The johnny-cake board had best be placed so as slightly to slant backwards; otherwise the upper part of the cake, being opposite to the hottest part of the fire, may bake too fast for the lower part.
VERY PLAIN INDIAN DUMPLINGS.—Sift some Indian meal into a pan; add about a salt-spoon of salt to each quart of meal; and scald it with sufficient boiling water to make a stiff dough. Pour in the water gradually; stirring as you pour. When the dough becomes a stiff lump, divide it into equal portions; flour your hands, and make it into thick, flat dumplings about as large round as the top of a glass tumbler, or a breakfast cup. Dredge the dumplings on all sides with flour, put them into a pot of boiling water (if made sufficiently stiff they need not be tied in cloths,) and keep them boiling hard till thoroughly done. Try them with a fork, which must come out quite clean, and with no clamminess sticking to it. They are an excellent appendage to salt pork or bacon, serving them up with the meat; or they may be eaten afterwards with butter and molasses, or with milk sweetened well with brown sugar, and flavoured with a little ground spice.
VERY PLAIN INDIAN BATTER CAKES.—A quart of warm water, or of skim milk.—A quart of Indian meal and half a pint of wheat flour, sifted.—A level tea-spoonful of salt. Pour the water into a pan; add the salt; and having mixed together the wheat and Indian meal, stir them gradually into the water, a handful at a time. It should be about the consistence of buckwheat cake or muffin batter. Beat it long and hard. If you find it too thick, add a little more water. Have ready a hot griddle, grease it, and bake the cakes on it. They should not be larger than the top of a tumbler, or a small saucer. Send them to table hot, in even piles, and eat them with butter or molasses.
These are the plainest sort of Indian batter cakes; but if well beaten and properly baked, they will be found very good, as well as economical. It is an improvement to mix them with milk instead of water.
INDIAN MUFFINS.—A pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, sifted.—A handful of wheat flour.—A quarter of a pound of fresh butter.—A quart of milk.—Four eggs.—A very small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the milk into a saucepan. Cut the butter into it. Set it over the fire and warm it till the butter is very soft, but not till it melts. Then take it off, stir it well, till all mixed, and set it away to cool. Beat four eggs very light; and when the milk is cold, stir them into it, alternately with the meal, a little at a time, of each. Add the salt. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed. Then butter some muffin-rings on the inside. Set them in a hot oven, or on a heated griddle; pour some of the batter into each; and bake the muffins well. Send them hot to table, continuing to bake while a fresh supply is wanted. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey. These muffins will be found excellent, and can be prepared in a very short time; for instance, in three quarters or half an hour before breakfast or tea.
This mixture may be baked in waffle-irons, as waffles. Butter them, and have on the table a glass bowl with powdered sugar and powdered cinnamon, to eat with these waffles.