Page images
PDF
EPUB

one teaspoonful soda and two of cream of tartar, or three teaspoonfuls of baking powder; or, one scant pint of sour milk with one teaspoonful soda and one teaspoonful cream of tartar; if the milk be very sour, omit the cream of tartar.

To make; In a chopping bowl stir all well together except the shortening and milk, then chop in the shortening, which should be cold and hard, till all is fine and well mixed. Now add the milk a little at a time, still mixing with the chopping knife. Take out on the molding-board and roll out with as little mixing as possible. This dough is often made richer, even one cup of butter to one quart of flour being used, but so much as this can only be considered extravagant and unhealthful.

As biscuit.

butter.

As graham biscuits.

As shortcake.

and bake.

like toast.

Corn bread or
Johnnycake.

1. Plain.

To use this dough: Roll one inch thick, cut with biscuit-cutter, and bake. To be eaten warm with

Use three parts of graham flour to one of wheat and treat in the same manner.

Roll one half inch thick, fit into jelly cake tins, When nicely browned, split and butter and pile up For fruit shortcake see page 270.

SODA BREAD OF CORN MEAL.

One cup of sweet milk, one cup of sour or buttermilk, or both of sour milk, one teaspoonful salt, one teaspoonful soda, one tablespoonful butter or suet or lard, three cups Indian meal and one of wheat flour, or all of Indian meal. Pour into a tin and bake forty minutes.

2. Richer.

The same with an egg and one half cup sugar added. No. I with the addition of three eggs, one half cup sugar, and one third cup of butter, one cup of meal being omitted.

3. Very nice.

I. Of wheat flour.

SODA RAISED BREAD THIN.

Pancakes without Eggs.

Ingredients: One quart of flour, one teaspoonful salt, and one scant quart of sour milk, with two level teaspoonfuls of soda and the same of cream of tartar, unless the milk is very sour, when omit the cream of tartar. Sweet milk

can also be used with one teaspoonful of soda and two of cream of tartar, or three of baking powder.

To make Mix the salt and cream of tartar, if used, with the flour. Make a hole in the middle and pour in the milk gradually, stirring with a spoon till smooth. Then beat hard for five minutes, or until it is bubbly. Add the soda dissolved in a teaspoonful of hot water, and bake immediately on a very hot griddle. Unless well beaten before the soda is added, these pancakes without eggs are not a success. If made with sour milk they will be still better if when mixed (without the soda of course) the batter is left to stand twelve or even twenty-four hours. Just before using add the soda dissolved in a little hot water.

2. Of graham flour.

3. Of corn meal.

Are made in the same way, one part being of white flour and three parts graham.

As above, with corn meal instead of graham.

Pancakes with Eggs.

Ingredients: To any of the three preceding recipes add two or three eggs, beating yolks and whites separately.

Muffins and Waffles.

Muffins and waffles of all kinds are the same as pancakes made a little thicker and with the addition of one tablespoonful of

butter.

Fritters.

For fritters, which should be next in order, see page 274.

USES FOR BREAD.

These are so numerous that the housekeeper need never fear the accumulation of stale bread, if she will only take care of it in time. Every day the bits left from meals and the dry ends of the loaf must be dried hard in the oven and then put To dry bread. away in paper bags. If time allows, pare off the crusts, cut into cubes, and dry separately to add to soups. This dried bread will keep for weeks and months, simply be kept clean and dry. In any recipe where bread crumbs

[ocr errors]

it must

are called for, as bread pudding or bread omelet, use this dried bread, laying it first in cold water till it is soft, then pressing it dry in a towel and crumbling it lightly with the hand. Here are a few of the ways in which bread can be used.

Toast.

USES FOR BREAD IN SLICES.

In dry toast, milk toast, and water toast, to be eaten as such and as a foundation for many other dishes. Fried toast Bread slices soaked in egg and milk, or water, and fried on a griddle with a little fat. Cold milk or water toast may be so used.

Fritters.

Puddings.

Steamed bread.

For bread fritters see page 275.

For bread and butter pudding see page 273.

Stale bread may be cut in slices and steamed so as to taste sweet and good. Set the slices up on end in the steamer and steam five or ten minutes, then dry a little in an oven.

Bread re-baked.

Biscuits of all sorts, even when several days old, may be made nearly as good as when fresh, by wetting the tops and setting in a hot oven for about five minutes, a convenient way of having warm biscuits for breakfast.

USES FOR CRUMBS OR DRIED BREAD.

Soaked and crumbled as described on this page and used in bread dough instead of half the flour.

In bread omelets (see page 237).

In meat balls for soups and stews.

In bread dressing. Pour enough hot water on dry bread to soften it, and chop it not too fine; season with chopped onions, herbs, and suet or tried out fat. The addition of an egg is an improvement. Bake covered about an hour, then uncover and brown. This mixture may also be used for stuffing a fowl, leg of mutton, etc., or it may be fried in spoonfuls on a griddle and eaten with a sweet sauce as the simplest form of pancakes. In bread pancakes (see page 265).

In bread puddings (see pages 271, 272, 273).

For breading chops, croquettes, etc., that are to be fried in boiling fat.

SIMPLE SWEET DISHES.

This department does not pretend to be complete; it] simply aims to classify as many of the cheaper kinds as the ordinary family needs. These will generally be used as desserts, but there is no reason why the main dish of the meal should not have some sugar it. I remember that in a simple pension in Thuringia, Germany, I once ate of a dinner consisting of a soup, a salad, and one other dish which we would call a bread pudding. I was helped bountifully to this main dish of the meal, I ate and was satisfied, for the materials were good and it was well made and delicately baked. The recipe will be found on page 272.

MILK PUDDINGS.

Indian pudding. One quart of milk, one half cup corn meal, one teaspoonful salt, one half cup chopped suet, one tablespoonful ginger, one half cup of molasses. Bake covered for three hours in a very slow oven and serve with sweet sauce.

Swelled rice

One quart skimmed milk, or one pint full milk and pudding. one pint water, one half cup rice, two tablespoonfuls sugar, one half teaspoonful salt. Bake slowly two hours covered, then uncover and brown. It will be a creamy mass and delicious in taste. Serve without sauce. Raisins may be added.

Minute pudding of wheat or graham flour.

milk

Ingredients: One quart milk,-skimmed with one teaspoonful butter will do, - two eggs, three fourths pint flour, one teaspoonful salt. To prevent burning, make in double boiler or pail set in a kettle of boiling water. Mix the flour and egg smooth with part of the milk, heat the remainder to boiling, and stir in the egg and flour. Stir till it thickens, then let it swell and cook slowly for fifteen minutes. Serve with fruit or with sugar and milk.

Ingredients: One pint water, one pint milk, one Farina pudding. teaspoonful salt, one half pint farina, two eggs. Make as above. This is excellent cut in slices when cold and fried brown on a griddle. It may also be made without eggs. Ingredients: One pint fresh buttermilk, two tablespoonfuls cream or butter, a teaspoonful salt, a pinch of soda, and flour for stiff batter. Steam two hours, or till it

Buttermilk pudding.

bursts open, or bake in little cups or patties. May be eaten with any fruit sauce or with milk and sugar.

FRUIT PUDDINGS WITH SODA BISCUIT DOUGH.

Strawberry

For this dough see page 266.

When baked as

shortcakes. shortcake split the cake and spread between each pair strawberries mashed and sweetened.

Other fruit short

In the same way make shortcake of berries of any cakes. sort, stewed apples, stewed pieplant, lemon or orange tart filling, in short, any filling for a pie that is ready to eat without further cooking. These should be eaten warm but not hot, and are as good next day, if put in the oven long enough to become again warm and crisp.

These favorite dishes are but modifications of the Roly poly pudding and apple fruit shortcake. In the first the dough is made just dumpling. stiff enough to roll out, covered with apples or berries or other fruit, then rolled up and put to bake in a pan containing a little water. For apple dumplings, the crust is cut in squares, sliced apples placed in the middle, then the corners gathered up and pinched together. Bake like roly poly pudding,

or steam.

Apple pie.

If you wish to cook your fruit at the same time with the crust, fill a deep pie plate with fruit, as apples, and cover with the rolled out shortcake. Bake brown, and when done lift the crust, sweeten the fruit, replace the crust, and the "pie" is ready to serve. Raised biscuit or bun dough (see page 263), can be used in the same way; or, still better, yeast pancake mixture (see page 265), in layers with any sort of fruit. If you will call these fruit shortcakes "pies," and be content therewith, you will save much labor, much expensive material, and set before your family a more healthful dish. No farther recipes for pies will be given, a few that are generally classed as such coming more naturally under the head of puddings.

FRUIT PUDDINGS WITH BREAD.

Ingredients: One pint bread crumbs, or dry bread 1. Brown Betty. moistened, one quart chopped sour apples, one half pint sugar, two teaspoonfuls cinnamon, four tablespoonfuls butter or suet. Arrange bread and apples in layers in a pudding dish,

« PreviousContinue »