where the effluvia of this article, and the deep yellow color of the
bread, offend the senses before it is tasted. If all the materials
used are good, and the dough has not been permitted to sour, white
bread is far better without saleratus, except that which is made with
water. If dough has become sour, a teaspoonful of saleratus for every
quart of the milk or water that was used for wetting the bread, will be
sufficient to correct it. The tray or pan in which the bread is made,
should be scalded after being washed, every time it is used, except
in cold weather. It is not good economy to buy skimmed milk, as some
persons do, for making bread. It renders it tough and indigestible,
if used in the ordinary way. In case it is used for this purpose, it
should be boiled, and thickened with a little Indian meal in the same
way, and the same proportions as directed for making gruel, in the
receipt for Good Family Bread. Use no water with it.
=Bread made without a Sponge.=
In cool weather the milk should be warmed. A little more yeast is
necessary than for sponge-bread, and it should be made up over night.
When it is light, knead and mould it, and raise it again in the pans in
which it is to be baked.
If brewer's yeast is used, a table-spoonful is enough for every quart
of wetting, and it should not stand over night, as it rises very
quickly.
=Water Bread.=
Take a quart of warm water, a teaspoonful of salt, and a small gill
of yeast. Add flour enough to make a sponge, as before directed. In
the morning add half a teaspoonful of saleratus. The design of this is
to make it tender. It should be kneaded longer than bread made with
milk--an hour at least. None but the best of flour will make good bread
with water alone.
=Rice Bread.=
Allow half a pint of ground rice to a quart of milk, or milk and water;
put the milk and water over the fire to boil, reserving enough to wet
the rice. Stir out the lumps, add a large teaspoonful of salt, and
when the milk and water boil, stir in the rice, exactly as when you
make gruel. Boil it up two or three minutes, stirring it repeatedly;
then pour it out into your bread-pan, and _immediately_ stir in as
much flour as you can with a spoon. After it is cool enough (and of
this be very sure, as scalding the yeast will make heavy, sour bread,
full of great holes), add a gill of yeast, and let it stand until
morning. Then knead in more flour until the dough ceases to stick to
the hands. It is necessary to make this kind of bread a little stiffer
than that in which no rice is used, else there will be a heavy streak
through the loaf. It is elegant bread, keeps moist several days, and is
particularly good toasted.
=Bread made with Milk.=
To make the sponge, simply warm the milk if the weather is cold; if
warm weather, boil it; when cool enough, stir in the gill of yeast, and
a little salt; make it with the same care as that which is made with
Indian meal gruel.
All these various _sponges_ are very nice baked on a griddle like
buckwheat-cakes, or poured into a buttered, shallow pan and baked in
the cooking-stove; and better still, baked in muffin rings.
=Third Bread.=
Take equal parts of white flour, rye flour, and Indian meal. It is
good made with water, but made with milk is much better. Add salt and
a gill of yeast to a quart of water or milk. It should not be made so
stiff as to mould, but as thick as you can stir it with your hand, or
a large spoon. Like all other bread it should be thoroughly worked
together. Bake in deep pans.
=Graham Bread.=
Take a pint of warm water, one teacup of white flour, a spoonful of
scalded Indian meal, a small teacup of yeast, a spoonful or two of
molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, a small one of saleratus, and stir
them together; then add as much unbolted, or Graham flour (_not_
sifted) as will be stirred in with a spoon. Do this over night, and in
the morning stir it again a few minutes, and pour it into two deep tin
pans. Let it rise up again, and bake an hour. This is very excellent
bread--a different thing from the hard, unpalatable article which many
a dyspeptic eats as a penance.
Like the wheat sponge, it is good baked in rings on a griddle for
breakfast; it will, however, take several minutes longer, and will more
easily burn, owing to the molasses which is in it.
=Another (one loaf).=
Take one coffee-cup of white flour, two of Graham flour, one of warm
water, half a cup each of yeast, and molasses, a small teaspoonful of
salt, and half a teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in the water. It
should be made as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. If you prefer
to add a spoonful of Indian meal it is very well, but it should be
scalded. Let it rise over night, and when it is very light, bake it
about an hour in a moderate heat.
=Boston Brown Bread, to be baked in a Brick Oven.=
Take a quart of rye meal, and the same of fine Indian meal. (If this
is bitter, scald it before mixing it with the rye. If it is sweet and
fresh, almost every thing in which it is used is lighter without its
being scalded.) Mix with warm water, a gill of molasses, a teaspoonful
of saleratus, a large teaspoonful of salt, and half a gill of yeast.
Such bread is improved by the addition of a gill of boiled pumpkin or
winter squash. Make it stiff as can easily be stirred. Grease a deep,
brown pan, thickly, and put the bread in it, and dip your hand in water
and smooth over the top. This will rise faster than other bread, and
should not be made over night in the summer. If put into the oven in
the forenoon, it will be ready for the tea-table. If in the afternoon,
let it stand in the oven till morning. This may be steamed, as directed
in the next receipt.
=Steamed Brown Bread.=
For a very small family, take half a pint of rye meal, not sifted, and
a pint of sifted Indian meal, a pint of sour milk, a half a gill of
molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, and a large teaspoonful of saleratus.
Mix all the ingredients except the saleratus, dissolve that (as it
should always be) in a little boiling water, and add it, stirring
the mixture well. Grease a tin pudding pan, or a pail having a close
lid, and having put the bread in it, set it into a kettle of boiling
water. The bread should not quite fill the pail, as it must have room
to swell. See that the water does not boil up to the top of the pail,
and also take care it does not boil entirely away. The bread should be
cooked at least four hours. To serve it, remove the lid, and set it a
few minutes into the stove oven, without the lid, to dry the top; then
it will turn out in perfect shape.
If used as a pudding, those who have cream, can make an excellent sauce
for it of thick _sour_ cream, by stirring into it plenty of sugar, and
adding nutmeg. This bread is improved by being made, and put into the
pan or pail in which it is to be boiled, two or three hours before it
is set into the kettle. It is good toasted the next day.
=Indian Loaf.=
To one quart of sweet milk, put a gill of molasses, a teaspoonful
of saleratus, a heaping pint of Indian meal, a gill of flour, and a
teaspoonful of salt. Stir it well together, put it into a deep brown
pan, and bake in a brick oven. It should be stirred the last thing
before being set into the oven. It must be in the oven many hours, at
least eight or nine, if it is a brick oven, and if set in towards night
should stand till morning. If it is baked in a range, it will require
five or six hours of moderate heat.
=Rye Bread.=
Take a pint of water, and a large spoonful of fine Indian meal, and
make it into gruel. Add a pint of milk, and when cool enough, a small
gill of yeast, and then the flour. Fine, bolted rye flour is necessary
to make this bread good. Knead it about as stiff as white bread. Let it
rise over night, and then mould and put into three pans to rise again.
When light, bake it about an hour. Rye is very adhesive, and a young
cook will be troubled with its sticking to her fingers, but practice
will make it easy to manage it.
=To make Stale Bread, or Cake, Fresh.=
Plunge the loaf one instant in cold water, and lay it upon a tin in the
stove ten or fifteen minutes. It will be like new bread without its
deleterious qualities. Stale cake is thus made nice as new cake. But
bread or cake heated over thus, should be used immediately.
=Various convenient Uses of Bread Dough.=
In the winter, dough may be kept sweet many days in a place where it
will be cold, without freezing, and it will grow better till the last.
It should be raised light, then kneaded a little, and then covered with
a damp cloth, so that a dry crust will not form on the top. Fresh bread
can thus be furnished for the table every day, without extra work.
Doughnuts, bread, cake, or rusks can be made of it by adding butter,
sugar, and spice; tea biscuit also, fried biscuit, crust for apple
dumpling, and for pan pie. See the receipts for these articles.
The dough should be made, at least in part, with milk, when it is to be
used for these purposes.
These directions are particularly recommended to persons who do their
own house-work, and of course wish to save time and labor, as much as
possible.
BISCUITS, TEA CAKES, GRIDDLE CAKES, &c.
=Raised Biscuit.=
Take a pint bowl full of light dough; break into it a fresh egg,
and add a piece of butter the size of an egg. Knead in these until
perfectly incorporated with the dough. It will require about ten
minutes. Roll it out about an inch thick, cut it into biscuit. Lay
them upon a tin sheet, or shallow baking-pan, and let them rise in a
moderately warm place. They will become very light and should be baked
in a quick stove, baker, or oven. They will bake in twelve or fifteen
minutes, and are injured by being baked very slowly. Very nice eaten
fresh, but not hot. This measure will make about two dozen. They are
not so good the next day as biscuit made without an egg.
=Butter-milk Biscuit.=
Take a half pint of butter-milk, or sour milk, and a pint of flour.
Rub into the flour a piece of butter half the size of an egg. Add a
little salt and stir the milk into the flour. Dissolve a teaspoonful of
saleratus in a very little hot water, and stir into it.
Add flour enough barely to mould it smooth; roll it out upon the board,
and cut out and bake exactly like the tea biscuit. The advantage of
putting in the saleratus after the dough is partly mixed, is, that
the foaming process occasioned by combining the sour milk and alkali,
raises the whole mass; whereas if it is stirred first into the milk,
much of the effervescence is lost, before it is added to the flour.
=Cream Biscuit.=
These are to be made in the same manner as the butter-milk biscuit,
except that no butter is required; the cream will make them
sufficiently short.
=Cream of Tartar Biscuit.=
Stir into one quart of flour, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, and
a little salt. Add two table-spoonfuls of thick cream, or rub in one
spoonful of lard or butter. Put in a teaspoonful of soda or saleratus,
dissolved in a very little hot water. Mix the whole rather soft with
milk. Bake like the tea biscuit.
It is a convenient way to make the mixture soft enough with milk to
enable you to stir it well with a spoon, and then drop it into the
baking pan. It should spread a little, but not run. To vary these
drop-cakes add an egg, and two spoonfuls of sugar. For a family of
three or four, make half the measure.
=Cream of Tartar Biscuit without Milk.=
Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg into a quart of flour till
there are no little lumps. Then add a teaspoonful of salt, and scatter
in two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. Have ready a pint of
cold water, in which a heaping teaspoonful of saleratus or soda has
been dissolved; pour it into the flour, stirring it quickly with your
hand. Do this several minutes that the ingredients may become well
mixed; then add flour enough to enable you to mould it smooth. Roll it
out the same thickness as tea biscuit. If these are made right, they
are as light as foam. They may be made of unbolted flour, if preferred.
Make half the measure for a small family.
=Litchfield Crackers.=
To one pint of cold milk, put a piece of butter the size of an egg, a
small teaspoonful of salt, and one egg. Rub the butter into a quart of
flour, then add the egg and milk. Knead in more flour until it is as
stiff as it can possibly be made, and pound it with an iron pestle, or
the broad end of a flat-iron, for at least one hour; then roll it very
thin, cut it into rounds, prick, and bake in a quick oven, twelve or
fifteen minutes.
=Jenny Lind.=
Take one egg, one teacup of sugar, one of sweet milk, two and a half
of flour, a dessert-spoonful of butter, two teaspoonfuls of cream of
tartar, one of saleratus, and a very little salt. To mix it, stir
the cream of tartar, sugar, and salt into the flour, then the milk,
add the egg without beating, dissolve the saleratus, and melt the
butter together in a spoonful of hot water, then stir all together a
few minutes. Bake in fifteen minutes in two pans about the size of a
breakfast plate. If you prefer, make it with sour milk, and omit the
cream of tartar.
With the addition of one more egg, a teaspoonful more of butter, and
half a cup of sugar, and some spice, this is a nice cake for the
basket, and may sometimes be very convenient, because so quickly made.
=Sally Lunn.=
A quart of flour, a piece of butter the size of an egg, three
table-spoonfuls of sugar, two eggs, two teacups of milk, two
teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, one of saleratus, and a little salt.
To mix it, scatter the cream of tartar, the salt, and the sugar into
the flour; add the eggs without having beaten them, the butter melted,
and one cup of the milk; dissolve the saleratus in the remaining cup,
and then stir all together steadily a few minutes. Bake in three pans
the size of a breakfast plate, fifteen or twenty minutes. For a family
of four or five, make half the measure. Add spice, and twice the
measure of sugar, and you have a good plain cake for the cake-basket.
=Rusk.=
To a pint bowl of light dough add a gill of sugar, half as much
butter, and either a little cinnamon, allspice, or lemon. Work these
ingredients together, and then add flour enough to enable you to mould
it smooth and roll it out. Let it be about an inch thick; cut it into
biscuit, and lay them into a baking-pan to rise. They should become
very light before being baked; and, therefore, in cold weather it is
well to let the dough stand, after the ingredients are added, until the
next day, then roll out the biscuit, and raise them in the bake-pan.
Their appearance is improved by wetting the top with a mixture of sugar
and milk, when they are nearly baked; then return them to the oven for
a short time. They require fifteen or twenty minutes to bake.
A double measure may be made in cold weather, and when light be set in
a cool place, but where it will not freeze, and a pan be baked whenever
needed. Each day it will be better than the previous one.
=Another (extra nice).=
To one tumbler of milk, put half a gill of yeast, three eggs, one
coffee-cup of sugar, two ounces of butter, and one small nutmeg. Beat
the sugar and eggs together, rub the butter into the flour, of which
use enough to enable you just to mould it. Let it rise over night;
and when very light, roll out and put it on tins to rise again, after
which, bake as above.
=Whigs.=
Half a pound of butter, the same of sugar, six eggs, two pounds of
flour, a pint of milk, a gill of yeast, and a little salt. Melt the
butter in the milk, and pour into the flour; beat the sugar and eggs
together and stir in. Add the yeast last, and be careful to mix the
whole very thoroughly. Bake in tin hearts and rounds, in the stove, or
baker.
=Waffles.=
To a quart of milk, put six eggs, a quarter of a pound of butter, a
large gill of yeast, a little salt, and flour enough to make a batter
the thickness of griddle cakes. The iron must be heated on hot coals,
and then buttered or greased with lard, and one side filled with
batter, then be shut and laid on the fire. After a few minutes turn it
upon the other side. It takes about twice the time that it would to
bake them on a griddle, and they are really no better, but look more
inviting.
=Sour Milk Muffins.=
To a pint of sour milk put one egg, without first beating it; a little
salt, a teaspoonful of saleratus, and one of butter, melted with the
saleratus in a spoonful of hot water. Make rather a thick batter. To
bake well in rings, have the griddle of a moderate heat, grease it,
and also the rings, lay them on, and fill them only half full of the
batter; increase the heat a little. In about eight minutes, turn them
and let them lie two or three minutes more.
To turn them without spilling requires some dexterity.
=Cream of Tartar Muffins.=
A quart of flour, a small pint of rich milk, two eggs, a table-spoonful
of sugar, a teaspoonful of saleratus, two of cream of tartar, half a
teaspoonful of salt.
Mix the salt, the cream of tartar and the sugar, dry, in the flour, add
the eggs without beating, then the milk with the saleratus dissolved in
it, and beat these ingredients very thoroughly. Half fill the rings,
and bake in a quick oven.
=Raised Muffins.=
Melt a table-spoonful of butter in a pint of milk, add a little salt,
two eggs, and a large half gill of yeast, then stir in flour enough to
make a thick batter. In cold weather this may stand two or three days
without becoming sour.
=Another.=
A pint of milk, one egg, a piece of butter as large as an egg, one
teaspoonful of salt, half a gill of yeast, and flour enough to make
a thick batter. Let it rise over night, and bake in rings. Like the
other, can be kept a day or two in cold weather.
=Drop Cakes.=
Break four eggs into a pint of sweet milk, melt a piece of butter the
size of an egg and add it, with a little salt, and flour enough to make
a batter about as thick as cup-cake. Beat all together several minutes.
If the cakes are to be eaten cold, add two spoonfuls of brown sugar.
Bake in very small scalloped tins, or in cups.
=Rye Drop Cakes.=[5]
To a pint of sour-milk, or butter-milk, put two or three eggs, not
quite a teaspoonful of saleratus, a little salt, and sifted rye meal
(this is much better than rye flour), enough to make a batter that will
spread a little, but not run. Drop them in muffin-rings with a spoon.
They will require about twice as much time to bake as common griddle
cakes. They will bake very nicely in a stove in fifteen minutes. Graham
flour may be substituted for rye if preferred.
[5] See directions for Cream of Tartar Drop Cakes in the recipe for
Cream of Tartar Biscuit, page 34.
GRIDDLE CAKES.
=White Flour.=
To a quart of milk, put four eggs, a little salt, a large spoonful of
butter, melted into the milk, a small gill of yeast, and flour enough
to make a batter about as thick as for buckwheat cakes. Some persons
eat them with a sauce made of butter, sugar, water, and nutmeg. Made in
the morning they will be light for tea.
=Butter-milk, or Sour milk.=
Make a thin batter with a quart of sour, or butter-milk, white flour,
a spoonful of fine Indian meal, a teaspoonful of salt, another of
saleratus, and an egg. Try a spoonful on the griddle before you proceed
to bake them, so that you may add more flour, if it is too thin to turn
easily, or more milk if too thick.
=Another (without an egg).=
Make a batter just like the last receipt, only without the egg. Omit
the Indian meal if you choose.
=Indian Meal.=
These are made like the sour milk cakes, only that the milk is chiefly
thickened with Indian meal. A spoonful or two of flour should be added,
and it is well to use two eggs instead of one, but not necessary.
=NOTE.=--In all these various kinds of cakes in which sour milk is
used, it is an improvement to substitute buttermilk. But that which is
sold in cities as buttermilk, is often adulterated.
=Rice.=
Put a teacupful of rice into two teacupsful of water, and boil it till
the water is nearly absorbed, and then add a pint and a half of milk.
Boil it slowly until the rice is very soft. When cool, add a small gill
of yeast, three eggs, a little salt, and flour enough to make a batter
of suitable thickness to bake on a griddle. Let it rise very light. To
bake in muffin rings, make it a little thicker.
=Ground Rice.=
Boil a quart of milk. Rub smooth a teacupful of ground rice, in a gill
or two of cold milk, and stir it into the boiling milk. Add salt, and
when cool, add a teacup of yeast, four eggs, and flour to make it the
right thickness for baking. Let it rise light.
=Buckwheat.=
For a family of four or five, take a quart of warm water, a spoonful
of scalded Indian meal, a heaping teaspoonful of salt, and a gill of
yeast. Stir in buckwheat flour enough to make a thin batter. Let it
rise over night. In the morning add a quarter of a teaspoonful of
saleratus or soda. Do this whether the cakes are sour or not. Buckwheat
cakes cannot be made in perfection without this addition; but it should
never be put in till just before they are baked. Such cakes are often
made too thick, and fried with too much fat. They should be as thin as
they can be, and be easily turned with a griddle shovel, and no more
fat should be used than is necessary to keep them from sticking. To
prevent the use of too much, tie a soft white rag, tight, round the
tines of a large fork, and keep it for this purpose. If a gill of the
batter is left, it will raise the next parcel.
Buckwheat cakes are as much better made with milk as other cakes are;
but no others are so good made with water. They are very nice made of
sour milk, with nothing added but salt and saleratus. These should be
made only a short time before being baked.
=Fritters or Pan-Cakes.=
Make a batter of a pint of milk, three eggs, salt, and flour to make a
rather thick batter. Beat it well, then drop it with a spoon into hot
fat, and fry like doughnuts. These, and the snow fritters are usually
eaten with sugar and cider, or lemon juice.
=Snow Fritters.=
Stir together milk, flour, and a little salt, to make rather a thick
batter. Add new-fallen snow in the proportion of a teacupful to a pint
of milk. Have the fat ready hot, at the time you stir in the snow, and
drop the batter into it with a spoon. These pancakes are even preferred
by some, to those made with eggs.
=Corn Cake.=
To a pint of sour milk, two cups of Indian meal, one of flour, one
egg, two table-spoonfuls of molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, and one
of saleratus. Mix it thoroughly, and bake twenty-five minutes in two
shallow pans, or thirty-five in a deep one.
=Another.=
Take a pint of sweet milk, half a gill of yeast, one gill of flour,
a teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of saleratus; stir in
Indian meal enough to make it rather stiffer than griddle cakes; let it
rise over night, and in the morning bake as directed above.
This kind of cake has the advantage over those made without yeast;
that if a piece of it is left, it is not heavy when cold, but is as
palatable a lunch as a slice of good bread.
=Another.=
Take a pint of sour milk, or butter-milk, break an egg into it, stir in
a spoonful or two of flour, and add Indian meal enough to make a thick
batter; put in a teaspoonful of salt, stir it five or six minutes, and
then add a heaping teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in hot water. If
it is the season for berries of any kind, put in a gill or two; bake in
a pan or on the griddle.
=Another.=
A pint of sweet milk, two eggs, a pint of Indian meal or corn flour,
half a pint of white flour, one teaspoonful of tartaric acid, or cream
of tartar, and one of soda, mixed dry in the flour. Bake in a pan,
about an inch thick, or in drop cake tins.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING CAKE.
When cake or pastry is to be made, take care not to make trouble for
others by scattering materials, and soiling the table or floor, or by
the needless use of many dishes. Put on a large and clean apron, roll
your sleeves above the elbows, tie something over your head lest hair
may fall; take care that your hands are clean, and have a basin of
water and a clean towel at hand. Place every thing you will need on the
table; butter the pans, grate the nutmegs, and squeeze the lemons. Then
break the eggs, each in a cup by itself, lest adding a bad one to the
others should spoil the whole. Then weigh or measure flour and sugar,
and, if not already done, _sift_ them. Make your cake in an earthen,
and not in a tin pan.
In warm weather put your eggs into cold water some time before you are
ready to break them. They cut into a much finer froth for being cold.
For some kinds of cake the whites should be cut to a stiff froth, and
the yolks beaten and strained, and then put to the butter and sugar
after these have been stirred till they look like cream. Then mix the
flour gradually.