If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is well to make it into
short cakes for tea. Rub in a very small bit of shortening, or three
table-spoonfuls of cream, with the flour; put in a tea-spoonful of
strong dissolved pearlash, into your sour milk, and mix your cake
pretty stiff, to bake in the spider, on a few embers.
When people have to buy butter and lard, short cakes are not
economical food. A half pint of flour will make a cake large enough to
cover a common plate. Rub in thoroughly a bit of shortening as big as
a hen's egg; put in a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash; wet it with
cold water; knead it stiff enough to roll well, to bake on a plate,
or in a spider. It should bake as quick as it can, and not burn. The
first side should stand longer to the fire than the last.