Sponge—
Add dissolved yeast and flour to warm milk, beat well, let rise.
When light—
Beat oil and sugar together with a little flour, add flavoring, salt and light sponge, gradually, beating; then enough flour fora moderately stiff dough; knead a little and let rise. When well risen, roll ½ or ¾ in. thick, cut with doughnut cutter and place on floured, oiled tins some distance apart. Let rise, bake.
Roll in sugar with or without ground coriander seed or chopped nuts before laying on tins, if desired, or moisten with sugar syrup or white of egg and water and roll in sugar after baking.
Another half-spoon of oil may be added to sponge, with 1 white and 2 yolks of eggs well beaten, but eggs are not necessary. If a yellow color is desired, use a little saffron. Mix softer when eggs are used.
Sponge—
When light—
Proceed as in baked doughnuts, lay on floured board, cover; when very light, fry in cooking or olive oil, hot enough for the cakes to rise to the top almost instantly. Turn at once with a fork. ⅓ of a cup of oil may be used in the cakes and 1 whole well beaten egg.
Our grandmothers’ twisted doughnuts are dear to all our hearts.
Sometimes roll the dough thin, cut with biscuit cutter and put a teaspoonful of some jelly or jam on one side, fold the other side over, having moistened the edges, press well together, fry when light, roll in sugar. Baked doughnuts may be prepared the same.
Mix, chill, roll thin, cut in strips 3½ in. long and 2 in. wade; cut 2 slits in each piece and give each strip of dough a twist.Fry in oil or bake in oven. When to be fried, use the smaller quantity of butter and sugar.
Crullers may have 4 incisions made lengthwise to within ⅓ of an in. of each end. To fry, take up the second and fourth strips and let the others separate in the middle from those in the hand as you drop them into the hot oil. For baking, it is better to twist the strips.
Add sugar and yolks of eggs to cold milk, agitate with wire batter whip until full of bubbles, sprinkle flour in gradually, keeping up the agitating motion. When the batter is quite stiff, beat in the oil gradually, and chop in the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Add flour for rather stiff dough and set in cold place for 2 hrs. or longer. Shape and fry the same as risen doughnuts.
Starch, which is changed into sugar in the process of digestion, and cane sugar, form so large a part of all cakes as to furnish in themselves an excess of that element; so why should we put a coating of almost solid sugar over the outside? Certainly not for hygienic reasons. If a cake is well baked, the icing only hides its beauty, and the excessive sweetness destroys the flavors of the finest cake. Let us not use it. Protest and recipes are both given.
Instead of icing, sometimes sift granulated, brown or powdered sugar over the top of the loaf of cake, or over one layer to be used for the top, before baking.
Glaze the top of molasses cookies or cakes before baking with a mixture of 1 yolk of egg and 2 tablespns. of milk.
Sprinkle half a cup of chopped or ground blanched almonds or other nuts over the top of the cake just before it goes intothe oven, and cover the cake until nearly done to prevent browning the nuts.
The tops of cakes may be brushed after baking with equal parts of molasses and milk mixed.
The simplest of icings is granulated, powdered or xxxx confectioner’s sugar formed into a paste so that it will run just smooth, by the addition of hot or cold water. That made from granulated sugar must be made with hot water and be pretty stiff. It takes longer to dry and is more likely to run; that from powdered sugar is also quite likely to run. The icing made from confectioner’s sugar is the most satisfactory. It is usually made with cold water, but one authority recommends hot water very positively.
One recipe for granulated sugar frosting is—
1 cup sugar, 1 tablespn. boiling water, beat until it will spread.
Stir rolled and sifted confectioner’s sugar into any desired fruit juice until of the right consistency to spread; use a knife dipped in cold water to smooth the icing; 1–1½ tablespn. of liquid will be enough for the top of a medium sized loaf of cake.
If you have never made such an icing, you will be surprised to see how much sugar a little liquid will take. More icing is quickly made if you do not have enough.
When juices of different fruits are used in their season, the top of the cake may be decorated with the fruit whole, in halves or in slices. For instance, slices from the heart of strawberries, or, halves of red raspberries. The fruit may also be placed between the layers of the cake.
Stir confectioner’s sugar into cream, plain or whipped, for both filling and icing.
If you have a little of these icings left over, cover it and setin a cold place, and add more liquid and sugar to it the next time.
Beat white of egg with water, flavoring and salt to a stiff dry froth; add sugar until of the right consistency to spread, if too stiff, add quickly 1 teaspn. of cream or a few drops of water.
The icing is sometimes made by mixing the water and egg without beating and stirring the sugar in, making a smoother and more tender frosting. May use powdered sugar.
Put the white of egg into a bowl and add the sugar by degrees, beating; when the sugar is all in, add lemon juice and vanilla.
Yolks of 2 or 3 eggs and powdered sugar to make stiff enough to spread, about 1 cupful for 3 yolks; vanilla or orange flavoring or both. Beat until thick and creamy.
For an orange cake, use the juice and grated rind of a small orange to 3 yolks with the powdered sugar, and use for filling and icing. Sections of orange may be laid on top. Confectioner’s sugar may be used.
Work together 1 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1 level tablespn. of butter. Flavor with vanilla. Add 1¼–1½ tablespn. of milk. Beat well.
Beat a glass of jelly, a little at a time, into the whites of 2 eggs. If the jelly is very tart, use 2–3 tablespns. powdered sugar. Prepare the icing some little time before it is to be used and seton ice. Elder-berry jelly gives a delightful flavor and beautiful color. Quince is also nice.
Stir sugar and water together over the fire until sugar is dissolved, then boil without stirring until the syrup will spin in threads when dropped from the tines of a fork, or until a hard ball is formed when dropped into cold water. Pour slowly over the stiffly-beaten white of egg, beating briskly, until stiff enough to spread. If the icing gets too stiff, set over hot water or thin with a trifle of lemon or other fruit juice, or hot water. ½–1 teaspn. of lemon juice added to the white of egg when about half beaten will make the icing more creamy. Some beat the white of egg slightly, only.
2 or 3 whites may be used with this quantity of syrup. One writes that she turns her syrup on to a platter and allows it to become perfectly cold before beating in the eggs, and she thinks it is much smoother and nicer.
One combination of flavors is, ¼ teaspn. each vanilla, orange and strawberry, or 1 or 2 drops of rose in place of strawberry.
Bro. Cornforth’s directions are excellent: “Boil the sugar and water till it threads well, not just till it begins to thread; then set the dish off the stove and cover tight while you beat the whites stiff; then pour the hot syrup in a small stream into the whites, beating continuously; beat till it becomes cool enough to spread on the cake.”
Boil 5 m., or until syrup stiffens in cold water; stir until thick enough to spread.
1½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup cream. Boil until syrup stiffens when dropped in water. Substitute ⅔ cup sour cream for sweet, with brown or granulated sugar.
Add ¾ cup sweet cream to 2 cups rolled or grated maple sugar. Boil slowly until mixture will thread. Cool about half, stir in ½ cup chopped English walnut meats, beat until creamy, and spread over cake.
Half granulated sugar may be used, and ½ cup of milk with a little butter substituted for the cream.
Boil ¾–1 cup of maple syrup until it will form a soft ball in cold water. Pour over beaten white of egg. Beat until stiff enough to spread. If desired, stir in ½ cup of rolled butternut meats just before spreading on the cake. The syrup may be boiled until it threads.
Flavored with vanilla is delightful, of course, on the top of thin loaves of cake cut in squares. Or, for filling, with chopped, blanched almonds, dry, fine-cut stewed prunes, or slices of banana.
Molasses cake baked in layers, with whipped cream between the layers and over the top, with or without a sprinkling of grated cocoanut, is considered a great treat in some households.
Two layers and on top of cake, with cocoanut sprinkled over top. Some additional flavoring if desired.
1 cup sweet cream, ½–¾ cup sugar and 1 cup rolled butternut meats, mixed without whipping cream. Flavoring if desired.
Before I gave up cake I used to think this filling had no equal:
Whip cream (ice-cold), sugar and vanilla together until just thick, taking care not to whip too long as sour cream turns to butter more easily than sweet; add the almonds, spreadquickly between layers of cake and roughly on top. The nuts may be sprinkled over the layers of cream instead of being mixed with it. The white of an egg beaten stiff with part of the sugar is sometimes added to the whipped cream. Shellbark, English walnut or rolled butternut meats may be substituted for almonds.
White of 1 large egg, 1½ cup granulated, powdered or confectioner’s sugar, 2 or 3 medium sized apples. Peel apples and grate on to unbeaten white of egg and sugar in large bowl; beat for 20 m.; or until light and creamy. Lemon, rose or strawberry may be used if flavoring is desired. Spread between layers and on top of cold cake. Bananas, peaches and other fruits rubbed through a fine colander may be used the same as apples.
Steamed quarters of apples may be used.
Spread under and upper sides of layers of warm cake with soft icing. Sprinkle tops with fresh grated cocoanut and put other layers on. Use plenty of icing on top of last layer and sprinkle well with cocoanut.
Stone and skin dates after boiling a moment, mash or grind them, and add water if necessary; spread between layers of cake. Cover the top of the cake with coffee icing with cream. Chopped nuts may be mixed with the dates and sprinkled over the top of the cake.
Chop fresh pineapple and sprinkle with sugar; drain after 3 or 4 hrs; add beaten whites of 2 eggs, ⅔ cup sugar and 1 teaspn. lemon juice to 1 cup of pineapple and place between layers. Use some of the juice with confectioner’s sugar for icing the top and sides of the cake. When using confectioner’s sugar with pineapple omit whites of eggs.
Drain canned pineapple very dry, chop and add lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar, when fresh pineapple is not obtainable.
Spread layers of cake with jelly and the following:
Filling—
Beat white stiff, add other ingredients and spread.
Add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla to strong cereal coffee, with or without a little heavy cream.
Boil to a jelly, stirring constantly, or cook in double boiler until thick.
Stew ½ lb. of prunes in a very little water, rub through colander or cut fine, add whites of 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth with 2 tablespns. of sugar.
Boil sugar and water till the syrup will form a soft ball in cold water; pour it into the stiffly-beaten white of egg, add nuts and raisins and spread while warm between the layers.
Raisins or nuts alone may be used. Shellbarks or butternuts are especially enjoyable. Figs or dates may be substituted for the raisins or for the nuts.
Mix sugar and flour dry, pour boiling milk over, boil up, turn over beaten eggs, stirring, return to fire and heat until creamy but do not boil; set dish at once into cold water, add flavoring.
Use ½ tablespn. less of flour for Washington Pie, and ¼ cream (or a small piece of butter) in the milk.
½ cup of flour is sometimes used. Add cocoanut for a cocoanut cake.
Flavor sugar withoil of orange, make cream according to directions for cream filling and add rose and vanilla when partly cool. Icing of cream and confectioner’s sugar, tinted with pink.
I have usually used this for Royal Sponge Cake and this quantity is sufficient for one large layer.
Mix sugar and corn starch or flour, drop the teaspoon of butter on and pour the boiling water over gradually, stirring; boil up well and add 2 or 3 tablespns. to the yolk of egg stirring; then add yolk to the mixture and cook like custard. Remove from fire and when partially cooled add flavoring. Use sometimesfor the filling of a cake with whipped cream on the top.
Cook in double boiler, cool, spread between layers of sponge or other cake or on crisp pastry, or put it into cream puff shells; or, without cooking put into pastry in patty pans and bake in moderate oven.
1 oz. (about 4 tablespns.) sifted powdered gum arabic, 4 tablespns. water, ½ cup sugar, whites 3 eggs, 1 teaspn. vanilla. Soak gum arabic in water for 1 hour, add sugar, cook in double boiler ½ hour, add stiffly-beaten whites of eggs and vanilla, beat until stiff and white.
Nice for 2 or 3-days old angel cake split in halves or thirds.
The “Lady Baltimore” Cake and Bread Pan.
The “Lady Baltimore” Cake and Bread Pan.
Neither very hot nor very cold foods should be taken at meals. If foods are too hot, the stomach is debilitated, and if they are very cold, vitality must be drawn from the system to warm them before the work of digestion can be carried on; so it would be better to take ice cream and all ices by themselves rather than as a dessert.
When ices are served for dessert, they should be eaten very slowly.
Water ices, sherbets and frozen fruits, without large quantities of sugar, are invaluable in cases of fever.
I am not going into the subject of ice cream exhaustively for there are plenty of books on that subject already, but will give you my own recipe which must be tried to be appreciated.
The little flour in it gives it a smoothness and creaminess with one third to one half milk equal to all cream without it; and does not give the disagreeable flavor of corn starch; also, made by this method, the cream and milk are sterilized.
Try the cream without any flavoring and see how delicious it is.
Use wet snow instead of ice for freezing in the winter. It works even better and is less trouble.
Beat the cream well with a wooden spoon after removing the dasher.
Add fruit or nuts to cream when removing the dasher, so that they will not become hard as they would do if frozen with the cream.
For freezing, have the ingredients cold. Have the ice very fine; the finer it is, the better the results. One-third as much rock salt should be at hand. The ice and salt may be mixed, or may be put around the freezer in the proportion of 3 inches of ice to 1 inch of salt.
First, adjust the freezer, having the mixture to be frozen in the can. Fill not over ⅔ full to allow for expansion. Then pack with the ice and salt, turning the handle around once in a while during the operation, to keep the mixture from freezing to the sides of the can. Have a stick to pound the ice and salt down well around the can.
Turn slowly at first to make a fine grain, then more rapidly as the cream thickens.
Before removing the cover to take out the dasher, scrape away the ice and salt and wipe off the water on the lid and near the top of the can, so that none can possibly get into the cream. Beat the cream and replace the cover, with a clean cork in the top. Drain off a part of the water and repack the can, using less salt than at first, sometimes not any, so as not to have the cream too hard. To be at its best, cream should be stiff enough only to hold its shape. Cover with paper, a blanket or carpet and let stand to “ripen” for 2 hours or longer. This part is important, as the flavor and texture are perfected only by standing.
If possible, open the can in an hour and a half and stir the cream so that the soft center comes to the edge of the can. Repack and cover the same and let stand for 2 or 3 hours.
Save the salt from the bottom of the freezer to use another time, and it is a good plan to save a little of the thick salt water to use instead of the last layer of salt near the top of the can for the next freezing, as it facilitates the work very much.
In serving, dip the spoon into hot water each time before putting it into the cream; this, with care, will give a nice shaped serving.
Pop corn without butter or salt is more suitable to serve with ice cream than cake.
Sugar syrup gives a finer, smoother and more substantial grain to frozen fruits, sherbets and water ices than sugar and water, and they do not melt as quickly when exposed to the air.
Pack all ices the same as creams and let stand the same after freezing, to become smooth and mellow.
For water ices, do not turn the crank continuously. Turn slowly and rest between, until the ice becomes quite stiff. This is the rule, but for a change the freezer may be turned rapidly and continuously, with a different result.
Stir sherbets constantly. Serve both sherbets and water ices in glasses.
Vegetable gelatine is an improvement to ices, giving body to them.
There is a great difference in freezers. Be sure to get a good one. The construction of the dasher has much to do with the texture of the cream. Those that freeze the quickest are not necessarily the best.
Do not buy a small freezer: you can freeze a small quantity in a large freezer, but you cannot freeze a large quantity in a small freezer.
Stir the flour smooth with some of the cold milk and heat the remainder of the milk, with the cream and sugar, in a double boiler and when hot, set over the fire. Let it boil up quickly, stir in the flour and when boiling all through, return to the double boiler for a few minutes, beating well. Or, heat the milk and cream only in the double boiler and pour gradually, stirring, over the sugar and flour which have been mixed together. Return to boiler and cook for 10–15 m. Turn through a fine wire strainer into a large pan to cool quickly; stir while cooling.
Do not take too large measures of flour.
Any kind of cream may be made from this. Flavor with vanilla for vanilla cream, or tint pink and flavor with ¾–1 teaspn. of strawberry extract for strawberry cream, or with a few drops of rose, for rose cream. Tint green and flavor withalmond and vanilla for pistachio cream, using only a few drops of almond to a teaspn. of vanilla. This may have a few shredded almonds stirred into the frozen cream.
Sometimes sprinkle fresh grated cocoanut over each serving of cream, or the cocoanut may be stirred in as other flavorings are.
A very pretty cream is one with citron and candied cherries cut into tiny pieces and added when the dasher is removed.
We make a fruit and nut cream which is liked very much, by adding well washed English currants, raisins cut in quarters, citron in small pieces and coarse chopped English walnuts or pecans. Omit the nuts for a fruit cream.
For coffee cream, steep (not boil) cereal coffee in milk for 10 to 20 m. Strain through a cloth and use as plain milk with the cream. Flavor with vanilla.
One quart of sweetened, crushed strawberries or raspberries added to the recipe makes the right proportion for fruit cream. Drained, finely-shredded or grated pineapple makes a general favorite in cream.
Soak and cook gelatine according to directions (p. 335), add water to make 1 cup, keep warm; cook sugar and 3 cups of water together for 5 minutes and strain into the gelatine. Prepare the lemon and orange juice, and if desired, shave off a little of the thin yellow rind and let it stand in the juice for a few minutes, then strain it out. When the gelatine mixture is partially cooled, add the juice gradually, stirring. The orange may be omitted.
Or, omit gelatine, boil sugar with 1 qt. of water and when cool combine with the juice.
Flavor juice with thin yellow rind of orange and proceed as in lemon ice, omitting gelatine if preferred.
Cook sugar and water together and add to prepared gelatine. When nearly cool, add raspberry juice and stir occasionally until cool. Freeze.
Proceed as in Raspberry Ice.
Use cherry, strawberry, quince, gooseberry, grape or pineapple for ices, varying the proportion of sugar and water according to the sweetness of the fruit. Pineapples should be grated and with the lemon juice added to cold syrup and strained through a sieve. Pineapple is one of the most delightful ices.
Add fine cut or chopped spearmint to lemon ice mixture just before freezing, or to orange ice for orange mint ice.
Flavor the sugar with oil of lemon if desired, and boil withthe water for 5 m. only. Prepare the gelatine with a scant cup of water, and add to warm syrup; cool; add lemon and grape juice, stirring. Put into freezer and stir for 15 m. Beat the whites of eggs until light but not stiff; add the powdered sugar and beat 2 m., add to the sherbet in the freezer and finish freezing. Ripen from 2 to 4 hours. This sherbet is of a beautiful lavender color when finished.
Substitute other fruit juices for the grape, varying the quantity of sugar. Red raspberry is better in water ice, as the whites of the eggs spoil its flavor.
Boil sugar and water and add to gelatine prepared with the scant cup of water. When cool, add stirring, the lemon juice and fine cut or chopped mint. Stir in freezer 15 m. Add whites of eggs beaten with powdered sugar as in grape sherbet and finish freezing. Ripen.
Shred and grind nice, ripe pineapples. Prepare gelatine with 1 cup of water and add more to make 1½ cup. Cook sugar and 2½ cups of water together for 5 m. and add to gelatine. When nearly cool, combine with pineapple and lemon juice; cool; stir in freezer for 15 m. Add whites of eggs beaten with powdered sugar and finish freezing. Ripen.
Lemon—
Orange—
Follow directions for Grape Sherbet.
Add 1 cup of sugar and the lemon juice to well mashed berries. Let stand in ice box 1–2 hours. Boil water and remaining sugar together for 5 m., cool, add to berry mixture, freeze, ripen. Serve plain or with whipped cream.
Rub measured peaches through colander; add cold syrup made by boiling sugar and water together for 10 m. Freeze. Stir in cream whipped and slightly sweetened, when dasher is removed. Repack and ripen.
Frappés are partly frozen mixtures of fruit juices, pulps or fine grated fruits and when not too sweet are excellent in fevers and are often served in place of a drink or a sherbet to well people. Of course they are served in glasses.
“The grains, with fruits, nuts and vegetables contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood.”
“Those who eat flesh are eating grains and vegetables at second-hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth.”
“The life that was in the grains and vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct, by eating the food that God provided for our use.”
“Grains used for porridge or mush should have several hours’ cooking; but soft or liquid foods are less wholesome than dry foods which require thorough mastication.”
When porridges are used, something dry like zwieback or crisp crackers should be eaten with them to induce mastication.
Foods containing starch should be well insalivated by thorough mastication before any tart foods are introduced into the stomach, as acid hinders the digestion of starch.
The large proportion of starch contained in grains is changed to sugar in the process of digestion, so the addition of more sugar gives an excess of that element, overtaxing the liver and increasing the tendency to fermentation, since both starch and sugar are substances that ferment easily. Then if milk, another easily fermented food, is added what can be said of the combination? Besides: “the presence of a considerable amount of sugar actually retards the digestion of starch.”—Dr. Kress.
For those who feel that they cannot at once forego the sweet, stir in a few sliced dates to graham porridge or sprinkle them over the top and serve with nut or dairy cream. Chopped figs or stewed raisins may also be used the same with different cereals.A very harmonious combination is pearled barley cooked with raisins. Nice ripe blueberries or black raspberries may be served with cereals.
A complete meal may be made of graham or any preferred porridge, blanched almonds, English walnuts or pecans, with dates, figs or raisins. The combination will be satisfying without any milk or cream.
My readers will many of them be surprised to find that oatmeal and some other porridges are delightful served with cream sauce, old-fashioned milk gravy, macaroni sauce and other gravies; the cooked parched grains especially so. A poached egg may be placed on each serving of porridge, with or without sauce.
Raw rice may be ground coarse or fine for different purposes.
The parched grains may be served with suitable, sub-acid fruits.
The toasted breakfast cereals on the market, prepared without malt or any additional sweet are many of them excellent foods because of the dextrinization of the starch, and we can easily prepare dextrinized grains in our own homes.
Put dried sweet corn into a corn popper, iron frying pan or round bottomed iron kettle; cover, and shake over the fire until the grains are browned and puffed up nearly round. Served plain, this corn supplies a complete and satisfying food, as any one will find who sits down with a nice fresh-parched porridge dish of it and chews it until it is fine and creamy in the mouth. It is much more delicious than the finest popcorn. It may be ground and eaten in cold or hot milk, nut or dairy, and it may have a little salt and sterilized butter mixed with it while it is warm. A cup of cereal coffee or tea-hygiene with a dish of parched corn makes a nice luncheon or supper.
The corn may be dried on the cob or shelled and dried. It may often be bought from dealers in seeds, after the planting season is over.
Parched field corn is a good nourishing food but not so sweet and tender. It is usually better to be ground.
One doctor says, “I could travel the world around on parched corn and never want grease of any kind.”
It is well understood that corn and oatmeal are the richest in oil of any of the grains. In some countries the soldiers carry parched corn in their pockets on long marches.
Put yellow corn meal into an iron kettle or saucepan over a moderate fire; stir until of an even rich brown color. Serve warm or cold with hot or cold milk or cream. The donor of this recipe says: “When I was a child this was considered a great dainty, but I do not know how it obtained its name or where we learned to make it.”
The different preparations of grains may all be parched the same as sweet corn and corn meal in the preceding recipes. If more convenient they may be done in the oven but the flavor is not as good. Some of them are tender enough to be eaten dry or in milk without any further preparation; others are better to be ground before adding the milk or cream, and some need to stand in the milk, hot or cold, for a time, before serving, while others (rice especially) require cooking after parching. Some are better cooked in milk.
To pop: “Wet the corn slightly and let it dry on the stove; put it in the popper while it is hot and in four minutes every kernel should be turned inside out, crisp and tender.”—From a clipping.
Serve the popped kernels plain with nuts, cereal coffee, tea-hygiene, cream or milk, or sprinkle delicately with salt and turn a little oil or melted butter over, mixing thoroughly.
Put together the poorly popped kernels of corn and all the remains, cover with cold water and soak until soft, perhaps overnight. Then add milk and cook in a double boiler ½ hour or so. Serve with cream or more milk if necessary, or, cook in all water and serve with cream. These left-overs may be ground and soaked in milk until soft.
Dry slices or pieces of bread in the oven and brown delicately, grind through the food cutter and serve in milk or with cream.
“Some people degrade these foods by calling them mushes, a horrible name, by the way; the good English word porridge is much better, and porridge is not gruel.”—An Editor.
Unless cereals are steamed, they should be cooked in a double boiler or something that answers the same purpose.
A flat or round wire batter whip is the best for stirring the grain into the water, as that keeps even the finest flour from becoming lumpy.
The very most important thing in making porridges is to have the liquid boiling when the cereal is put in. If it stops boiling while the grain is being added there will be a raw taste to the porridge, no matter how long it cooks.
Put the required amount of water, with the salt, 1 teaspn. to a quart of water, into the inner cup of a double boiler. Heat the water to bubbling boiling, sprinkle the measured grain in so slowly as not to stop the boiling of the water, stirring continuously. Let it boil up well, and if a coarse grain, cook over the fire until it thickens, then set into the outer boiler containing perfectly boiling water and keep it cooking rapidly the required length of time.
Do not stir after the grain thickens. Watch that the outer boiler does not become dry. Grains for breakfast may be cooked while you have a fire the day before, then all that is necessary in the morning is to set the inner boiler into the outer one containing boiling water and heat it through. If thereshould be water standing on top of the porridge, pour it off before heating, but under no circumstances stir the porridge, or add any more water while heating, or a pasty, tasteless dish will be the result.
When the porridge is to be re-heated, a slightly larger proportion of water should be used, and for steaming, a smaller quantity.
One advantage in steaming is that the cereal (after being started over the fire in some suitable utensil) can be turned into an earthen dish and set into the steamer, warmed in the morning and sent to the table in the same dish.
Farina, cream of wheat and similar cereals are more palatable and nourishing if cooked in part milk. These finer preparations may have milk or cream stirred into them just before serving.
Different lots of graham flour and rolled oats vary, so that it is not possible to make an exact rule for them, but graham flour should be stirred into water until the mixture is quite stiff because it grows thinner by cooking.
Rye meal makes one of the most delightful porridges. Stir the meal slowly into boiling salted water, the same as graham flour, and cook for 1 hour at least.
Whole wheat is a very satisfying and inexpensive food. Some families buy it by the bushel and use large quantities of it in different ways. Some put the boiled wheat into bread sponge before mixing it up.
Different kinds of corn meal vary, too. Only about ⅔ or ¾ as much granular meal is required for a given amount of liquid as of other kinds.
Oatmeal is difficult of digestion, is apt to cause fermentation and should be partaken of sparingly even when well cooked, except by those of strong digestive powers. One young man said in my presence, “I never know I have a stomach except when I eat oatmeal.”
Cracked wheat is very nice cooked with an extra quantity of water, molded and served cold.
With a Vegetarian Society mill delightful cracked wheat and many other cereal foods can be made.
Cracked corn—samp grits—hominy, is a valuable food. Besides the package preparations I have bought it at feed stores in the East and obtained it from the mills in the West, and with a mill it can be made at home. It should be thoroughly cooked. The old-fashioned way is to put it into a round bottomed iron kettle with salt and plenty of water (adding more water when necessary) and cook it all day. It may be served with milk, butter or gravy, or with any of the sauces used for macaroni, and may be cooked with tomato and onion the same as pilau,p. 131.
“Rice is the most easily digested of all the cereals. The Japanese, famous for their athletic superiority and wonderful endurance, use rice unpolished. The rice of commerce is not only stripped of much of its most desirable qualities, but in order to make it attractive it is coated with glucose and talc to produce the pearly appearance. Persons using such rice should be careful to wash it thoroughly. After once eating unpolishedrice, the rice of commerce will never again be accepted. To eat polished rice is like eating shavings instead of real, satisfying substance.”—Henry S. Clubb, President Vegetarian Society of America, in “Life and Health,” and “The Vegetarian.”
Wash commercial rice in several waters, scrubbing it thoroughly with the hands, in a colander set in a pan of water, rinsing the colander up and down. Then put it over the fire in cold water, boil for 5 m. and drain, before cooking after any of the methods.
After washing and parboiling rice, throw it into 3 or 4 times its bulk of boiling salted water, stir it over a hot fire until it rolls up in the rapidly boiling water. Let it boil in this way until it swells, then set into the outer boiler or on the back of the stove on a pad until it is perfectly tender. If rice is cooked in a double boiler, use the smaller quantity of water, and the larger if cooked altogether over the fire. Do not stir after it begins to swell. This is practically the Japanese method.
Another Japanese way is to soak the rice over night, drain and put to cooking in an equal quantity of boiling water, keeping closely covered all of the time.
After washing, put rice over the fire in double its bulk of cold water, let it boil up well, carefully lift cover to see if water is all absorbed; if not, drain, sprinkle salt over if desired (the Chinaman does not use it), return to fire closely covered and watch, listening until a faint crackling of parching grains at the bottom is heard; then remove to the back of the range where the rice will just steam—“steam fragrant.” When ready to serve, carefully stir the grain with a wooden skewer or some small round stick, when the snowy mass should crumble apart into indistinct kernels. “Try the Chinaman’s way and be convinced that plain boiled rice is a palatable, substantial food.”—Adapted from Mrs. J. N. Anderson, Canton, China, in “Life and Health.”
Wash the rice, put little by little into 8 times its bulk (2 qts. to a cup) of rapidly boiling salted water. Stir occasionally at first with a fork until the rice is rolling up continuously from the rapid boiling. Cook until tender, 15–25 m., according to the age and quality of the rice. Be sure to cook it until it is tender but not a moment longer. Drain in a fine colander, pour cold water over to separate the kernels, put into the dish in which it is to be served and set in a steamer or in the edge of the oven for a half hour. The water drained from the rice may be used for soup.
After washing, soak 1 cup of rice in 1¼ cup of warm water for an hour or longer, in a dish suitable for serving it in. Add 1 level teaspn. of salt and 1 cup of milk and steam, without stirring, for just 1 hour. Serve at once, or if it has to stand, cover close so that the top kernels will not become hard.
All milk may be used by taking 2¾–3 cups. If the milk fills the dish so that it is just ready to run over, the rice when steamed will stand snowy white above the top of the dish.