Mix medium oatmeal to a stiff paste with cold water. Add enough fine oatmeal to make a dough. Roll out very thinly. Bake in sheets, or cut into biscuits with a tumbler or biscuit cutter. Bake on the bare oven shelf, sprinkled with fine oatmeal, until a very pale brown. Flour may be used in place of the fine oatmeal, as the latter often has a bitter taste that many people object to. The cause of this bitterness is staleness, but it is not so noticeable in the coarse or medium oatmeal. Freshly ground oatmeal is quite sweet.
6. RAISIN LOAF.
1 lb. fine wholemeal, 6 oz. raisins, 2 oz. Mapleton's nutter, water.
Well wash the raisins, but do not stone them or the loaf will be heavy. If the stones are disliked, seedless raisins, or even sultanas, may be used, but the large raisins give rather better results. Rub the nutter into the flour, add the raisins, which should be well dried after washing, and mix with enough water to form a dough which almost, but not quite drops from the spoon. Put into a greased tin, which should be very hot, and bake in a hot oven at first. At the end of twenty minutes to half an hour the loaf should be slightly browned. Then move to a cooler shelf, and bake until done. Test with a knife as for ordinary cakes.
For this loaf a small, deep, square-cornered tin is required (price 6-1/2d.), the same as for the egg loaf. 3 ozs. fresh dairy butter may be used in place of the 2 ozs. nutter.
7. SHORTENED BREAD.
Into 1 lb. wholemeal flour rub 4 ozs. nutter or 5 ozs. butter. Mix to a stiff dough with cold water. Knead lightly but well. Shape into small buns about 1 inch thick. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven.
II.—SOUPS.
Soups are of three kinds—clear soups, thick soups, and purées. A clear soup is made by boiling fruit or vegetables (celery, for example) until all the nourishment is extracted, and then straining off the clear liquid. A little sago or macaroni is generally added and cooked in this. When carrots and turnips are used, a few small pieces are cut into dice or fancy shapes, cooked separately, and added to the strained soup. Thick soups always include some farinaceous ingredients for thickening (flour, pea-flour, potato, etc.). Purées are thick soups composed of any vegetable or vegetables boiled and rubbed through a sieve. This is done, a little at a time, with a wooden spoon. A little of the hot liquor is added to the vegetable from time to time to assist it through.