To bake in an Iron Dutch oven, (a large deep, cast-iron pan, with a handle, a close-fitting lid, and standing on three or four feet,) you must first stand the lid upright before a clear fire to heat the inside; and it will be best if the oven itself is also stood up before the fire for the same purpose. This should be done while the article to be baked is preparing, that it may be put in as soon as it is ready. The oven may be suspended to the crane, and hung over the fire, or it may be set on a bed of hot wood coals in the corner of the hearth. As soon as the loaf or pie is in, put on the lid of the oven, and cover it all over with hot coals, replenishing it with more live coals as the baking proceeds. If you find it too hot on the top, deaden it with ashes. If the oven stands on the hearth, keep up the heat at the bottom, by additional live coals placed beneath it. Whether the oven is hung over the fire, or stood on the hearth, there must always be hot coals all over the lid, the hottest near the edge.
To bake on a griddle, you may either hang it over the fire, or set it over hot coals on the hearth. Most griddles have feet. The fire must be quite clear and bright, and free from smoke, or the cakes will be blackened, and have a disagreeable taste. The griddle must be perfectly clean; and while you are baking, it will require frequent scraping, with a broad knife. If it is well scraped after every cake is taken off, it will not want greasing, as there will be no stickiness. Otherwise, some butter tied up in a clean rag and laid on a saucer, must be kept at hand all the time, to rub over the griddle between the baking of each cake; for butter, lard, or nice beef or veal dripping may be substituted, but it will not be so fine. Never grease with mutton fat, as it will communicate the taste of tallow. A bit of the fat of fresh pork may do, (stuck on a fork,) but salt pork will give the outside of the cakes a disagreeable saltness, and therefore should not be used.
A griddle may be placed in the oven of a hot stove. Some close stoves have a hole in the top with a flat lid or cover, which lid can be used as a griddle.
The tin-reflecting ovens (with shelves for the pies and cakes) that are used for baking in the summer, and that, having a furnace beneath, and a chimney-pipe, can be set out of doors, so that the kitchen may not be kept hot, are very good for things that will bake soon, and that do not require what is called a strong, solid heat. But they are not effective unless the inside is kept very bright; otherwise it will not reflect the heat. The tin ovens should (as well as tin roasters) be cleaned thoroughly and scoured bright with sand every time they are used.
The art of baking with anthracite, (or any other mineral coal,) can only be acquired by practice. The above hints on baking, refer exclusively to wood fires.
When a charcoal furnace is used for baking, stewing, or any sort of cooking, it should either be set out in the open air, or the door of the kitchen must be kept open all the time. The vapor of charcoal in a close room is so deleterious as to cause death.
DRIED CORN MEAL YEAST CAKES.—
Half a pound of fresh hops, four quarts of water, a pint of wheat or rye flour, half a pint of strong fresh yeast from the brewer or baker, three pints or more of indian meal. Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Strain it into a pan, and mix in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter, adding half a pint of the best yeast you can procure. Leave it to ferment; and when the fermentation is over, stir in sufficient indian meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set in a warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a square sheet an inch thick, and cut it into flat cakes, about four inches square. Spread them out separately, on a large dish, and let them dry slowly in a cool place where there is no sun. While drying, turn them five or six times a day. When they are quite dry and hard, put them, separately, into brown paper bags, and keep them in a box closely covered, and in a place not the least damp.
When you want them to use for yeast, dissolve in a little warm water one or more of the cakes, in proportion to the quantity of bread you intend making. When it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with a little wheat flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise, before you use it. Then mix it with the flour, according to the usual manner of making bread. One yeast cake is enough for two quarts of meal or flour.