Things Mother Used to Make/Breads

by Lydia Maria Gurney

THINGS MOTHER USED TO MAKE

BREADS

Bannocks

• 1 Cupful of Thick Sour Milk
• ½ Cupful of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 2 Cupfuls of Flour
• ½ Cupful of Indian Meal
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• A pinch of Salt

Make the mixture stiff enough to drop from a spoon. Drop mixture, size of a walnut, into boiling fat. Serve warm, with maple syrup.

Boston Brown Bread

• 1 Cupful of Rye Meal
• 1 Cupful of Graham Meal
• ½ Cupful of Flour
• 1 Cupful of Indian Meal
• 1 Cupful of Sweet Milk
• 1 Cupful of Sour Milk
• 1 Cupful of Molasses
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Heaping Teaspoonful of Soda

Stir the meals and salt together. Beat the soda into the molasses until it foams; add sour milk, mix all together and pour into a tin pail which has been well greased, if you have no brown-bread steamer. Set the pail into a kettle of boiling water and steam three or four hours, keeping it tightly covered.

Brown Bread (Baked)

• 1 Cupful of Indian Meal
• 1 Cupful of Rye Meal
• ½ Cupful of Flour
• 1 Cupful of Molasses (scant)
• 1 Cupful of Milk or Water
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda

Put the meals and flour together. Stir soda into molasses until it foams. Add salt and milk or water. Mix all together. Bake in a tin pail with cover on for two and a half hours.

Coffee Cakes

When your dough for yeast bread is risen light and fluffy, cut off small pieces and roll as big as your finger, four inches long. Fold and twist to two inches long and fry in deep fat. Serve hot with coffee.

Corn Meal Gems

• 2 Cupfuls of Flour
• 1 Cupful of Corn Meal (bolted is best)
• 2 Cupfuls of Milk
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Baking Soda
• 1 Egg
• ½ Cupful of Sugar
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt

Stir the flour and meal together, adding cream of tartar, soda, salt and sugar. Beat the egg, add the milk to it, and stir into the other ingredients. Bake in a gem-pan twenty minutes.

Cream of Tartar Biscuits

• 1 Pint of Flour
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Tablespoonful of Lard

Stir cream of tartar, soda, salt and lard into the flour; mix with milk or water, handling as little as possible. Roll and cut into rounds. Baking-powder can be used in place of soda and cream of tartar.

Crullers

Use the recipe for doughnuts, adding one egg and a little more butter. Roll a small piece of the dough to the size of your finger, and eight inches long, double it, and twist the two rolls together. Fry in boiling fat.

Delicious Dip Toast

Cut slices of bread, one-half inch thick; toast each side to a delicate brown. Dip these into hot, salted milk, letting them remain until soft. Lay them on a platter and spread a little butter over each slice. Take one quart of milk more or less according to size of family; heat in a double boiler, salt to taste. Wet two tablespoonfuls of flour with a little water; stir until smooth, and pour into the milk when boiling. Make this of the consistency of rich cream; add a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and pour over the toasted bread. Serve hot.

Doughnuts

• 1 Egg
• 1 Cupful of Milk
• 1 and ⅓ Cupfuls of Sugar
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• Piece of Butter the Size of a Walnut
• ¼ Teaspoonful of Cinnamon or Nutmeg
• Salt, and Flour enough to roll soft

Beat the egg and sugar together and add the milk and butter. Stir the soda and cream of tartar into the flour, dry; mix all together, with the flour and salt. Cut into rings and fry in deep fat. Lay them on brown paper when you take them from the fat.

Fried Bread

After frying pork or bacon, put into the fat slices of stale bread. As it fries, pour over each slice a little milk or water and salt to taste, turn and fry on the opposite side. This is a very appetizing dish.

German Toast

• 1 Cupful of Milk
• 1 Egg
• Pinch of Salt
• 4 or 5 Slices of Bread

Beat together one egg, one cupful of milk, and a little salt. Dip slices of stale bread into this mixture, and fry on a griddle in butter or pork fat. Serve hot with butter and maple syrups.

Soft Gingerbread

• 1 Cupful of Molasses
• 1 Cupful of Sour Milk
• ½ Cupful of Butter or Lard
• 1 Teaspoonful of Ginger
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt

Stir the soda into the molasses until it foams, add sour milk, ginger, salt and melted butter. Last of all, add flour enough for quite a stiff batter, and bake. This makes one sheet.

Huckleberry Cake

Pick over and wash and flour well one cupful of fresh huckleberries. Add these to the batter for soft gingerbread. Serve hot, with butter.

Quick Graham Bread

• 1 Pint of Graham Meal
• ½ Cupful of Molasses
• 1 Cupful of Sour Milk
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt

Stir soda into the molasses, add sour milk and salt; add all to the meal, beating well. Sweet milk will do with a little less soda. Bake thirty minutes, or according to heat of the oven. A moderate oven is best.

Graham Bread (raised over night)

• 3 Cupfuls of Flour
• 3 Cupfuls of Graham Meal
• 3 Tablespoonfuls of Sugar
• 1 Tablespoonful of Lard
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Yeast Cake

Mix flour and meal together and rub in lard, sugar and salt. Add yeast cake which has been dissolved in one-half cup of cold water. Mix with warm water at night. Set in a warm place to rise. In the morning stir and let rise to twice its bulk. Knead and put in baking pans. Raise again and bake forty-five minutes.

Graham Muffins

• 1 Pint of Graham Flour
• ½ Cupful of Molasses
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• ½ Pint of White Flour
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda

Put the salt into the flour and soda into the molasses. Stir all together and mix with milk or water. Drop into muffin tins and bake twenty minutes.

Sour Milk Griddle Cakes

• 2 Cupfuls of Sour Milk
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt

Stir the soda and salt into the milk and add flour enough to make thin batter. Fry on a well-greased griddle. One spoonful for each cake. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes

• 1 Egg
• 1 Pint of Sweet Milk
• 2 Level Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Level Teaspoonful of Soda
• Pinch of Salt
• Flour enough for thin batter

Mix soda and cream of tartar with flour. Beat the egg, add milk and stir into flour. Fry in small cakes on a griddle.

Jenny Lind Tea Cake

• 3 Cupfuls of Flour
• ½ Cupful of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• 1 Tablespoonful of Melted Butter
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar

Stir salt, soda and cream of tartar into the dry flour. Beat the egg, add sugar and butter, stir into the flour and mix with enough milk to make batter as thick as a cake. Bake in a moderate oven. To be eaten hot with butter.

Real Johnny Cake

• 2 Cupfuls of Flour
• 1 Cupful of Yellow Meal
• 4 Tablespoonfuls of Sugar
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Teaspoonful of Cream of Tartar
• ½ Teaspoonful of Soda
• or,
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Baking-powder

Add enough milk or water to make a thin batter, and bake.

New England Buns

• 1 Cupful of Milk
• 1 and ⅓ Cupfuls of Sugar
• ⅔ Cupful of Butter or Lard
• ½ Cupful of Currants
• 1 Teaspoonful of Extract of Lemon
• ¼ Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Yeast Cake
• Flour enough for Soft Dough

Dissolve the yeast in a half-cupful of cold water. Scald the milk and, when nearly cold, add the yeast, half the sugar, and flour enough to make a thin batter; let it rise to twice its bulk. When light and foamy, add the rest of the ingredients; sprinkle a little flour over the currants, stir the soda into the flour, using flour enough to make stiff dough. Set again, then roll, cut with a cooky-cutter, about an inch thick, and let rise again. Bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes. Mix in the morning, if wanted for the evening meal. When done, brush over the top, while warm, with equal parts of milk and molasses.

Nut Bread

• 2½ Cupfuls of Flour
• 3 Teaspoonfuls of Baking-powder
• ¼ Teaspoonful of Salt
• ½ Cupful of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 Cupful of Milk
• ¾ Cupful of English Walnut Meats, chopped fine

Beat egg and sugar together, then add milk and salt. Sift the baking-powder into the dry flour, and put all the ingredients together. Add the nuts last, covering with a little flour, to prevent falling, and bake in a moderate oven one hour.

Oatmeal Bread

• 2 Cupfuls of Rolled Oats
• 3½ Cupfuls of Boiling Water
• ½ Cupful of Molasses
• 1 Yeast Cake
• Pinch of Salt

Let the rolled oats and boiling water stand until cool, then add the molasses, salt, and yeast cake which has been dissolved in cold water. Stir in flour enough to make a stiff dough. Let it rise over night. In the morning, stir it down and let it rise again. Mold into loaves and let rise again.

Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

This will make three small loaves.

Parker House Rolls

• 1 Quart of Flour
• 1 Tablespoonful of Lard
• 3 Tablespoonfuls of Sugar
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• ½ Pint of Milk
• 1 Yeast Cake

Scald the milk. When nearly cold add the yeast cake which has been dissolved in one-half cup of cold water. Rub into the flour, the lard, sugar and salt. Stir all together with a knife and knead. Let rise to twice its bulk and knead. Let rise again and knead. Roll half an inch thick, cut into rounds, spread with butter and double over. Rise again, bake twenty minutes in a hot oven. Mix at ten o’clock in the morning if wanted for supper, a little earlier in cold weather.

Popovers

• 1 Egg
• 1 Cupful of Milk
• 1 Cupful of Flour

Beat the egg, and stir flour and milk in slowly, a little flour, then a little milk. Salt a little. This will make a very thin batter. Drop into well-buttered muffin pan, bake in a very hot oven and serve with hot sauce for a pudding, or eat with butter.

Rye Muffins

• 2 Cupfuls of Flour
• 1 Cupful of Rye Meal
• 3 Tablespoonfuls of Sugar
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• ⅓ Cupful of Yeast or
• 1 Yeast Cake dissolved in Water

Mix with warm water at night. In the morning add one-quarter teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in two tablespoonfuls of boiling water; stir well. Bake in a gem-pan for twenty or thirty minutes.

Breakfast Sally Lunn

• 1 Egg
• 1 Quart of Flour
• Piece of Butter the size of an Egg
• 4 Tablespoonfuls of Sugar
• 2 Teacupfuls of Milk
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• A little Salt

Mix salt, sugar, cream of tartar and soda, with the flour. Beat the egg, stir into it the melted butter and milk. Stir all together and bake in a muffin pan, fifteen or twenty minutes.

Sour Milk Biscuits

• 1 Pint of Flour
• 1 Teaspoonful of Lard
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Cupful of Sour Milk

Put lard and salt into the flour and soda with the sour milk. Mix together, roll thin and cut into rounds. Bake twenty minutes.

Spider Cake

• 2 Cupfuls of Bread Flour
• ⅓ Cupful of Lard
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Soda
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt

Put the soda, salt and cream of tartar into the dry flour. Rub in the lard and mix with water into a soft dough. Roll to the size of the spider or griddle. When the spider is hot and well greased with lard, lay on the cake and cover. Bake ten minutes on one side, then ten on the other. This can be made quickly without waiting for the oven to heat. Serve hot with butter.

White Bread

• 3 Cupfuls of Flour
• 3 Teaspoonfuls of Sugar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Lard
• 1 Pinch of Salt
• ½ Yeast Cake

Rub sugar, salt and lard into the flour. Dissolve the yeast in half a cupful of cold water. Put all together and mix to a stiff dough with milk or water, at night. In the morning, push it down and let rise again. Then knead and place in a pan. Let it rise to twice its bulk and bake thirty minutes.