It seems very simple to make oatmeal porridge, yet it is a very
different dish made by different cooks. The ingredients are: One heaping
cupful of oatmeal to one quart of boiling water and one tea-spoonful of
salt. Boil twenty minutes.
The water should be salted and boiling when the meal is sprinkled in
with one hand, while it is lightly stirred in with the other. When all
mixed, it should boil without afterward being stirred more than is
necessary to keep it from burning at the bottom, and to mingle the
grains two or three times, so that they may all be evenly cooked. If
much stirred, the porridge will be starchy or waxy, and poor in flavor.
But the puffing of the steam through the grains without much stirring
swells each one separately, and, when done, the porridge is light, and
quite consistent. This same manner of cooking is applicable as well to
all other grains.
MOTHER JOHNSON’S PANCAKES (_Adirondacks_).
These are famous pancakes, and, like every other good thing, there is a
little secret in the preparation.
Enough flour is added to a quart of sour milk to make a rather thick
batter. The secret is that it is left to stand overnight, instead of
being finished at once. It may even stand to advantage for twenty-four
hours. However, if it is mixed at night, the next morning two
well-beaten eggs and salt are to be added at the same time with half a
tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a table-spoonful of warm water. Cook
immediately.