Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-09-15

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4 L y best bread ever made
I,Ao~ When made and baked just
FIGHT it is delicacy. But the making
and the baking Of it are not easy and
failure with mug-bread is something
awful.
Perhaps the reader may not know
it as mug-bread, for that was a local
name, confined largely to our OWL
Maine homestead and vicinity. It has
been called milk-yeast bread, patent
bread, milk-emptyings bread and salt
rising bread; and it has also been
stigmatized by several opprobrious and
offensive epithets, bestowed, am told
by irate housewives who lacked the
skill and genius to make it.
We named it mug-bread because
grandmother started it in an old por.
celain mug; tall, white, lavender-a nd
gold banded mug, that held more than
a quart, but was sadly cracked, and
for safety's sake, was wound just
above the handle with fine white silk
cord.
That mug was sixty-eight years old,
and that silk cord had been on it since
1872. It's familiar kitchen name was
"Old Hannah" I suspect that the
interstices Of this ancient silk string
were the lurking places of that delight
full yeast microbe that gave the flavor
to the bread. For there was rarely a
failure when that mug was used.
About once. in four days, generally at
night, grandmother would take two
tablespoonfuls of cornmea1, ten of
boiled milk and half teaspoonful of
salt mix them we'll in that mug, and
set it on low mantel shelf, behind
the kitchen stove funnel, where it
would keep uniformly warm overnight.
She covered in the top of the mug with
an old tin coffee pot lid, which just
fitted it,
When we saw Old Hannah go up
there, we knew that some mug-bread
was incubating. and, if all worked well.
would be due the following afternoon
1or supper. For you cannot hurry
mug bread.
The next morning. by breakfast time,
peep into the mug would show
whether the little "eyes" had begun to
open and peep up out of the mixture
VI NOT. Here was where houseWifely
skill came in. Those eyes must be
opened just so wide, and there must
oe just SO many of them, or else it
was not safe to proceed. It might be
oetter to throw the setting away and
START new, or else to let it stand till
noon. Grandmother knew as soon as
she had looked at it.
IL the omens were favorable. a cup
y. warm water and variable quantity
VI carelC--y warmed -four were added,
anu batter made of about the consist
ency Tor fritters. This was set behind
Tue tunnel again, to rise till noon.
MORE flour was then added and the
uougn carefully worked and set for a
oliru rising. About 3 o'clock it was
pae ln tins and baked in an even oven.
j.. lle favorite loaves with us were
a. a.art-"heels," formed by putting the
u'ugh IN large, round, shallow tin
pia'es' about foot in diameter. When
DaAed, the yellow-brown, crackery loaf
va. "os only an inch and a half or two
.n.les thick. The rule at grandmoth-
els .< table was "cart-wheel' to a boy.
win all the fresh Jersey butter and
s"nlled fruit or berries that he wanted
With it.
d. i'solietlmes, however, the mug would
9'ppear rather suddenly in the morn
dro. a' ana an odor as of sulphureted hy-
titE, toseh would linger about, till the
fneo, eneh windows were raised and the
'rSh u, west wind admitted.
c,. nat meant that a failure had oc-
to;lVu' the wrong microbe had OBJ
,l'eu possession of the mug.
nra - such cases grandmother acted
wlp'iv worv and said little. She was al.
Il 1ttSs retlcent concerning mug-bread
o, nau unspeakable contingencies.
WIZ slrl cousins, Ellen and Theodore
w. no ilved at the old homestead with
FnoI shared grandmother's reticence
to 80, ~, III TACT, could never be persuaded
g. gat 1t, good as it was.
wo',,l know too much about it." she
'pald p say. "It isn't NICE"
astroN onu doubt, when mug-bread goes
consas at about the second rising the
1f 1f:auehces :. are depressing.
battos nttle eyes fail to open and the
tendan eakes on a greasy aspect, with &
time ey s1 10 crawl and glide about, M
dowS noulo be lost. Open all the win
a. once and send the batter