VIRGINIA GRIDDLE CAKES.—A quart of Indian meal.—Two large table-spoonfuls of wheat flour.—A heaped salt-spoon of salt.—A piece of fresh butter, about two ounces.—Four eggs.—A pint, or more, of milk. Sift the Indian meal into a large pan; mix with it the wheat flour; and add the salt. Warm the milk in a small saucepan, but do not let it come to a boil. When it begins to simmer, take it off, and put the butter into it, stirring it about till well mixed. Then stir in the meal, a little at a time, and let it cool while you are beating the eggs. As soon as they are beaten very light, add them gradually to the mixture, stirring the whole very hard. It must be a light batter, and may require more milk.
Having heated the griddle well by placing it over the fire or in the oven of a hot stove, rub it over with some fresh butter, tied in a clean white rag, and pour on a large ladle-full of the batter. When the cake has baked brown, turn it, with a cake-turner, and bake the other side. Then take it off, and put it on a hot plate. Grease the griddle again, and put on another cake; and so on till you have three or four ready to send to table for a beginning. Continue to bake, and send in hot cakes as long as they are wanted. Eat them with butter; to which you may add molasses or honey.
MISSOURI CAKES.—Three large pints of yellow Indian meal.—A pint of cold water.—A tea-spoonful of salt.—A level tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda dissolved in a little warm water.—A large table-spoonful of beef-dripping, or lard.—A small pint and a half of warm water. Sift three large pints (a little more than three pints) of Indian meal into a pan; add a tea-spoonful of salt, a large table-spoonful of lard, or nice dripping of roast-beef; and a tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda melted in a little warm water. Make it into a soft dough with a pint of cold water. Then thin it to the consistence of a moderate batter, by adding, gradually, not quite a pint and a half of warm water. When it is all mixed, beat or stir it well, for half an hour. Then have a griddle ready over the fire. When hot, grease it with beef-suet, or with lard or butter tied in a clean white rag. Put on a large ladle-full of the batter, and bake the cakes fast. Send them hot to table, about half a dozen at a time, seeing that the edges are nicely trimmed. Eat them with butter, to which you may add honey or molasses.
These cakes are excellent; and very convenient, as they require neither eggs, milk, nor yeast. They may be baked as soon as mixed, or they may stand an hour or more.
INDIAN SLAP-JACKS.—A quart of yellow Indian meal.—Half a pint or more of boiling water.—Half a pint of wheat flour.—Three large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast.—A heaping salt-spoon of salt.—A level tea-spoonful of pearlash, soda, or sal-eratus, dissolved in warm water.—Lard for frying. Sift the Indian meal into a pan, and add the salt. Then pour on the boiling water, and stir it well. When it has cooled a little, and become only milk-warm, stir in the wheat flour, and add the yeast. Stir it long and hard. Cover the pan, and set it near the fire. When the mixture has risen quite light, and is covered with bubbles, add the dissolved pearlash to puff it still more. Have ready a hot frying-pan over the fire; grease it with a little lard, and put in a portion of the mixture, sufficient for one large cake nearly the size of the pan, or two small ones. Spread the mixture thin, and fry it brown. Send the cakes hot to table, and eat them with butter or molasses.
This is one of the plainest sorts of Indian cake, but if properly made, and baked, will be found very good.