PANNICLED MILLET.—This is the smallest-seeded of the corn-plants, being a true grass; but the number of the seeds in each ear makes up for their size. It grows in sandy soils that will not do for the cultivation of many other kinds of grain, and forms the chief sustenance in the arid districts of Arabia, Syria, Nubia, and parts of India. It is not cultivated in England, being principally confined to the East. The nations who make use of it grind it, in the primitive manner, between two stones, and make it into a diet which, cannot be properly called bread, but rather a kind of soft thin cake half-baked. When we take into account that the Arabians are fond of lizards and locusts as articles of food, their cuisine, altogether, is scarcely a tempting one.
TO MAKE RUSKS.
(Suffolk Recipe.)
1734. INGREDIENTS.—To every lb. of flour allow 2 oz. of butter, 1/4 pint of milk, 2 oz. of loaf sugar, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoonful of yeast.
[Illustration: RUSKS.]
Mode.—Put the milk and butter into a saucepan, and keep shaking it round until the latter is melted. Put the flour into a basin with the sugar, mix these well together, and beat the eggs. Stir them with the yeast to the milk and butter, and with this liquid work the flour into a smooth dough. Cover a cloth over the basin, and leave the dough to rise by the side of the fire; then knead it, and divide it into 12 pieces; place them in a brisk oven, and bake for about 20 minutes. Take the rusks out, break them in half, and then set them in the oven to get crisp on the other side. When cold, they should be put into tin canisters to keep them dry; and, if intended for the cheese course, the sifted sugar should be omitted.
Time.—20 minutes to bake the rusks; 5 minutes to render them crisp after being divided.
Average cost, 8d.
Sufficient to make 2 dozen rusks. Seasonable at any time.