SHORT CAKE.

If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is well to make it into short cakes for tea.  Rub in a very small bit of shortening, or three table-spoonfuls of cream, with the flour; put in a tea-spoonful of strong dissolved pearlash, into your sour milk, and mix your cake pretty stiff, to bake in the spider, on a few embers.

When people have to buy butter and lard, short cakes are not economical food.  A half pint of flour will make a cake large enough to cover a common plate.  Rub in thoroughly a bit of shortening as big as a hen’s egg; put in a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash; wet it with cold water; knead it stiff enough to roll well, to bake on a plate, or in a spider.  It should bake as quick as it can, and not burn.  The first side should stand longer to the fire than the last.

INDIAN CAKE.

Indian cake, or bannock, is sweet and cheap food.  One quart of sifted meal, two great spoonfuls of molasses, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a bit of shortening half as big as a hen’s egg, stirred together; make it pretty moist with scalding water, put it into a well greased pan, smooth over the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides, before a quick fire.  A little stewed pumpkin, scalded with the meal, improves the cake.  Bannock split and dipped in butter makes very nice toast.  A richer Indian cake may be made by stirring one egg to a half pint of milk, sweetened with two great spoonfuls of molasses; a little ginger, or cinnamon; Indian stirred in till it is just about thick enough to pour.  Spider or bake-kettle well greased; cake poured in, covered up, baked half an hour, or three quarters, according to the thickness of the cake.  If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is very nice for this kind of cake; the acidity corrected by a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash.  It is a rule never to use pearlash for Indian, unless to correct the sourness of milk; it injures the flavor of the meal.

Nice suet improves all kinds of Indian cakes very much.

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Two cups of Indian meal, one table-spoonful molasses, two cups milk, a little salt, a handful flour, a little saleratus, mixed up thin, and poured into a buttered bake-kettle, hung over the fire uncovered, until you can bear your finger upon it, and then set down before the fire.  Bake half an hour.

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BREAD, YEAST, &C.

It is more difficult to give rules for making bread than for anything else; it depends so much on judgment and experience.  In summer, bread should be mixed with cold water; during a chilly, damp spell, the water should be slightly warm; in severe cold weather, it should be mixed quite warm, and set in a warm place during the night.  If your yeast is new and lively, a small quantity will make the bread rise; if it be old and heavy, it will take more.  In these things I believe wisdom must be gained by a few mistakes.