Bread, cakes, and biscuits

Oatcake. — Mix lib. of medium oatmeal with four teaspoonfuls of dripping or lard, and a teaspoonful of salt, with just enough warm water to make a dough. Knead it till smooth ; then dust a board with dry oatmeal, press the dough out on this with the knuckles into a round cake, roll it out quite thin, bake it on a hot girdle till firm (first cutting it across twice into triangles), then lift them off, rub them over lightly with dry meal, and toast till crisp before the fire. When ready they will curl up. Heal oatcake should be made of meal and water only, but this is a little too Spartan for most tastes, hence the fat. The following hot cakes are A merican : Oatmeal Griddle Cakes. — Beat half a pint of milk into a pint of cold boiled oatmeal (porridge left over answers capitally), add half a teaspoonful of salt, the yolks of three eggs, and, lastly, half a pint of boiling water. Beat this well together, then sift in two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and the stiffly-whisked whites of an egg ; bake on a girdle or “griddle.” Rice Griddle Cakes. — Rub two breakfastcupfuls of cold boiled rice through a sieve, -work into it three well beaten eggs, then loz. of butter melted, and, lastly, a pint of milk and £lb. of flour ; beat this all to a smooth mass, mix in'. thoroughly two heaped teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and bake at once on a hot girdle. Stale Bread Girdle Cakes. — Soak a pint of stale breadcrumbs in a quart of milk for an hour, then beat it till smooth ; now beat into it, one by one, the well whisked yolks of two eggs, then work in a teaspoonful of salt and enough flour to make a thin batter, lastly add the stiffly whisked egg whites and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and bake quickly on a hot girdle. Hot Hoe Cakes. — Mix together half a teaspoonful of salt and a pint of cornmeal, then pour on this just enough boiling water to moisten it, and let it stand for ten minutes ; now add more boiling water, enough to make a batter that will drop (not pour) nicely from a spoon. Bake on a hot girdle or a “ hoe.” Serve hot with a piece of butter on each. Old Southern coloured cooks made the cakes on their “ hoes ” at a wooden fire, whence their name. Johnny Cakes. — Beat together three whole eggs till light, then add to them a pint of buttermilk, and lastly mix in a pint of Indian cornmeal, beating it well ; dissolve a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, and add this, with a teaspoonful of salt and two tablespoonfuls of liquified butter, to the cornmeal batter ; mix thoroughly, and pour it into a well buttered shallow baking tin (such as is used for Yorkshire pudding). Bake for thirty minutes in a fairly quick oven. In America a coarse hand-ground meal is used for this cake, but any coarsely ground corn meal will do. Mix together one pint of meal and a teaspoonful of salt, and make it to a stiff, smooth batter with boiling water. Now pour on sufficient cold milk to bring it to the consistency of sponge cake batter, and drop it in spoonfuls on a hot buttered girdle. When the underside is nicely coloured, turn the cakes and brown the other side. Serve hot and buttered. Maryland Cakes (also known as “Beaten Biscuit”). — Mix a teaspoonful of salt with a quart of flour, then rub