BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.
Corn Cakes.—Rub one table-spoonful of lard into four cups of corn meal. Stir the meal into four cups of sour milk, with a teaspoonful of salt. Beat two eggs very light, and put in one teaspoonful of soda, the last thing. Beat well, and bake in small gem irons, or light tin forms.
Another Way.—Three teacups of corn meal, one teacup of wheat flour, two teacups of milk, one teacup of cream, or a third of a teacup of butter, three table-spoonfuls of sugar, one egg,—beat yelk and white separately, and very light; one teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of soda. Bake in small pans, with a brisk heat.
Another.—Sift two cups of meal, pour over it one teacup of boiling milk, stir it up well, and let it stand all night if intended for breakfast. The next morning add one cup of wheat flour, one of sugar, a half cup of butter, the well-beaten yelks of two eggs; add, if needed, more milk, so as to make it as thin as waffles. Take one scant teaspoonful of soda; the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff, to be added the last. Pour into a well-buttered pan and bake about twenty-five minutes, in a well-heated oven, but not scorching hot. If Jewell’s Prepared Flour is used, no soda need be added. If correctly prepared and well baked, this is excellent. If you have sweet apples, three or four chopped very fine, added, and two thirds of a cup of finely chopped suet, instead of butter, is a very great improvement.
Another.—One cupful of flour, two cupfuls of corn meal, two great spoonfuls of sugar, not quite half a cupful of butter, one cupful of milk, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, sifted with the meal and flour, and a small teaspoonful of soda; two eggs, whites and yelks well beaten separately; the yelks mixed with the milk and meal, and the whites added, the last thing.
Steamed Johnny-Cake.—One pint of sour cream, one teaspoonful of soda, and one of salt. Stir in three table-spoonfuls of flour; then add corn meal enough to make a stiff batter. Beat one egg, and add to the batter; stir all carefully together, and pour into a well-buttered tin basin; set this into a bread-steamer, and keep the steam up for an hour, or more if the loaf is large. Serve with cream and sugar.
Corn-Meal Cake with Apples and Suet.—One pint scalded milk, or a half cup cream, or a pint of sour milk, one teacupful suet chopped fine, a table-spoonful sugar, a teaspoonful salt, six good-sized sweet apples chopped fine, three eggs well beaten, and a small teaspoonful of soda. Beat thoroughly, and bake in a shallow tin pan.
Muffins.—One pint of milk, one table-spoonful of butter, one pint of flour, a small teaspoonful of salt, three eggs, whites and yelks beaten separately and very stiff, a small even teaspoonful of soda; add the whites last, beat smartly and perfectly free from lumps. Butter the griddle, and bake in well-buttered rings. When the bottom is done, turn over the rings and bake the top, or put the rings on a well-buttered bake-pan and bake in a quick oven. We think them lighter and better so baked.
Another Way.—One quarter of a pound of butter, one teaspoonful salt, three eggs, one pint sweet milk, one quart flour, a heaping table-spoon of brewers’ yeast, or two of home-made yeast. Melt the butter and put into the milk, beat the eggs and put them also into the milk, then stir in flour and add the yeast. If for breakfast, set them to rise overnight. If at all sour, add half-teaspoonful of soda. Bake in well-buttered rings in a quick oven.
Cream Muffins.—One quart rich milk, or, if you can get it, half cream and half milk; one quart of flour heaping, six eggs, one table-spoonful of butter, one of lard; softened together. Beat whites and yelks separately very light; then add flour and shortening and a scant teaspoonful of salt, and stir in the flour the last thing, lightly as possible, and have the batter free from lumps. Half fill your well-buttered muffin-rings, and bake immediately in a hot oven, or your muffins will not be good. Send to table the moment they are done.
Another Way.—One teacup sour cream, two eggs, one half-teaspoonful of soda, thickened with flour about as stiff as waffles. Bake in a quick oven.
Raised Muffins.—One quart milk, a halfpenny’s worth of bakers’ yeast or half cup of home-made yeast, two table-spoonfuls white sugar, one of butter (lard will answer, but is not as good), one teaspoonful of salt, two eggs well beaten, and flour sufficient to make a stiff batter.
Make the batter overnight, leaving out the eggs. In the morning beat the eggs, yelks and whites separately, very light, and stir into the well-risen batter. Have the muffin-rings well greased, fill half full with the batter, and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. Serve hot.
Hominy Muffins.—Wash a pint of small hominy through two or three waters, pour boiling water on it, cover, and let it soak for several hours. Then put it into a farina-kettle with half a pint of boiling water. Let it boil until soft enough to mash; drain it and mix it well with a pint of white corn meal or wheat flour, a little salt, and a pint and one half of milk in which two table-spoonfuls of butter have been melted. When nearly cold, add four table-spoonfuls of yeast; cover it, and set it in a warm place until very light, with the surface covered with bubbles. Butter some muffin-rings, set them on a hot griddle, pour into each a portion of the mixture, and bake them brown on both sides. Send them to table hot.
Quick Muffins.—Two teacups buttermilk, one of thick cream, or, if none, three even table-spoonfuls of melted butter, four eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda; thicken with prepared flour as thick as waffles.
Graham Flour Muffins.—One pint of sour milk, a small teaspoonful of soda, one table-spoonful of sugar, and Graham flour sufficient to make a thick batter. Bake in rings, or drop the batter in spoonfuls on a flat tin. Add a little salt before baking.
Raised Waffles.—One pint of sweet milk, a heaping teacup of butter, three eggs (yelks and whites beaten separately), a table-spoonful of thick brewers’ yeast or a halfpenny’s worth of bakers’, one quart of flour, one quarter of a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in one teacup of sweet milk; beat all together, and let it rise till very light, and then bake. Serve hot, with butter and sugar, or plain, according to taste.
Corn-Meal Waffles.—Pour over one pint of corn meal, twice sifted, one pint of boiling milk. Put in one table-spoonful of butter, one of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt. Let this stand till cold; then add half a teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little cold water; the yelks of two eggs well beaten, the whites whisked very light and stiff to be added the last thing, when just ready to bake.
Put a brown paper over bread, biscuit, or cake when first set into a hot oven, else the top will most likely brown and form a crust before they rise sufficiently, and thus make them tough or heavy.
Buckwheat Cakes.—One quart of buckwheat flour, mix with lukewarm water rather thicker than you will wish it when ready to bake. A cup of Graham meal added is, we think, an improvement. Stir in half a cup of family yeast, or a halfpenny’s worth of bakers’, and a teaspoonful of salt; mix in an earthen bowl or a large earthen pitcher,—the latter is the most convenient, as the batter can be poured from the lip of the pitcher more neatly than it can be dipped out of a bowl; set it where it will keep warm all night. The batter should be made early in the evening, as it takes fully ten hours in winter to rise; when ready to bake in the morning, beat half a teaspoonful of soda into a great spoonful of molasses, and stir into the batter, adding also enough lukewarm water to make it thin enough to fry; bake quick; the thinner the cakes can be baked the better they will be.
Rice Griddle-Cakes.—Half a teacupful of whole rice, three eggs, half a pint of rich milk, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Cook the rice till every grain is dissolved and like jelly. Warm the milk a little, and beat the rice in it till it is smoothly mixed. When the eggs are beaten very light, add to the rice and milk; then the salt. Bake on a hot, greased griddle till brown and light. If the batter does not adhere, add another egg, but no flour.
Sour-Milk Griddle-Cakes.—Stir into one quart of sour milk enough flour to make the batter as thick as waffles; add an even teaspoonful of salt and two well-beaten eggs. Dissolve an even teaspoonful of soda, and beat in when ready for frying. This is very good baked in waffle-irons.
Green-Corn Fritters.—One pint grated corn, one small cup butter, one egg, a teaspoonful salt, one table-spoonful flour, a little pepper. Drop on a buttered pan and bake or fry ten minutes.
Mock Oyster Fritters.—Grate one dozen raw ears of corn; after grating, scrape or wring all the milk from the cob; half a table-spoonful flour; season with pepper and salt; beat the yelks of three eggs very thick, and stir into the grated corn; whisk the whites to a stiff froth, and add the last thing. Drop a dessert-spoonful at a time on a hot, buttered griddle, and fry of a light brown on both sides.
Corn Oysters.—One quart grated corn, three eggs well beaten, one small teaspoonful salt, and a little pepper, with just flour enough to make the corn hold together. Drop from a spoon into hot butter, making cakes about the size of an oyster. Sour milk, with a half-teaspoonful of soda, will answer if eggs are not plenty.
Rice Cakes.—One cup cold boiled rice rubbed into a quart of milk, one pint of flour, a teaspoonful of salt, two eggs beaten very light. Beat all free from lumps. Bake as soon as made, on a well-greased griddle.
Rice or Hominy Cakes.—Warm one quart of sweet milk, and rub into it two cups of boiled rice or hominy; throw in a little salt, and add enough wheat flour to bind the rice, or to make the batter as thick as waffles. Beat two eggs and add to the batter, and half a teaspoonful of soda, unless you use the prepared flour. If you do, there will be no salt or soda needed.
Rosie’s Sally Lunn.—One spoonful of butter, one of sugar, one egg, one pint of milk, one quart of flour, with two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar sifted with the flour, and one teaspoonful of soda added the last thing. This is an excellent breakfast-cake, as well as tea-cake, and is sometimes varied by stirring in a pint of whortleberries.
Strawberry Shortcake.—Rub into a pint and a half of Jewell’s Prepared Flour one teacup of butter; beat one egg very light; add milk to make a soft dough; divide in three parts; roll out lightly, lay one portion on a pie-plate or tin, sprinkle a little flour on the top, then add the second cake, a little flour on the top of that, and cover with the third. Bake quickly, but not too brown. Let the berries stand with sugar sprinkled over them till the cake is baked, then pull the thin portions of cake apart; spread half of the berries over the bottom cake, adding more sugar and a little butter; lay the second over them, and put on the remainder of the berries with more sugar and butter, placing the top cake over all. Put it in the oven for a few minutes to heat through, and send to the table hot.
When wishing an extra nice strawberry cake for tea, beat the whites of two eggs with a cup of white sugar till stiff, and add to it half of a grated cocoa-nut, and spread over the cake. If you have no prepared flour, sift two small teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar with the flour; dissolve one small teaspoonful of soda in milk, and add the last thing before mixing the cake.
Cream Toast.—Put a pint of rich, sweet cream over the stove in the farina-kettle, and while heating toast thin slices of stale bread quickly on both sides, taking care that they do not scorch. Wet two table-spoonfuls of flour in cold milk; stir it smooth; add a teaspoonful of salt, and when the cream is scalding hot, put in the flour, stirring all the time till it thickens; then take the kettle from the fire. Have ready a dish of salt and water, hot, and dip each piece of the toasted bread into it, but only for a moment. Remove quickly to the toast-dish, and dip over it a liberal supply of the thickened cream; then cut more bread and lay into the dish, then more cream, till all is used, letting the cream be the last. If you have no cream, boil and thicken some sweet milk; put in an even teaspoonful of salt, two table-spoonfuls of butter, and, when done, add one or two well-beaten eggs the last thing; stir for a few minutes till well united with the boiling milk, and then pour over the bread.