Oat-meal.—Take one pint of boiling water, and pour it on to one pint of Oat-meal. Add a great-spoonful of butter, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and two great-spoonfuls of sugar. Stir fast and thoroughly; then add two well-beaten eggs, and boil twenty minutes. To be eaten as mush for supper; and next morning thin it, and bake in muffin-rings.
Several of the above articles are good with only salt and water; and many persons would like them better with the butter, sugar, and eggs omitted.
Wheat Muffins.—One pint of milk, and two eggs.
One table-spoonful of yeast, and a salt-spoonful of salt. One table-spoonful of butter.
Mix these ingredients with sufficient flour to make a thick batter. Let it rise four or five hours, and bake in muffin-rings. This can be made of unbolted flour or grits, adding two great-spoonfuls of molasses, and it is very fine. Make it so thick that a table-spoon will stand erect in it.
Sally Lunn, improved.—Seven tea-cups of unbolted flour, or fine flour.
One pint of water.
Half a cup of melted butter, and half a cup of sugar.
One pinch of salt.
Three well-beaten eggs.
Two table-spoonfuls of brewers’ yeast, or twice as much of home-brewed.
Pour into square buttered pans, and let it rise two or three hours with brewers’ yeast; with home-brewed, five hours are required. It is still better baked in patties.
Cream Griddle-Cakes.—One pint of thick cream.
One tea-spoonful of salt.
One table-spoonful of sugar.
Three well-beaten eggs.
Make a thin batter of unbolted or of fine flour, and bake on a griddle.
Royal Crumpets.—Three tea-cups of raised dough.
Two table-spoonfuls of melted butter.
Half a tea-cup of white sugar, mixed with three well-beaten eggs.
Bake in two buttered pans for half an hour.
Muffins of fine Flour or unbolted Flour.—One pint of milk or water.
One pinch of salt.
Two well-beaten eggs.
One table-spoonful of yeast.
Make a thick batter of fine flour or unbolted flour, and let it rise four or five hours. Bake in muffin-rings.
Unbolted Flour Waffles.—One pint of unbolted flour.
One pint of sour milk, or buttermilk, or water.
Half a tea-spoonful of soda, or more if needed, to sweeten the milk.
Three well-beaten eggs.
Two table-spoonfuls of sugar.
Drop-Cakes of fine Wheat or of Rye.—One pint of milk or water.
One pinch of salt.
Two table-spoonfuls of sugar.
Three well-beaten eggs.
Stir in rye, or fine or unbolted flour to a thick batter, and bake in cups or patties half an hour.
Sachem’s Head Corn-Cake.—One quart of sifted corn-meal, scalded.
One tea-spoonful of salt.
Three pints of scalded sweet milk or water.
Half a tea-spoonful of soda in two great-spoonfuls of warm water.
Half a tea-cup of sugar.
Eight eggs, the whites beaten separately, and added the last thing.
Make the cakes an inch thick in buttered pans before baking, and, if baked right, they will puff up to double the thickness, like sponge-cake, and are very fine.
Rice Waffles.—One pint of milk. Half a tea-cup of solid boiled rice, soaked three hours in the milk.
Two cups of wheat flour or rice flour.
Three well-beaten eggs. Bake in waffle-irons.
The rice must be salted enough when boiled.
Another Rice Dish.—One pint of rice, well cleaned.
Three quarts of cold water.
Three tea-spoonfuls of salt.
Boil it twenty minutes; then pour off the water, add milk or cream, and let it boil ten minutes longer, till quite soft. Let it stand till cold, and then cut it in slices and fry it on a griddle. It can also be made into griddle-cakes or muffins by the preceding recipe.
A good and easy Way to use cold Rice.—Heat a pint of boiled rice in milk; add two well-beaten eggs, a little salt, butter, and sugar; let it boil up once, and then grate on nutmeg.
Buckwheat-Cakes.—One quart of buckwheat.
One tea-spoonful of salt.
Two table-spoonfuls of distillery yeast, or four of home-brewed.
Two table-spoonfuls of molasses.
Wet the flour with warm water, and then add the other articles. Keep this warm through the night. If it sours, add half a tea-spoonful of soda in warm water. These cakes have a handsomer brown if wet with milk or part milk.
Fine Cottage Cheese.—Let the milk be turned by rennet, or by setting it in a warm place. It must not be heated, as the oily parts will then pass off, and the richness is lost. When fully turned, put in a coarse linen bag, and hang it to drain several hours, till all the whey is out. Then mash it fine, salt it to the taste, and thin it with good cream, or add but little cream, and roll it into balls. When thin, it is very fine with preserves or sugared fruit.
It also makes a fine pudding, by thinning it with milk, and adding eggs and sugar, and spice to the taste, and baking it. Many persons use milk when turned to bonny-clabber for a dessert, putting on sugar and spice. Children are fond of it.
CHAPTER XV.
PUDDINGS AND PIES.
Where sugar is made by slaves, the little children feed constantly on it, and grow fat and healthy. But they are nearly naked, live out-of-doors, exercise constantly, and have nothing to do but play. Thus their lungs and skin gain the healthful and purifying action of the air and the sun, and the excess of carbonaceous food is rendered harmless. But for those whose skin never meets the sun, rarely meets the air, and only now and then some water, a very different regimen is needful. Sugar, molasses, butter, and fats are chiefly carbonaceous, and therefore demand a large supply of oxygen through lungs and skin. And yet our custom is to use fine flour, which is chiefly carbon; butter and cream, chiefly carbon; sweet cakes, chiefly carbon; sweetmeats and candy, chiefly carbon; and worst of all, pie-crusts, chiefly carbon, and the most difficult of all food for digestion.
But the love for sweet food is common to all, and demands gratification. All that is required is moderation and temperance.