The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887), Hugo Ziemann [world of reading .TXT] 📗

GRAFTON MILK BISCUITS.

Boil and mash two white potatoes; add two teaspoonfuls of brown sugar; pour boiling water over these, enough to soften them. When tepid, add one small teacupful of yeast; when light, warm three ounces of butter in one pint of milk, a little salt, a third of a teaspoonful of soda and flour enough to make stiff sponge; when risen, work it on the board, put it back in the tray to rise again; when risen, roll into cakes and let them stand half an hour. Bake in a quick oven. These biscuits are fine.

SALLY LUNN.

Warm one-half cupful of butter in a pint of milk; add a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of sugar, and seven cupfuls of sifted flour; beat thoroughly and when the mixture is blood warm, add four beaten eggs and last of all, half a cup of good lively yeast. Beat hard until the batter breaks in blisters. Set it to rise over night. In the morning, dissolve half a teaspoonful of soda, stir it into the batter and turn it into a well-buttered, shallow dish to rise again about fifteen or twenty minutes. Bake about fifteen to twenty minutes.

The cake should be torn apart, not cut; cutting with a knife makes warm bread heavy. Bake a light brown. This cake is frequently seen on Southern tables.

SALLY LUNN. (Unfermented.)

Rub a piece of butter as large as an egg into a quart of flour; add a tumbler of milk, two eggs, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, three tablespoonfuls of baking powder and a teaspoonful of salt. Scatter the baking powder, salt and sugar into the flour; add the eggs, the butter, melted, the milk. Stir all together and bake in well-greased round pans. Eat warm with butter.

LONDON HOT-CROSS BUNS.

Three cups of milk, one cup of yeast, or one cake of compressed yeast dissolved in a cup of tepid water, and flour enough to make a thick batter; set this as a sponge over night. In the morning add half a cup of melted butter, one cup of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, one saltspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of soda, and flour enough to roll out like biscuit. Knead well and set to rise for five hours. Roll the dough half an inch thick; cut in round cakes and lay in rows in a buttered baking-pan, and let the cakes stand half an hour, or until light; then put them in the oven, having first made a deep cross on each with a knife. Bake a light brown and brush over with white of egg beaten stiff with powdered sugar.

RUSKS, WITH YEAST.

In one large coffeecup of warm milk dissolve half a cake of compressed yeast, or three tablespoonfuls of home-made yeast; to this add three well-beaten eggs, a small cup of sugar and a teaspoonful of salt; beat these together. Use flour enough to make a smooth, light dough, let it stand until very light, then knead it in the form of biscuits; place them on buttered tins and let them rise until they are almost up to the edge of the tins; pierce the top of each one and bake in a quick oven. Glaze the top of each with sugar and milk, or the white of an egg, before baking. Some add dried currants, well-washed and dried in the oven.

RUSKS.

Two cups of raised dough, one of sugar, half a cup of butter, two well-beaten eggs, flour enough to make a stiff dough; set to rise, and when light mold into high biscuit and let rise again; rub damp sugar and cinnamon over the top and place in the oven. Bake about twenty minutes.

RUSKS. (Unfermented.)

Three cups of flour sifted, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one teaspoonful of salt, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter, three eggs, half a nutmeg grated and a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, two small cups of milk; sift together salt, flour, sugar and baking powder; rub in the butter cold; add the milk, beaten eggs and spices; mix into a soft dough, break off pieces about as large as an egg, roll them under the hands into round balls, rub the tops with sugar and water mixed, and then sprinkle dry sugar over them. Bake immediately.

SCOTCH SCONES.

Thoroughly mix, while dry, one quart of sifted flour, loosely measured, with two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder; then rub into it a tablespoonful of cold butter and a teaspoonful of salt. Be sure that the butter is well worked in. Add sweet milk enough to make a very soft paste. Roll out the paste about a quarter of an inch thick, using plenty of flour on the paste-board and rolling pin. Cut it into triangular pieces, each side about four inches long. Flour the sides and bottom of a biscuit tin, and place the pieces on it. Bake immediately in a quick oven from twenty to thirty minutes. When half done, brush over with sweet milk. Some cooks prefer to bake them on a floured griddle, and cut them a round shape the size of a saucer, then scarred across to form four quarters.

CRACKNELS.

Two cups of rich milk, four tablespoonfuls of butter and a gill of yeast, a teaspoonful of salt; mix warm, add flour enough to make a light dough. When light, roll thin and cut in long pieces three inches wide, prick well with a fork and bake in a slow oven. They are to be mixed rather hard and rolled very thin, like soda crackers.

RAISED MUFFINS. No. 1.

Make a batter of one pint of sweet milk, one teaspoonful of sugar, one of salt, a tablespoonful of butter or sweet lard and a half cup of yeast; add flour enough to make it moderately thick; keep it in a warm, not hot, place until it is quite light, then stir in one or two well-beaten eggs, and half a teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little warm water. Let the batter stand twenty-five or thirty minutes longer to rise a little, turn into well-greased muffin-rings or gem-pans, and bake in a quick oven.

To be served hot and torn open, instead of cut with a knife.

RAISED MUFFINS. No. 2.

Three pints of flour, three eggs, a piece of butter the size of an egg, two heaping teaspoonfuls of white sugar, one-half cake of compressed yeast and a quart of milk; warm the milk with the butter in it; cool a little, stir in the sugar and add a little salt; stir this gradually into the flour, then add the eggs well beaten; dissolve the yeast in half a cup of lukewarm water and add to the other ingredients; if the muffins are wanted for luncheon, mix them about eight o'clock in the morning; if for breakfast, set them at ten o'clock at night; when ready for baking, stir in half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a teaspoonful of hot water; butter the muffin-rings or gem-irons and bake in a quick oven.

EGG MUFFINS. (Fine.)

One quart of flour, sifted twice; three eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately, three teacups of sweet milk, a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of sugar, a large tablespoonful of lard or butter and two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder; rub in the lard cold, add the beaten eggs and milk; mix quickly into a smooth batter, a little firmer than for griddle-cakes. Grease well some muffin-pans and fill them two-thirds full. Bake in a hot oven fifteen or twenty minutes. These made of cream, omitting the butter, are excellent.

PLAIN MUFFINS.

One egg well beaten, a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of sugar, with a teaspoonful of salt, all beaten until very light. One cup of milk, three of sifted flour and three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. One-half Graham and one-half rye meal may be used instead of wheat flour, or two cups of corn meal and one of flour.

Drop on well-greased patty-pans and bake twenty minutes in a rather quick oven, or bake on a griddle in muffin-rings.

MUFFINS WITHOUT EGGS.

One quart of buttermilk, a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in the milk, a little salt, and flour enough to make a stiff batter. Drop in hot gem-pans and bake in a quick oven. Two or three tablespoonfuls of sour cream will make them a little richer.

TENNESSEE MUFFINS.

One pint of corn meal, one pint of flour, one tablespoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, three of baking powder, one tablespoonful of lard or butter, two eggs and a pint of milk. Sift together corn meal, flour, sugar, salt and powder; rub in lard or butter cold, and eggs beaten and milk; mix into batter of consistency of cup-cake; muffin-rings to be cold and well greased, then fill two-thirds full. Bake in hot oven fifteen minutes.

CORN MEAL MUFFINS. (Without Eggs.)

One cup of flour, one cup of corn meal, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, water to make a thick batter, or sour milk is better; mix at night; in the morning add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and one teaspoonful of soda; bake in cake rounds.

HOMINY MUFFINS.

Two cups of boiled hominy; beat it smooth, stir in three cups of sour milk, half a cup of melted butter, two teaspoonfuls of salt, two tablespoonfuls of sugar; add three eggs well beaten, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in hot water, two cups of flour. Bake quickly.

Rice muffins may be made in the same manner.

GRAHAM GEMS. No. 1.

Two cupfuls of Graham flour, one cupful of wheat flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a tablespoonful of sugar, one of salt and one well-beaten egg.

Mix with sweet milk to make a thin batter; beat it well. Bake in gem-irons; have the irons well greased; fill two-thirds full and bake in a hot oven. Will bake in from fifteen to twenty minutes.

GRAHAM GEMS. No. 2.

Three cups of sour milk, one teaspoonful of soda, one of salt, one tablespoonful of brown sugar, one of melted lard or butter, one or two beaten eggs; to the egg add the milk, then the sugar and salt, then the Graham flour (with the soda mixed in), together with the lard or butter; make a stiff batter, so that it will drop, not pour, from the spoon. Have the gem-pans very hot, fill and bake fifteen minutes in a