Readings. 293
monly, throughout the South, baked on round griddles heated and set on top of the stove. In the backwoods of Missouri, a quarter of a century ago, the general mode of cooking cornbread was to empty the mixture of corn-meal and water, with a little salt, into a large, heavy cast-iron frying- pan (the ' skillet ' of the South and West, the ' spider ' of New England) which for this use was provided with a cast-iron lid. The coals and ashes of the fire-place were then scraped aside, and the covered skillet was placed on the heated bricks where they had lain. Hot coals and ashes were then heaped on the skillet, and it was left so covered until its contents were judged to be sufficiently baked. Cornbread made in this way was some- times fairly good, but it lacked the crisp browned surface and the flavor of the pone or hoe-cake baked by exposure to the direct radiation from an open fire.
"Wheaten griddle cakes of a kind very common in Northern Ohio thirty years and more ago and still in somewhat general use are called 'flannel cakes.' The ingredients are about the same, I think, as for waffles, but the cakes are baked on a hot griddle on top of the stove. The yolks of many eggs are beaten into the thin batter of flour and sour milk, while the whites of the eggs, after being beaten to a stiff froth are not stirred in until the moment before the cooking begins. The batter is of course lightened with either soda or saleratus, and the beaten white of the eggs puffs up as the cakes quickly cook. Possibly it is these light soft lumps, scattered through the cakes, that gave the name of 'flannel' to them. I have often seen a tall stack of these thin cakes each one buttered and sprinkled with sugar as it was put in place, served as a company dish for supper. Usu- ally, however, they are made for breakfast, and are brought on to the table hot, a few at a time, fresh from the griddle. In one rural household I recall how oftentimes a kind old domestic would tempt the appetite of a child who was not hungry by saying, ' let me bake you dollar-coke.' Then she would return to the kitchen and soon reappear with a tiny cake, really of about the dimensions of a silver dollar.
" In our own family I remember a sort of a fritter which we often had as a breakfast dish. The original name, I believe, had been ' lengthened eggs.' The recipe had been obtained either from some almanac or farmer's paper. Some one had misunderstood the name, and had quoted it as • linkum davies,' and forever after the dish was known in the family and among relatives and neighbors by that name. The fritters were made by beating together eggs, sweet milk, and flour into a thin batter. The batter was seasoned with salt, then it was fried, a spoonful at a time, in a deep skillet of hot lard. I have often wondered whether the recipe survives else- where under the local name which arose by accident.
" Here is an Ohio recipe for a kind of fried cakes known as wafers. ' Beat well three eggs. Add a pinch of salt and knead with flour into a stiff dough. Take a little bit of the dough, a piece perhaps the size of a hickory nut, roll this very thin and fry in hot lard just as one fries dough- nuts. As each cake or wafer is lifted from the kettle of fat powdered su°-ar should be sifted over it.' Usually these thin, round cakes are piled
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