Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher
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and Indian Bread.—The Boston or Eastern Brown Bread is made thus: One quart of rye, one quart of corn-meal, one cup of molasses, half a cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed; one tea-spoonful of soda, and one tea-spoonful of salt. Wet with hot water till it is stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. This is put in a large brown pan and baked four or five hours. It is good toasted, and improved by adding boiled squash.
Third Bread.—This is made with equal parts of rye, corn-meal, and unbolted flour. To one quart of warm water add one tea-spoonful of salt, half a cup of distillery or twice as much home-brewed yeast, and half a cup of molasses, and thicken with equal parts of these three kinds of flour. It is very good for a variety.
Rye Bread.—Take a quart of warm water, a tea-spoonful of salt, half a cup of molasses, and a cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much of distillery. Add flour till you can knead it, and do it very thoroughly.
Oat-meal Bread.—Oat-meal is sometimes bitter from want of care in preparing. When good, it makes excellent and healthful bread.
Take one pint of boiling water, one great-spoonful of sweet lard or butter, two great-spoonfuls of sugar; melt them together, and thicken with two-thirds Oat-meal and one-third fine flour. When blood-warm, add half a cup of home-brewed yeast and two well-beaten eggs. Mold into small cakes, and bake on buttered tins, or make two loaves.
Pumpkin Bread and Apple Bread.—These are very good for a variety. Stew and strain pumpkins or apples, and then work in either corn-meal or unbolted flour, or both. To each quart of the fruit add two table-spoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a cup of home-brewed yeast. If the apples are quite sour, add more sugar. Make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon, and bake in patties or small loaves. Children like it for a change.
Corn-Meal Bread.—Always scald corn-meal. Melt two table-spoonfuls of butter or sweet lard in one quart of hot water; add a tea-spoonful of salt and a tea-cup of sugar. Thicken with corn-meal, and one-third as much fine flour, or unbolted flour, or middlings. Two well-beaten eggs improve it. Make it as stiff as can be easily stirred with a spoon, or, as some would advise, knead it like bread of white flour.
If raised with yeast, put in a tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much of distillery. If raised with powders, mix two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar thoroughly with the meal, and one tea-spoonful of soda in the water.
Sweet Rolls of Corn-Meal.—Mix half corn-meal and half fine or unbolted flour; add a little salt, and then wet it up with sweetened water, raise it with yeast, and bake in small patties or cups in a very quick oven.
Soda Biscuit.—In one quart of flour mix very thoroughly two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Dissolve in a pint of warm water one tea-spoonful of soda and one table-spoonful of melted butter or lard. Mix quickly; add flour till you can roll, but let it be as soft as possible. Bake in a quick oven, and as soon as possible after mixing.
Yeast Biscuit.—Take a pint of raised dough of fine flour: pick it in small pieces; add one well-beaten egg, two great-spoonfuls of butter or lard, and two great-spoonfuls of sugar. Work thoroughly for ten minutes; add flour to roll, and then cut in round cakes and bake on tins, or mold into biscuits. Let them stand till light, and then bake in a quick oven.
If you have no dough raised, make biscuit as you would bread, except adding more shortening.
Potato Biscuit.—Boil and press through a colander twelve mealy potatoes; any others are not good. While warm, add one cup of butter, one tea-spoonful of salt, four great-spoonfuls of sugar, and half a cup of yeast. Mix in white or coarse flour till it can be well kneaded. Mold into small cakes; let them stand till light, and bake in a quick oven. These are the best kind, especially if made of coarse flour.
Buns.—These are best made by the rule for potato biscuit, adding twice as much sugar. When done, rub over a mixture of half milk and half molasses, and it improves looks and taste.
CHAPTER XIV.
BREAKFAST AND SUPPER.
What shall we have for breakfast to-morrow? is the constant question of trial to a housekeeper, and it is the aim of the present chapter to meet this want by presenting a good and successive variety of articles healthful, economical, and easily prepared.
Some of the best housekeepers have taken this method: they provide a good supply of the following articles, to be used in succession—rice, corn-meal, rye flour, wheat grits, unbolted wheat, cracked wheat, pearl wheat, oat grits, Oat-meal, and hominy, with which they make a new article for every day in the week. Some one of these is selected for either a dinner vegetable or dessert, or for a dish at tea, and the remainder used for the next morning’s breakfast.
The following will indicate the methods:
Corn-Meal.—Take four large cups of corn-meal, and scald it. In all cases, scald corn-meal before using it. Add half a cup of fine flour, three table-spoonfuls of sugar or molasses, one tea-spoonful of soda, and one of salt. Make a batter, and boil an hour or more, stirring often; or, better, cook in a tin pail set in boiling water. Use it as mush, with butter, sugar, and milk for supper. Next morning, thin it with hot water: add two or three eggs, and bake either as muffins or griddle-cakes.
Hominy.—Soak and then boil a quart of hominy with two heaping tea-spoonfuls of salt. Use it for dinner as a vegetable, or for supper with sugar and milk or cream. Next morning use the remainder, soaked in water or milk, with two eggs and a salt-spoonful of salt. Bake as muffins or griddle-cakes, or cut in slices, dipped in flour and fried. Farina may be used in the same way.
Rice.—Pick over one pint of rice; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt and three quarts of boiling water. Then boil fifteen minutes; then uncover; let it steam fifteen minutes. This to be used for a vegetable at dinner, or for a tea-dish, with butter and sugar. At night, soak the remainder in as much milk or water, and next morning add as much fine or unbolted flour as there was rice, three eggs, a tea-spoonful of salt, and half a tea-spoonful of soda. Thin with water or milk, and bake as muffins or griddle-cakes.
The most economical Breakfast Dish, (healthful also).—Keep a jar for remnants of bread, both coarse and fine, for potatoes, remnants of hominy, rice, grits, cracked wheat, Oat-meal, and all other articles used on table. Add all remnants of milk, whether sour or sweet, and water enough to soak all, so as to be soft, but not thin. When enough is collected, add enough water to make a batter for griddle-cakes, and put in enough soda to sweeten it. Add two spoonfuls of sugar, and half a tea-spoonful of salt, and two eggs for each quart, and you make an excellent dish of material, most of it usually wasted. Thicken it a little with fine flour, and it makes fine waffles.
Biscuits of sour Milk and white or unbolted Flour.—One pint unbolted flour.
One spoonful of sugar.
One tea-spoonful of salt.
Melt a spoonful of butter in a little of the sour milk; then mix all, and just before setting in the oven, add very quickly and very thoroughly a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in half a tea-cup of water. This should be done last and quickly, so that the carbonic acid gas produced by the union of the soda and the acid of the milk (lactic) may not escape. Use half a tea-cup of fine flour when molding into biscuits.
Pearl Wheat or Cracked Wheat.—Boil one pint in a pail set in boiling water till quite soft, but so as not to lose its form. Add a tea-spoonful of sugar, and as much salt; also water, when needed. It must boil a long time. Eat a part for supper, with sugar and cream, and next morning add two eggs, a great-spoonful of sugar, and fine flour enough to make it suitable for muffin-rings or drop-cakes.
Rye and Corn-Meal.—Put into a pint and