HINTS ON HEATING OVENS AND BAKING.--Brick ovens are generally heated with dry f.a.gots or small branches, or with light split wood. For baking bread, the oven-wood must be heavier than for pies. A heap of wood should be placed in the centre of the oven on the brick floor, and then set on fire. While the wood is burning, the door of the oven must be left open. When the wood is all burnt down, and reduced to a ma.s.s of small red coals, the oven will be very hot. Then shovel out all the coals and sweep the oven floor with a broom, till it is perfectly clean, and entirely free from ashes. Try the heat within. For baking bread, the floor of the oven should look red, and a little flour thrown in should burn brown immediately. If you can hold your hand within the mouth of the oven as long as you can distinctly count twenty, the heat is about right. Pies, puddings, &c., require less heat. When a brick oven is used, a peel, or large broad-bladed long-handled wooden shovel is necessary for putting in the bread, pies, &c., placing them on the broad or shovel-end of the peel, and slipping them off on the oven floor. Then close up the door of the oven, and leave the things to bake. When done, slip the peel beneath them, and hand them out on it.
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 sc.r.a.ping, with a broad knife. If it is well sc.r.a.ped after every cake is taken off, it will not want greasing, as there will be no stickiness. Otherwise, some b.u.t.ter 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 b.u.t.ter, lard, or nice beef or veal dripping may be subst.i.tuted, 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 quant.i.ty 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.
This way of preserving yeast is very convenient for keeping through the summer, or for conveying to a distance.
EXCELLENT HOME-MADE YEAST.--Yeast should always be kept in a gla.s.s bottle or a stone jug, and never in earthen or metal. Before you make fresh yeast, empty entirely the vessel that has contained the last; and if of stone, scald it twice with boiling water, in which it will be well to mix a little clear lye. Then rince it with cold water, till perfectly clean. If you have not used lye in scalding it, dissolve some potash or pearlash in the rinsing water, to remove any acidity that may linger about the vessel, and may therefore spoil the new yeast. If you keep your yeast in gla.s.s bottles, the water must be warm, but not hot; as scalding water may crack them: also, melt some potash or pearlash in this water. The vessel for keeping it being purified, proceed to make your yeast. Have ready, in a kettle over the fire, two quarts of boiling water; put into it a very large handful of hops, (as fine and fresh as possible,) and let the water boil again with the hops in it for twenty minutes more. Sift into a pan three pints of wheat flour. Strain the liquor from the hops into a large bowl, and pour half of it hot over the flour. Stir it well, and press out all the lumps till it is quite smooth. Let the other half of the liquid stand till it is cool, and then pour it gradually to the rest; mixing it well, by stirring as you proceed. Then take half a pint of good strong yeast--brewer"s or baker"s yeast, if you can get it fresh; if not, you must use some that has been left from your last making, provided it is not the least sour; stir this yeast into the mixture of hop water and flour, put it immediately into your jug or bottles, and cork it loosely till the fermentation is over, (which should be in an hour,) and it will then be fit for use.
Afterwards cork it tightly. It will keep better if you put a raisin or two into the bottom of each bottle, before you pour in the fresh yeast.
Into a stone jug put half a dozen raisins.
All yeast is better and more powerful for being fresh. It is better to make it frequently, (the trouble being little,) than to risk its becoming sour by endeavoring to keep it too long. When sour it becomes weak and watery, and tastes and smells disagreeably, and will never make light bread; besides, being very unwholesome. The acidity may be somewhat corrected by stirring in some dissolved pearlash, saleratus, or soda, immediately before the yeast is used; but it is better to have it good and fresh, without the necessity of any corrective. Yeast should always be kept in a cool place.
Those who live in towns where there are breweries have no occasion to make their own yeast during the brewing season, and in summer they can every day supply themselves with fresh yeast from the baker"s. It is only in country places where there are neither brewers or bakers that it is expedient to make it at home. For home-made yeast, we know the above receipt to be excellent.
Sweet cakes, buns, rusks, &c., require stronger and fresher yeast than bread; the sugar will otherwise r.e.t.a.r.d their rising.
INDIAN BREAD OR PONE.--Four quarts of indian meal sifted, a large half pint of wheat flour, a table-spoonful of salt, half a pint of strong fresh yeast, a quart of warm water. Sift into a large deep pan the indian meal and the wheat flour, mixing them well. Make a hole in the centre. The water must be warm, but not hot. Mix it with the yeast, and pour them into the hole in the midst of the meal. Take a spoon, and with it mix into the liquid enough of the surrounding meal to make a thin batter, which you must stir till it is quite smooth, and free from lumps. Then strew a handful of wheat flour over the surface, scattering it thinly, so as to cover the whole. Warm a clean cloth, and lay it folded over the top of the pan. Then set it in a warm place to rise, nearer the fire in winter than in summer. When it is quite light, and has risen so that the flour on the surface is cracked, strew on the salt, and begin to form the whole ma.s.s into a dough; commencing round the hole that contains the batter, and adding, gradually, sufficient lukewarm water (which you must have ready for the purpose,) to mix it of the proper consistence. When the whole is completely mixed, and the batter in the centre is thoroughly incorporated with the dough, knead it hard for at least half an hour. Then, having formed the dough into a round lump in the middle of the pan, strew a little more flour thinly over it. Cover it, and set it again in a warm place for half an hour.
Then flour your pasteboard, divide the dough equally, and make it into two loaves. Have the oven ready. Put in the loaves directly, and bake them about two hours or more. Indian meal requires always more baking than wheat. When you take them out, it is well to wrap each loaf in a clean, coa.r.s.e towel, well sprinkled with cold water, and rolled up damp till the bread is baked. Having thus wrapped up the loaves, stand them on end to cool slowly. The damp cloths will prevent the crust from hardening too much while the loaves are cooling.
All indian bread, and every sort of indian cake, is best when quite fresh.
Excellent bread may be made of equal proportions of wheat, rye flour, and indian corn; or of three parts wheat and one part indian. All bread should be kept closely secluded from the air, wrapped in cloths, and put away in boxes or baskets with tightly-fitting lids.
Should you find the dough sour, (either from the heat of the weather, or from standing too long,) you may recover it, by dissolving in a little lukewarm water a tea-spoonful of pearlash, saleratus, or soda. Sprinkle this water all over the dough. Then knead it in, so that it may be dispersed throughout. Then put it into the oven as soon as possible; first tasting the dough, to discover if the sourness is entirely removed. If not, mix in a little more pearlash, and then taste it again.
Take care not to put in too much of any of these alkaline substances, lest they communicate a disagreeable, soapy taste to the bread.
When you buy corn meal, it will keep better if the whole is sifted as soon as you get it. Avoid buying much at a time, unless you can keep it in a very cool place. When sour, it is unfit to eat. Common indian meal is much the best for use.
INDIAN RYE BREAD.--Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, three pints of milk or water, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, half a pint of strong fresh yeast. Having sifted the rye and indian meal in a large pan, mix them well together, adding the salt. Boil the milk or water in a sauce-pan, and when scalding hot pour it on the meal, and stir the whole very hard. If too stiff, add a little more warm water. Let it stand till it becomes only of a lukewarm heat, and then stir in the yeast. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and knead it long and hard for at least half an hour. Then cover the pan with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire to rise. When the dough is quite light, and cracked all over the top, take it out of the pan; divide the ma.s.s in half, make it into two loaves, knead each loaf well for ten minutes or more, and then cover and set them again near the fire for about half an hour. By this time have the oven ready, put in the loaves directly, and bake them at least an hour and a half. This bread is considered very wholesome.
Should you find the dough sour, you may rectify it by kneading in a tea-spoonful of soda or pearlash, dissolved in a little warm water.
INDIAN WHEAT BREAD.--This is made in the above manner, subst.i.tuting wheat for rye flour.
In any sort of home-made bread, (either white or brown) a handful or more of indian meal will be found an improvement, rendering it moist and sweet.
BOSTON RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.--Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, half a pint of strong fresh yeast, half a pint of West India mola.s.ses, a small table-spoonful of salt. Sift the rye and indian meal into a large pan or wooden bowl; and mix them well together, adding a little salt. Have ready half a pint of water, warm but not hot. Mix with it the mola.s.ses, and then stir into it the yeast. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of meal, pour in the liquid, and then with a spoon work into it a portion of the flour that surrounds the hole, till the liquid in the centre becomes a thick batter. Sprinkle the top with rye meal, lay a thick cloth over the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. In three or four hours it should be light enough to appear cracked all over the surface. Then pour into the middle (by degrees) about a pint of warm water, (it must not be hot,) and as you pour mix it well all through the dough, till the whole becomes a round ma.s.s. Sprinkle some rye flour on the dough, and having floured your hands, knead it long and hard, (at least half an hour, and after it ceases to stick to your hands,) turning it over as you proceed. Then sprinkle the dough again with flour, cover it, and again set it in a warm place to rise.
Have the oven ready, and of the proper heat, so that the bread may be put in as soon as it has completely risen the second time. When perfectly light, the dough will stand high, and the surface will be cracked all over. This quant.i.ty will be sufficient for a common-sized loaf. Set it directly into the oven, and bake it about two hours. When bread has done rising, it will fall again if not put into the oven. As soon as it is done, wrap it immediately in a clean coa.r.s.e towel wet with cold water, and stand it up on end till it is cool.
This is a palatable, cheap, and wholesome bread. It may be baked in a deep tin or iron pan.
If the dough should have stood so long as to become sour, (which it will, if mixed over night,) restore it by kneading in a small tea-spoonful of pearlash or saleratus melted in a little warm water.
EGG PONE.--Three eggs, a quart of indian meal, a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter, a small tea-spoonful of salt, a half pint (or more) of milk. Beat the eggs very light, and mix them with the milk. Then stir in, gradually, the indian meal, adding the salt and b.u.t.ter. It must not be a batter, but a soft dough, just thick enough to be stirred well with a spoon. If too thin, add more indian meal; if too stiff, thin it with a little more milk. Beat or stir it _long and hard_. b.u.t.ter a tin or iron pan. Put the mixture into it, and set the pan immediately into an oven, which must be moderately hot at first, and the heat increased afterward.
A Dutch oven is best for this purpose. It should bake an hour and a half or two hours, in proportion to its thickness. Send it to table hot, and cut into slices. Eat it with b.u.t.ter, or mola.s.ses.
INDIAN MUSH.--Have ready on a clear fire a pot of boiling water. Stir into it, by degrees, (a handful at a time,) sufficient indian meal to make a very thick porridge, and then add a very small portion of salt, allowing not more than a level tea-spoonful to a quart of meal. You must keep the pot boiling all the time you are stirring in the meal; and between every handful stir hard with the mush-stick, (a round stick about half a yard long, flattened at the lower end,) as, if not well stirred, the mush will be lumpy. After it is sufficiently thick and smooth, keep it boiling an hour longer, stirring it occasionally. Then cover the pot closely, and hang it higher up the chimney, or set it on hot coals on the hearth, so as to simmer it slowly for another hour. The goodness and wholesomeness of mush depends greatly on its being long and thoroughly boiled. It should also be made very thick. If well made, and well cooked, it is wholesome and nutritious; but the contrary, if thin, and not sufficiently boiled. It is not too long to have it three or four hours over the fire, first boiling, then simmering. On the contrary, it will be better for it. The coa.r.s.er the corn meal the less cooking it requires. Send it to table hot, and in a deep dish. Eat it with sweet milk, b.u.t.termilk, or cream, or with b.u.t.ter and sugar, or with b.u.t.ter and mola.s.ses; making a hole in the middle of your plate of mush, putting some b.u.t.ter into the hole, and then adding the sugar or mola.s.ses.
Cold mush that has been left may be cut into slices, or mouthfuls, and fried next day, in b.u.t.ter, or in nice dripping of veal, beef, or pork; but not mutton or lamb.
INDIAN HASTY PUDDING.--Put two quarts of milk into a clean pot or sauce-pan. Set it over the fire, adding a level tea-spoonful of salt, and, when it comes to a boil, stir in a lump of fresh b.u.t.ter about the size of a goose egg. Then add (a handful at a time) sufficient indian meal to make it very thick, stirring it all the while with a mush stick.
Keep it boiling well, and continue to throw in indian meal till it is so thick that the stick stands upright in it. Then send it to table hot, and eat it with milk, cream, or mola.s.ses and b.u.t.ter. What is left may be cut into slices, and fried next day, or boiled in a bag.
INDIAN MEAL GRUEL.--This is an excellent food for the sick. Having sifted some indian meal, mix in a quart bowl three table-spoonfuls of the meal with six of cold water. Stir it smooth, and press out the lumps against the side of the bowl. Have ready a very clean sauce-pan, entirely free from grease, with a pint of boiling water. Pour this, scalding hot, on the mixture in the bowl, a little at a time, and stir it well, adding a pinch of salt. Then put the whole back into the sauce-pan. Set it on hot coals and stir it till it boils, making the spoon go down to the bottom to prevent the gruel from burning. After it has come to a boil, let it continue boiling half an hour, stirring it frequently, and skimming it. Give it to the invalid warm, in a bowl or tumbler, to be eaten with a tea-spoon. It may be sweetened with a little sugar. When the physician permits, some grated nutmeg may be added; also, a very little wine.
RYE MUSH.--To make smooth rye mush, sift a quart or more of rye meal into a pan, and gradually pour in sufficient cold water to make a very thick batter, stirring it hard with a spoon as you proceed, and carefully pressing out all the lumps against the side of the pan. Add a very little salt. The batter must be so thick at the last that you can scarcely stir it. Then thin it with a little more water, and see that it is quite smooth. Rye, and also wheat flour, have a disposition to be more lumpy than corn meal, when made into mush. When thoroughly mixed and stirred, put it into a pot, place it over the fire and boil it well, stirring it with a mush-stick till it comes to a hard boil; then place it in a diminished heat, and simmer it slowly till you want to dish it up. Eat it warm, with b.u.t.ter and mola.s.ses, or with sweet milk, or fresh b.u.t.termilk. Rye mush is considered very wholesome, particularly in cases of dyspepsia.
COMMON HOE-CAKE.--Take an earthen or tin pan, and half fill it with coa.r.s.e indian meal, which had best be sifted in. Add a little salt. Have ready a kettle of boiling water. Pour into the indian meal sufficient hot water (a little at a time,) to make a stiff dough, stirring it with a spoon as you proceed. It must be thoroughly mixed, and stirred hard.
If you want the cakes for breakfast, mix this dough over night; cover the pan, and set it in a _cool_ place till morning. If kept warm, it may turn sour. Early next morning, as soon as the fire is burning well, set the griddle over it, and take out the dough, a handful at a time.
Flatten and shape it by patting it with your hands, till you form it into cakes about the size of a common saucer, and half an inch thick.
When the griddle is quite hot, lay on it as many cakes as it will hold, and bake them brown. When the upper side is done, slip a broad knife beneath and turn them over. They must be baked brown on both sides. Eat them warm, with b.u.t.termilk, sweet milk, b.u.t.ter, mola.s.ses, or whatever is most convenient. If you intend these cakes for dinner or supper, mix them as early in the day as you can, and (covering the pan) let them stand in a cool place till wanted for baking. In cold weather you may save trouble by mixing over night enough to last the next day for breakfast, dinner, and supper; baking them as they are wanted for each meal. Or they may be all baked in the morning, and eaten cold; but they are then not so palatable as when warm. They will be less liable to stick, if before each baking the griddle is dredged with wheat flour, or greased with a bit of fat pork stuck on a fork. You may cover it all over with one large cake, instead of several small ones.
This cake is so called, because in some parts of America it was customary to bake it on the iron of a hoe, stood up before the fire. It is better known by that name than by any other.
COMMON GRIDDLE CAKE.--A quart of indian meal, sufficient warm water to make a soft dough, a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the indian meal into a pan, and add the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the meal, and pour in a little warm water. Then mix it with a large, strong spoon, adding, by degrees, water enough to make a soft dough. Flour your hands, and knead it into a large lump--divide it into two equal portions. Flour your pasteboard, lay on it the first lump of dough, and roll it out about an inch thick. Then, (having already heated your griddle,) lay the cake upon it, spreading it evenly, and make it a good round shape. It should cover the whole surface of the griddle, which must first be greased, either with b.u.t.ter or lard tied in a rag, or with a bit of fat fresh pork. Bake it well; and when one side is well browned, turn it on the other, taking care not to break it. Send it to table hot, cut into three-cornered pieces--split and b.u.t.ter them. As soon as the first cake is sent in, put on the other to bake.
This is one of the plainest and simplest preparations of indian cake; and is very good when warm.
PLAIN JOHNNY CAKE.--A quart of indian meal, a pint of warm water, a level tea-spoonful of salt. Sift a quart of indian meal into a pan. Make a hole in the middle, and pour in a pint of warm water, adding the salt.
With a spoon mix the meal and water gradually into a soft dough. Stir it very hard for a quarter of an hour or more, till it becomes light and spongy. Then spread the dough, smooth and evenly, on a stout, flat board. A piece of the head of a flour barrel will serve for this purpose. Place the board nearly (but not quite) upright, and set a smoothing-iron or a stone against the back to support it. Bake it well.