Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1909-02-03
JOY THAT IS GONE
eUckWHEAT CAKES AND PORK
CHOPS ARE NO MORE.
City Man Voices Regret for the
Breakfast Of His Youth-lt
Comes to Him Now in
Memory Only.

Il have wondered sometimes" said
the amfable head Of q voracious fam
lily. why we didn't have more griddle
cakes, wheat and buckwheat, and that
sort Of thing in our house. because I
am very fond Of such cakes, and so are
all the children, and of buckwheat
cakes in particular have a very pleas.
ant recollection.
when l was boy I used to have
always buckwheat cakes for break
fast in winter, with fried pork chops
or fried sausages. and used to think
that that was Z breakfast good
enough for anybody. and 1 am still Of
the same opinion.
The cakes we used to mix in a
batter pot that was different from
any ptsces Of 'cFockery,I ever saw, and
that can see now in my minds eye
as plainly as IL it stood before me, a
deep. straight sided, earthenware pot
OF q very dark brown glaze and In
capacity about gallon and a half
and having in one side of its edge Z
pouring lip and on the other side a
handle; the only pot of just that style
and dimensions that l ever saw, and
perhaps it was the only one ever
made.
And we valued it highly, I know
that II anything had happened to that
pot 1t would have been regarded as q
household calamity, familiar to US all
as it had become through year after
year of use, and the mixing of the bat
ter in it was mighty familiar house.
hold rite, the last thing done in the
house in winter before we went to
bed.
Every morning when the cakes
were cooked there was left in the pot
just enough of the material to serve
as yeast for the next days batch; and
every night the last thing we did was
to get out the buckwheat batter not
and mix up in it the batter for the
next mornings cakes; and then we
would put a loose cover on the not
and then set it near the kitchen stove
where it'would get little warmth, but
not too much so that the batter would
rise just right. And sometimes It
would run over, but not often, for our
folks were high experts ir making
buckwheat batter, and usually our bat.
ter rose just enough to fill the pot,
rising at the same time to the highest
attalnable quality: and then in the
morning the batter was thinned down
little, so that it would spread Just
exactly right when poured on the grid.
die, and then the family was ready
to eat 'em.
1T seems to me that the pork chops
we had in those days were better than
any to be had now; they were from
locally raised and fattened pigs and
they were very tender and superior
and certainly it would be difficult to
find now such sausage3 as we had
then.
And we used to eat those buck
wheat cakes red hot of the gridd!e.
with those superior pork chops. or
those extra superlative sausages. and
with the pork or sausage grease on the
cakes-a morning meal of great de.
light and glory.
"One calculated to tax the stoutest
constitution surely, but we all had
cast iron stomachs and it did US no
harm; and have wondered sometimes
why we couldn't have something of
that sort now; but she, meaning
thereby my better i:alf, tells me that
cooking cakes means a headache and
a burned face and tired back; that
cooking cakes for this family would be
an awful task and that it wouldn't do.
And so that grand breakfast of buck
wheat and sausages comes to US now
in memory only"