The household cook book

A Substitute for Maple Syrup. — Take 2 cups light brown sugar and 1 cup of water and boil until a nice thick syrup; then flavor with a teaspoon of vanilla, when nearly cold. Nice with griddle cakes and hot biscuits. Use other flavoring if desired. ImitatioQ Maple Syrup — Boil clean corn cobs in water; then remove the cobs, add light brown sugar and boil to a nice, thick syrup. One can hardly tell it from genuine maple syrup. The cobs give the maple flavor. The syrup is delicious. Try it. Caramel Syrup, a recipe for preparing which we give among our "Pudding Sauces," is fine with griddle cakes.. It is said that a common iron griddle, ground down smooth on a grindstone and then polished with fine sand paper on a flat piece of wood, is superior to a soapstone griddle, and can be used without grease. If buckwheat batter has a small spoonful of molasses added to it each morning, it will give the cakes a fine brown color. Grease the griddle evenly, and do not leave pools of fat to burn and taint the cakes. Turn the griddle often, to keep it evenly heated on all sides; have it hot enough, so the mixture hisses or sizzles as it touches it. Do not turn the griddle cakes more than once, as that will make them heavy. APPLE GRIDDLE CAKES.— Put 1 cup finely-chopped apple in 1 quart of any griddle cake batter; distribute it evenly by stirring with the spoon every time a spoonful is taken out. BUCKWHEAT CAKES.— Use 1 quart buckwheat flour, 1 cup cornmeal, 1 tablespoon salt, 4 tablespoons yeast, 1 tablespoon molasses (not syrup); mix with warm water enough to make a thin 284 GRIDDLE CAKES batter, and let rise over night in a warm place. If the batter is the least bit sour in the morning, a little soda should be ddded, and if not sour, a very little soda will make them more light and tender. QUICK BUCKWHEAT CAKES — To 2 cups of buckwheat flour, add 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon brown sugar (or New Orleans molasses instead); when ready to bake, add 2 cups cold water, or enough to make a batter, stirring as little as possible after it is stirred smooth. Wheat flour, cornmeal, or graham flour, may be added, if desired. CORNMEAL GRIDDLE CAKES.— Use 1 pint cornmeal, 1 pint sour milk and 1 teaspoon soda in the milk, stirred until it foams, 2 eggs beaten until light, salt to taste; have the griddle hot and well greased. About 1 tablespoon of wheat flour added to the cornmeal is an improvement. Cornmeal Griddle Cakes No. 2 — Use 1 cup sweet milk, or cold water, 1 egg, 2 cups yellow cornmeal, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking powder. Strawberries and Griddle Cakes. — If you want a delightful dish, use hot cornmeal griddle cakes, strawberries, sugar and cream, and combine them sandwich fashion. STALE BREAD GRIDDLE CAKES.— Soak 2 cups stale bread crumbs for 1 hour in 1 quart of milk which has been made boiling hot to pour over them; beat 2 eggs till light, yolks and whites separate; into the soaked l?reacl=batter put first the beaten yolks, then 3 ounces flour, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 scant teaspoon salt; beat thoroughly, and then stir in very lightly 2 teaspoons baking powder and the beaten whites. Grease the griddle, and bake quickly in small cakes. These are about the lightest and most digestible griddle cakes that are made.