Common Sense in the Household 51

Common Sense in the Household 51

AUNT JENNY’S JOHNNY CAKE.

 

Mix as above; knead well, and bake upon a perfectly clean and sweet

board, before a hot fire, with something at the back to keep it up.

Incline at such an angle as will prevent the cake from slipping off,

until it is hardened slightly by baking, then place upright. Baste

frequently with butter until nicely crisped.

 

 

BATTER BREAD, OR “EGG BREAD.” ✠

 

Half a cup cold boiled rice.

2 eggs.

2 cups Indian meal.

1 tablespoonful lard or butter.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 pint milk.

 

Beat the eggs light, and the rice to a smooth batter in the milk. Melt

the shortening. Stir all together very hard, and bake in shallow tins

very quickly.

 

 

RISEN CORN BREAD.

 

Mix a tolerably stiff dough of corn-meal and boiling water, a little

salt, and a tablespoonful butter. Let it stand four or five hours until

light; make into small loaves and bake rather quickly.

 

 

CORN-MEAL PONE.

 

1 quart Indian meal.

1 teaspoonful salt.

A little lard, melted.

Cold water to make a soft dough.

 

Mould with the hands into thin oblong cakes, lay in a well-greased pan,

and bake very quickly.

 

The common way is to mould into oval mounds, higher in the middle

than at the ends, shaping these rapidly and lightly with the hands,

by tossing the dough over and over. This is done with great dexterity

by the Virginia cooks, and this corn-meal pone forms a part of every

dinner. It is broken, not cut, and eaten very hot.

 

 

ASH CAKE

 

is mixed as above. A clean spot is swept upon the hot hearth, the bread

put down and covered with hot wood ashes. It must be washed and wiped

dry before it is eaten. A neater way is to lay a cabbage-leaf above and

below the pone. The bread is thus steamed before it is baked, and is

made ready for eating by stripping off the leaves.

 

 

FRIED PONE.

 

Instead of moulding the dough with the hands, cut into slices with a

knife. Try out some fat pork in a frying-pan, and fry the slices in the

gravy thus obtained to a light-brown.

 

 

GRIDDLE-CAKES, WAFFLES, ETC.

 

If you have not used your griddle or waffle-iron for some time, wash it

off hard with hot soap and water; wipe and rub well with dry salt. Heat

it and grease with a bit of fat salt pork on a fork. It is a mistake,

besides being slovenly and wasteful, to put on more grease than is

absolutely necessary to prevent the cake from sticking. A piece of pork

an inch square should last for several days. Put on a great spoonful

of butter for each cake, and before filling the griddle test it with

a single cake, to be sure that all is right with it as well as the

batter.

 

The same rules apply to waffles. Always lay hot cakes and waffles upon

a hot plate as soon as baked.

 

 

BUCKWHEAT CAKES. ✠

 

1 quart buckwheat flour.

4 tablespoonfuls yeast.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 handful Indian meal.

2 tablespoonfuls molasses—_not_ syrup.

 

Warm water enough to make a thin batter. Beat very well and set to rise

in a warm place. If the batter is in the least sour in the morning,

stir in a very little soda dissolved in hot water.

 

Mix in an earthen crock, and leave some in the bottom each morning—a

cupful or so—to serve as sponge for the next night, instead of getting

fresh yeast. In cold weather this plan can be successfully pursued for

a week or ten days without setting a new supply. Of course you add the

usual quantity of flour, &c., every night, and beat up well.

 

Do not make your cakes too small. Buckwheats should be of generous

size. Some put two-thirds buckwheat, one-third oat-meal, omitting the

Indian.

 

 

FLANNEL CAKES. ✠

 

1 quart milk.

3 tablespoonfuls yeast.

1 tablespoonful butter, melted.

2 eggs, well beaten.

1 teaspoonful salt.

 

Flour to make a good batter. Set the rest of the ingredients as a

sponge over night, and in the morning add the melted butter and eggs.

 

 

CORN-MEAL FLAPJACKS.

 

1 quart sour buttermilk.

2 eggs, beaten light.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.

2 tablespoonfuls molasses.

1 tablespoonful lard, melted.

½ cup flour.

 

Meal to make a batter a trifle thicker than flannel cakes.

 

 

GRAHAM CAKES. ✠

 

2 cups brown flour.

1 cup white flour.

3 cups sour or buttermilk.

1 full teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 heaping tablespoonful lard.

3 eggs, beaten very light.

 

If you use sweet milk, add two teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. Bake as soon

as they are mixed.

 

 

AUNTIE’S CAKES (_without eggs_). ✠

 

1 quart sour or buttermilk.

2 teaspoonfuls soda (small ones).

1 teaspoonful salt.

Flour to make a tolerably thick batter.

 

Stir until smooth—no longer—and bake immediately.

 

 

EGGLESS FLANNEL CAKES.

 

1 quart milk.

½ teacupful yeast.

2 cups white flour.

1 cup Indian meal.

1 tablespoonful lard, melted.

1 teaspoonful salt.

 

Set over night, adding the lard in the morning.

 

 

GRANDPA’S FAVORITES. ✠

 

1 quart milk.

2 cups stale bread-crumbs.

1 good handful of flour.

1 tablespoonful melted butter.

3 eggs, well beaten.

1 teaspoonful salt.

 

Work the bread and milk smooth, stir in the butter and eggs, then the

salt, lastly just enough flour to bind the mixture. If too thick, add

milk. These are wholesome and good. Take care they do not stick to the

griddle.

 

 

RISEN BATTER-CAKES.

 

3 cups white Indian meal.

1 cup white flour.

1 tablespoonful butter, melted and added in the morning.

1 quart milk.

4 tablespoonfuls of yeast.

1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water, and added in the morning.

1 teaspoonful salt.

 

Mix over night.

 

 

RICE CAKES. ✠

 

One cup cold boiled rice.

One pint flour.

One teaspoonful salt.

Two eggs, beaten light.

Milk to make a tolerably thick batter.

 Beat all together well.