Make the milk quite warm, and then put into it the yeast and salt, stirring them well. Beat the eggs, and stir them into the mixture. Then, gradually stir in the flour and indian meal.
Cover the batter, and set it to rise four or five hours. Or if the weather is cold, and you want the cakes for breakfast, you may mix the batter late the night before.
Should you find it sour in the morning, dissolve a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in as much water as will cover it, and stir it into the batter, letting it set afterwards at least half an hour. This will take off the acid.
Grease your baking-iron, and pour on it a ladle-full of the batter. When brown on one side, turn the cake on the other. [Footnote: Indian batter cakes may be made in a plain and expeditious way, by putting three pints of cold water or cold milk into a pan, and gradually sifting into it (stirring all the time) a quart of indian meal mixed with half a pint of wheat-flour, and a small spoonful of salt. Stir it very hard, and it may be baked immediately, as it is not necessary to set it to rise.]
FLANNEL CAKES OR CRUMPETS.
Two pounds of flour, sifted. Four eggs. Three table-spoonfuls of the best brewer's yeast, or four and a half of home-made yeast. A pint of milk.
Mix a tea-spoonful of salt with the flour, and set the pan before the fire. Then warm the milk, and stir into it the flour so as to make a stiff batter. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the yeast. Add the eggs and yeast to the batter, and beat all well together. If it is too stiff, add a little more warm milk.
Cover the pan closely and set it to rise near the fire. Bake it, when quite light.
Have your baking-iron hot. Grease it, and pour on a ladle-full of batter. Let it bake slowly, and when done on one side, turn it on the other.
Butter the cakes, cut them across, and send them to table hot.
ROLLS.
Three pints of flour, sifted. Two tea-spoonfuls of salt. Four table-spoonfuls of the best brewer's yeast, or six of home-made yeast. Half a pint more of warm water, and a little more flour to mix in before the kneading.
Mix the salt with the flour, and make a deep hole in the middle. Stir the warm water into the yeast, and pour it into the hole in the flour. Stir it with a spoon just enough to make a thin batter, and sprinkle some flour over the top. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place for several hours.
When it is light, add half a pint more of lukewarm water; and make its with a little more flour, into a dough. Knead it very well for ten minutes. Then divide it into small pieces, and knead each separately. Make them into round cakes or rolls. Cover them, and set them to rise about an hour and a half.
Bake them, and when done, let them remain in the oven, without the lid, for about ten minutes.
PART THE THIRD
SWEETMEATS.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS.
In preparing sugar for sweetmeats, let it be entirely dissolved, before you put it on the fire. If you dissolve it in water, allow about half a pint of water to a pound of sugar.
If you boil the sugar before you add the fruit to it, it will be improved in clearness by passing it through a flannel bag. Skim off the brown scum, all the time it is boiling.
If sweetmeats are boiled too long, they lose their flavour and become of a dark colour.
If boiled too short a time, they will not keep well.
You may ascertain when jelly is done, by dropping a small spoonful into a glass of water.
If it spreads and mixes with the water, it requires more boiling. If it sticks in a lump to the bottom, it is sufficiently done. This trial must be made after the jelly is cold.
Raspberry jelly requires more boiling than any other sort. Black currant jelly less.
APPLE JELLY.
Take the best pippin, or bell-flower apples. No others will make good jelly. Pare, core, and quarter them. Lay them in a preserving kettle, and put to them as much water only, as will cover them, and as much lemon-peel as you choose.