginning round the edge of the hole, and proceed gradually till you have the whole mass of ingredients well incorporated. Cover the pan with a clean thick towel, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it has risen high, and is cracked all over, mix in a small tea-spoonful of dissolved soda. Flour your pasteboard, divide the dough into equal portions, mix in the plums, and _slightly_ knead it into round cakes the size of a small saucer. Place them on a large dish, cover them, and set them again to rise in a warm place for half an hour. Mark every one deeply with a cross, bake them brown, and when done brush each bun lightly over with a glazing of white of egg, sweetened with sugar.

CINNAMON BREAD.--On a bread-baking day, (having made more than your usual quantity of wheat bread,) when the dough has risen quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, take out as much as will weigh two pounds. Mix into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, that has been cut up and melted in a half pint of milk; and also, three beaten eggs. Incorporate the butter, milk, and egg, thoroughly with the dough, and then add (dissolved in a little tepid water,) a salt-spoonful (_not more_) of soda. Have ready mixed in a bowl a pint of _brown_ sugar, moistened with fresh butter, so as to make a stiff paste, and flavor it with two heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered cinnamon. Form the cake into the shape of a round loaf, and make deep incisions or cuts all over its surface; filling them up with the cinnamon mixture pressed hard into the cuts, pinching and closing the dough over them with your thumb and finger to prevent the seasoning running out. Put the loaf into a round pan, and set it into the oven to bake with the other bread. When cool, glaze it over with white of egg, in which some powdered sugar has been dissolved. Send it to table whole in form, but cut into loose slices. Eat it fresh. All yeast cakes become dry and hard the next day.

This mixture may be baked in a square iron pan, and cut into square cakes when cool.

WAFFLES.--We are indebted to the Germans for this cake, which, if this receipt is exactly followed, will be found excellent. Warm a quart of milk, and cut up in it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, and stir it about to soften in the warm milk. Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with half a pound of sifted flour. Then add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh brewer's or baker's yeast. Cover the pan with a clean thick cloth, and set it in a warm place to rise. When the batter has risen nearly to the top, and is covered with bubbles, it is time to bake; first stirring in a wine-glass of rose-water. Having heated your waffle-iron in a good fire, grease it inside with the fresh butter used for the waffle mixture, or with fresh lard; fill it, and shut the iron closely. Turn it on the fire, that both sides of the cake may be equally well done. Each side will require about three minutes baking. Take them out of the iron by slipping a knife underneath. Then grease and prepare the iron for another waffle. Butter them, and send them to the tea-table "hot and hot;" and, to eat with this, a bowl or glass dish of sugar flavored with powdered cinnamon.

In buying waffle irons choose them _very deep_, so as to make a good impression when baked--if shallow, the waffle will look thin and poor. Those that bake one waffle at a time are the handsomest and most manageable.

SOFT CRULLERS.--Sift a pound and a half of flour, and have ready a pound of powdered sugar. Heat in a round-bottomed sauce-pan a quart of water; and when quite warm, stir the flour gradually into the water. In another vessel set a pound of nice fresh butter over the fire, and when it begins to melt, stir it, by degrees, into the flour and water. Then add, gradually, the powdered sugar, and a grated nutmeg. Take the sauce-pan off the fire, and beat the contents with a wooden spaddle, (which is far better than a spoon) till they are thoroughly mixed. Next, having beaten six eggs till very thick and light, stir them, gradually, into the mixture, and then beat the whole very hard till it becomes a thick batter. Add rose-water or lemon juice. Flour a pasteboard, and lay out the batter upon it in the form of rings. The best and easiest way is to pass it through a screw funnel.

Have ready on the fire a pot of boiling lard. Put in the crullers, taking them off the board one at a time, on a broad-bladed knife. Boil but a few at a time. They must be of a fine brown. Lift them out with a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pot. Lay them on a large dish, and dredge them with sugar.

These, if properly managed, are far superior to all other crullers, but they cannot be made in warm weather.

DOUGH-NUTS.--On baking day, take two pounds of very light bread dough that has been made in the usual manner. Put it into a broad pan. Rub into it half a pound of fresh butter, and half a pound of powdered sugar, and a table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Wet it with half a pint of milk, and mix in three well beaten eggs. Cover it, and set by the fire to rise again. When quite light, flour your pasteboard, and make the dough into oval balls; or, you may cut it into diamond shapes, (handling it as little as possible.) Have ready, over the fire, a pot of boiling lard. Drop the dough-nuts into it, and boil them; or fry them brown in a frying-pan. Take them out one by one in a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pan. Spread them on a large dish, and sift sugar over them. Eat them fresh; when heavy and stale they are not fit. This is a German cake.

COMMON CRULLERS.--The above mixture for dough-nuts will make good crullers. Flour your pasteboard, lay the dough upon it, roll it very thick, and cut it into strips with a jagging iron. Take off short pieces, and twist them into various forms. Throw them into a pot of boiling lard. When done, drain the lard from them, spread them on a large dish, and dredge them with powdered white sugar.

The Alpistera is a Spanish cruller, shaped like the five fingers united at the wrist.

PLAIN DESSERTS.

MOLASSES PUDDING.--Sift into a pan a large quart of yellow indian meal. Simmer over the fire a quart of milk, a pint of _West India molasses_, stirred in while the milk is hot. Put the milk and molasses into a large pan, and mix gradually into them the corn meal while they are quite warm. Add a large table-spoonful of ground ginger, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat the whole mixture long and hard, for on that will chiefly depend the lightness of the pudding, as it has neither eggs, butter, nor yeast. If your batter seems too thin, add, gradually, a little more corn meal; if too thick, a little more milk and molasses.

Dip in hot water a large square pudding cloth. Spread it out in a pan, dredge it well with flour, and then pour the pudding-mixture into it. Tie it up, making the string very secure, but leave plenty of room between the batter and the tying place, for the pudding to swell in boiling, at least one-third. Put the pudding, directly, into a large pot, and keep it steadily boiling for about three hours. Corn meal requires long cooking. Turn the pudding twice with a fork. If the water boils away too much, replenish it from a tea-kettle of hot water, kept boiling for the purpose. If you pour in _cold_ water the pudding will become hard and heavy, and be totally spoiled. Do not turn it out and send it to table till wanted at dinner. Then dip it for a moment in cold water, untie the string, and transfer it to a dish with a cover. Eat it with molasses and butter; or make a sauce of drawn butter, flavored with wine and nutmeg.

This pudding, if properly mixed, well beaten, and well boiled, will be as light as if made with eggs, (the _West India_ molasses having that property) and it will cut down rough or open grained, like a very light sponge cake, unless the batter has been made too thick and stiff, and not sufficiently beaten, and not allowed space enough to swell in boiling. If made _too thin_, or not boiled well, the pudding will come out a soft, shapeless mass. But if all is carefully managed, this (the least costly of American puddings) will be found excellent for a plain table, and perfectly wholesome. The flavor will be much improved by adding to the cinnamon and ginger the grated yellow rind and juice of an orange or lemon. If your first attempt at this pudding is a failure, try it again--practice makes perfect.

For a large family, have two quarts of corn meal, two quarts of milk, and one quart of _West India_ molasses; two table-spoonfuls of ginger, and one of cinnamon.

What is left may be tied in a cloth, and boiled over again next day, for half an hour or longer.

MOLASSES PIE.--Make a plain paste, allowing a quart of flour to a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of lard. Cut up the butter into the pan of flour, and rub it into a dough, with a half tumbler of cold water. Too much water is injurious to any paste, rendering it tough and hard. Roll out the paste into a sheet, and with a broad knife spread all over it one-half of the lard. Sprinkle it with flour, fold it, and roll it out again. Spread on the remainder of the lard, dredge it slightly, fold it again, and then divide it into two sheets. Line with one sheet the inside of a pie-dish, and fill it with molasses, mixed with butter, and flavored with ginger and cinnamon, or lemon or orange. Put on the other sheet of paste as a lid to the pie. Crimp or notch the edges. Bake it of a pale brown, and send it to table fresh, but not hot.

MOLASSES POT-PIE.--Make plenty of paste, allowing to _each quart_ of flour a small half pound of finely minced suet. Line the pot three-quarters up the sides with paste, and put in a quart of West India molasses, flavored with ginger and cinnamon, lemon or orange grating, and juice. Cover it with a lid of paste, _not fitting closely_ round its edges, and cut a cross slit in the top. Have ready six or eight extra pieces of suet paste, cut into squares, and boiled by themselves. When the pie is done, put these little cakes (ready boiled) into the molasses, having removed the lid or cover of the pie, and cut it up. Take out the inside paste, and cut it in pieces also. Serve up the whole in one large dish.