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.