The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-12-29
BUCKWHEAT CAKES.

A lady discourses as follows in the New
York Times: I give you the following
receipt for making buckwheat cakes, as
used by my mother and used in my own
family for fifty years:
l. Select good buckwheat meal.
There is all the difference in quality
that there is in wheat -four. Mix up the
batter about an hour before bedtime,
using nothing but lukewarm water,
buckwheat flour, salt. and yeast, with
about good tablespoonful Of Indian
meal. Use good, fresh yeast, about a
tumbleriul to two quarts Of batter, or
half yeast,cake, dissolved in tumbler
of warm water. Beat the batter up
thoroughly, so that every particle of the
meal is brought ;>.o the contac. ,.:+h
tho yeast An hour later. before going
to bed, examine the batter. If there are
few bubbles on the surface it is rising
properly, and will be all right in the
morning; if covered with 1roth it is
rising too fast, and must be stirred up
smartly, and set in a cooler place to re-
tard the rising. If no bubbles appear it
shows the yeast was not good, or the
water or location too cold if so, add q
little more yeast, and put in warmer
location,
2. On first rising in the morning OK
anime the batter again, and advance or
retard the rising as necessary till ready
for baking. If the batter has risen, sour
ed, and fallen again, which is shown by
its odor and by a thin watery solution
on the top, good cakes cannot be made of
it, and it might as we'll be thrown away !;
though. perhaps, one-half the cakes made
in this city are from batter thus sourcd
and cooked up, with soda to swcetcn the
sour mess. Good batter when risen will
be three times as high in the pot as when
first mixed, and will be thicker than at
first. The only time when soda should
be used is when the batter has risen, and
is just on the verge cf turning. A tea.
spoonful of soda mixed in a cup of warm
water and stirred in will make the cakes
palatable, though nothing like so good
as if the batter had not turned,
8. In baking, the iron should be
evenly hot, just short of burning the
cakes, we'll creased, with good sweet
bacon or fat of ham, but no surplus
grease left On the iron, as it soaks into
and discolors the edges Of the cakes.
They should be turned quickly, before
they are the least dry on the top, and
served up each griddle full as it is taken
off. Covering up to keep them warm
causes them to sweat, and that injuries
their flavor.
4. If about quart Of the batter is
retained as leaven for the next batch, the
cakes the day after will be even better
than at first. as the introduction Of the
yeast of the first making modities the
fine buckwheat favor. Ofcourse, no yeast
is to be used in mixing up the batter
after the first night. The water put on
the batter to keep it through the day
should always be poured off, and fresh
lukewarm water put in instead. The
batter can be continued this way from
day to day SO long as it keeps sweet.
Cakes made in the foregoing manner will
be found very delicious and wholesome.
The cakes ordinary made around New
York are Objectionable for the following
reasons; mainly: Soda is used to raise
them. With this no proper fermentation
takes place in the meal unless 1t has first
been over-fermentcd and soured, when
the soda is used to revive the dead mess.
Molasses is put in to brown the cakes
giving them swedish taste, entirely de.
stroying the buckwheat aroma. Baking
is done on too cold an iron, and the
cakes are dry and leathery, or they are
left on too long without turning which
makes them tough.
I could fill column of your paper
with minute details Of things to be done