Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-15

the early c~olonists; often a family had
no more than a single iron pot for all its
cooking. Then the bread was ash cake,
cooked by sweeping clean a space right
IN the heart of the fire, dropping the
dough in it and covering it thickly with
glowing hard Woo Goals. Ash cake is
tocthsome enough, if only the Goals are
hard enough and hot enough to crust it
over before the ashes stick. But that
ala not happen every time. Indeed, it
was the exception rather than the rule.
Inen, too. upon hunts and journeyings.
was had to the big hoes that no house
holo could be without. Crops of every
sort depended upon the STRINGS Of their
broad blades. But they We're easily slid
or their wooden helves to serve in the
night or morning baking. They We're
flung into the fire and heated red hot,
then lifted out by means of a stick thrust
Within the eye, spread with thin meal
cakes and by help of the same stick set
pack upon spread Goals. In three min
under side. A knife Tipped it over; in
two minutes more it was ready for eating
ana the hoe ready for another cake.
The negroes of the southern states
mad an odd. and to them infallible test,
as to whether a new acquaintance be-
longed to quality white folks. 1t was
the matter of salt in corn bread. The
gentry never allowed a dust of it in the
bread which came III their tables, hold
ing rightly enough that salt spoiled the
ferring that the flavor of salt should be
given by the butter in which they com
monty soaked their bread. Poor white
trash. to whom butter was unknown, and
thrlfty farmer folks who preferred SELL
ing their butter to lavish eating thereof.
sailed their bread, some heavily. some
liehtly, and very nearly always made it
up with boiling water.
The best meal in the world will not
make good bread if it is mixed too thick
ana baked too slowly. Further, it must
never be put into a cold pan or on a cold
gflddle. Pans II griddles, however, can
be too hot. They should be lightly
sprinkled with a pinch of dry meal: il
II browns quickly without burning the
heat is just right. Different degrees of
heat in fact make all the difference in
the world III favor. Corn meal wet with
boiling water has a taste wholly unlike
that which is wet with cold.
OLD MAMMY'S TEST OF QUALITY.
Back in the old days the black cooks
1t INTO a hot oven bake with quick.
IN the language of the black mammies:
His did taste so po'-folks's: hit want
fifteen fer muffin but pigs ter eat"
by corn bread the south country under.
STANDS .ie thing which is, in its own
mouth, none bread, and in the middle
west dodger bread. 1t is easy to make,
- ~ . Sooy W lldhe exactly riCnt
Mix the sifted meal with cold wa ;. to
FORM a softish mass. 1t must not oe soft
enough to run nor stiff enough to hold
a spoon upright. Scoop up a painful of
1t and toss it gently from one hand to the
other until it forms a flattish oval. Slap
the oval down in one side of your hot pan
and tlatten is still more with the fingers.
That is the first pone. Set others round
about it until your pan is full, then pop
steady heat. Examine IT in five %nlinutes;
~ tho VIC io oyn 1Hs~r o,,o~ w. 49, =.
needs more fire; if it is blistering it needs
less. If by good chance you strike the
lucky medium in 20 minutes you will have
corn pones fit for a king. When done the
crust hould be thin, brown, Of a rich
nutty flavor and separating readily from
the inner mass. If you want to serve
the pores after black mamny's fashion,
break-do not cut them-ODen length
wise, lay a lump of the very best butter
between the halves, put them together
and stand in the hot over a minute be-
fore sending to table.
OTHER KINDS OF BREAD.
Hoecake is mixed in the same way, only
a little softer, dabbed in round pats or
a hot griddle fiattened to less than an
inch, baked on one side, then Tipped over
and finished. Fatty bread is made up
with hot water. a very little salt and
plenty of melted lard and baked in small
Dones. Pumpkin and sweet potato bread
are out fatty bread. a little more saited.
and mixed with its W bulk OF SteWea
pumpkin or boiled and mashed potatoes,
before the baking.
There are nearly as many sorts OF egg
bread, corn mullins, gems and batter
cakes as there are h~ousekeepers south
of Mason's and Dixon's line. One of the
best and most wholesome is mush bread.
To make it take d quart of fairly thick
cold mush, stir into it three well beaten
eggs, whites and yolks together, a pinch
of salt, half a. cup of melted lard and
half a cup of rich, sweet milk. Beat hard
for 10 minutes, then pou into a greasy
pan and bake in a very hot oven. BY
adding a full cup of milk and a half pint
of sifted flour you ave a very excellent
muffin batter, to be baked either in rings
or gem pans. A cup of hot water or an
extra cup of milk gives very fine batter
cakes. But to serve with breakfast along
with fresh sausage, fried chicken or crisp
fried creek trout. scalded batter cakes
are the things. To make them pour a
pin and a half of full boiling water upon
a pint of sifted meal, stirring all the time
and adding the water so gradually that
there shall be no Jumps. Stir until the
mixture is cold: it should be a thin,
creamy batter, running freely from the
spoon. Heat a we'll creased griddle very
hot. drop the batter on it in moderate
%spoonfuls. In a minute they will have
set and must then be lightly turned. Pile
them delicately one on the other and
send them to table smoking hot.
SNUBBED A QUEEN.