1 quart of boiling water. 4 tablespoonfuls of cereal. 1 teaspoonful of salt.
When you are to use a cereal made of oats or wheat, always begin to cook it the night before, even if it says on the package that it is not necessary. Put a quart of boiling water in the outside of the double boiler, and another quart in the inside, and in this last mix the salt and cereal. Put the boiler on the back of the kitchen range, where it will be hardly cook at all, and let it stand all night. If the fire is to go out, put it on so that it will cook for two hours first. In the morning, if the water in the outside of the boiler is cold, fill it up hot, and boil hard for an hour without stirring the cereal. Then turn it out in a hot dish, and send it to the table with a pitcher of cream.
The rather soft, smooth cereals, such as farina and cream of rice, are to be measured in just the same way, but they need not be cooked overnight; only put on in a double boiler in the morning for an hour. Margaret's mother was very particular to have all cereals cooked a long time, because they are difficult to digest if they are only partly cooked, even though they look and taste as though they were done.
Corn-meal Mush
1 quart of boiling water. 1 teaspoon of salt. 4 tablespoons of corn-meal.
Be sure the water is boiling very hard when you are ready; then put in the salt, and pour slowly from your hand the corn-meal, stirring all the time till there is not one lump. Boil this half an hour, and serve with cream. Some like a handful of nice plump raisins stirred in, too. It is better to use yellow corn-meal in winter and white in summer.
Fried Corn-meal Mush
Make the corn-meal mush the day before you need it, and when it has cooked half an hour put it in a bread-tin and smooth it over; stand away overnight to harden. In the morning turn it out and slice it in pieces half an inch thick. Put two tablespoons of lard or nice drippings in the frying-pan, and make it very hot. Dip each piece of mush into a pan of flour, and shake off all except a coating of this. Put the pieces, a few at a time, into the hot fat, and cook till they are brown; have ready a heavy brown paper on a flat dish in the oven, and as you take out the mush lay it on this, so that the paper will absorb the grease. When all are cooked put the pieces on a hot platter, and have a pitcher of maple syrup ready to send to the table with them.
Another way to cook corn-meal mush is to have a kettle of hot fat ready, and after flouring the pieces drop them into the fat and cook like doughnuts. The pieces have to be rather smaller to cook in this way than in the other.
Boiled Rice