The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-08-31

X pest piedu eNei
%srgaED When made and baked just
Iionr il is a dalicacy. But the making
and fine baking Of it are not easy and
failure with mug-bread is something
awful
Perhaps the reader may not know
# as mug bread, for that was a local
oome confined largely to our own
Maine homestead and vicinity. 1t has
aaan called milkyeast bread, patent
bread milk-empNing bread and salt
rising bread; and it has also been
stjgmatzed By several opprobrious and
offensive epithets, bestowed, | am told,
by irate housewives who lacked the
skill ana genius to make it.
We named it mug-bread because
grandmother started it in an old por
cellip mug; a tall. white, lavender-and-
sold banded mug, that held more than
p quart but was sadly cracked, and,
for safpty'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
1912 Its familiar kitchen name was
"Od Hannah" l 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
failure when that mug was used.
= A Ia, OF
night. grandmother would take two
tablpspoonfuls Of cornmeal, ten OF
boiled milk and half q teaspOonful of
salt mix them well in that mug, and
set it on a 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 we'll.
would be due the following afternoon
for supper. For you cannot hurry
mUgmead.
-''' ~ IlOl llilS, ny DltSIhIdoG llllAN,
peep into the mug would show
whether the little "eyeS" had begun to
open and peep up out of the mixture
Or not. Here was where hOuseWifely
Skill came in. Those eyes must be
opened just so wide, and there must
he just so many of them, or else it
was not safe to proceed. It might be
better 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.
II the OmenS were favorable, q cup
OF warm water and q variable quantity
Oh carefully warmed flour We're added,
and batter made of about the consist
tloy for fritters. This was set behind
tle tunnel again, to rise till noon.
More -four was then added and the
Hough carefully worked and set for a
lnlrd rising. About 8 o'clock it was
put IN tins and baked in an even oven.
Inc favorite lOaves with US were
cart-WheeIs," formed by putting the
Tough in large, round, shallow tin
mates, about Il foot in diameter When
OAAed, the yellOw-brOwn, crackery loaf
was only an inch and q half or two
inches thick. The rule at grandmoth-
:" S table was "cart-WheeI' to a boy.
WIN all the fresh Jersey butter and
canned fruit or berries that he wanted
with it.
sometimes, however. the mug would
disappear rather suddenly in the morn
ms and an odor as of sulphureted by
I.o-en would linger about, till the
MIenen windows were raised and the
''g>n west wind admitted
IAat meant that a failure had Oc-
."Fedi the wrong microbe had OBJ
''-Ned possession of the mug.
III such cases grandmother acted
H"mpuy and said little She was al
1r'lS feticent concerning mug-bread
- Aad unspeakable contingencies.
our girl cousins, Ellen and Theodore
VINO ilYed at the old homestead with
~, ~, shared grandmother's reticence
men, IN fact, could never be persuaded
" eat It, good as it was.
l Know too much about it." she
"guid say. 1T isn't nice"
h'|ond doubt, when mug-bread goes
19''"y at about the second rising the
>ouSequences are depressing.
- ilS little eyes fail to open. and the
',,'t takes on greasy aspect. with a
.;-"ency to crawl and glide about. no
C are should be lost. Open all the win
Tvs at once and send the batter
iL'OIlptly to the swill-barrel. 1t is use
,s 80 70 daily with it. You will be sorry
r.t you do. When it goes wrong it is
utterly depraved.
NJ remember an experience which
tneodora and Ellen had with mug
n'o e@u on one occasion. when grand
N ToS1er was away from home. Aunt
sOole and Uncle Pascal Mowbray
an p'ne on from Philadelphia, while she
i grandfather were gone.
g. aunt Nabbie was grandmother's sis
dnu she and Uncle Mowfrav had