Common Griddle Cake

A quart of Indian meal, sufficient warm water to make a soft dough, a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the in-dian meal into a pan, and add the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the meal, and pour in a little warm water. Then mix it with a large, strong spoon, adding, by degrees, water enough to make a soft dough. Flour your hands, and knead it into a large lump - divide it into two equal portions. Flour your pasteboard, lay on it the first lump of dough, and roll it out about an inch thick. Then, (having already heated your griddle,) lay the cake upon it, spreading it evenly, and make it a good round shape. It should cover the whole surface of the griddle, which must first be greased, either with butter or lard tied in a rag, or with a bit of fat fresh pork. Bake it well; and when one side is well browned, turn it on the other, taking care not to break it. Send it to table hot, cut into three-cornered pieces - split and butter them. As soon as the first cake is sent in, put on the other to bake.

This is one of the plainest and simplest preparations of indian cake; and is very good when warm.

Plain Johnny Cake

A quart of indian meal, a pint of warm water, a level tea-spoonful of salt. Sift a quart of indian meal into a pan. Make a hole in the middle, and pour in a pint of warm water, adding the salt. With a spoon mix the meal and water gradually into a soft dough. Stir 26 it very hard for a quarter of an hour or more, till it becomes light and spongy. Then spread the dough, smooth and evenly, on a stout, flat board. A piece of the head of a flour barrel will serve for this purpose. Place the board nearly (but not quite) upright, and set a smoothing-iron or a stone against the back to support it. Bake it well. When done, cut it into squares, and send it hot to table, split and buttered. You may eat molasses with it

Very Plain Indian Dumplings

Sift some indian meal into a pan; add about a salt-spoon of salt to each quart of meal, and scald it with sufficient boiling water to make a stiff dough. Pour in the water gradually, stirring as you pour. When the dough becomes a stiff lump divide it into equal portions; flour your hands, and make it into thick flat dumplings, about as large round as the top of a glass tumbler, or a breakfast cup. Dredge the dumplings on all sides with flour, put them into a pot of boiling water, (if made sufficiently stiff they need not be tied in cloths,) and keep them boiling hard till thoroughly done. Try them with a fork, which must come out quite clean, and with no clamminess sticking to it. They are an excellent appendage to salt pork or bacon, serving them up with the meat; or they may be eaten afterwards with butter and molasses, or with milk sweetened well with brown sugar, and flavored with a little ground cinnamon. On no account boil them with meat.

Indian Muffins

A pint and a half of yellow indian meal, sifted; a handful of wheat flour; a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; a quart of milk; four eggs; a very small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the milk into a sauce-pan. Cut the butter into it. Set it over the fire and warm it till the butter is very soft, but not till it melts. Then take it off, stir it well till all mixed, and set it away to cool. Beat four eggs very light, and when the milk is cold, stir them into it alternately with the meal, a little at a time, of each. Add the salt. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed. Then butter some muffin-rings on the inside. Set them in a hot oven, or on a heated griddle; pour some of the batter into each, and bake the muffins well. Send them hot to table, continuing to bake while a fresh supply is wanted. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey. These muffins will be found excellent, and can be prepared in a very short time; for instance, in three quarters or half an hour before breakfast or tea.

This mixture may be baked in waffle-irons, as waffles. Butter them, and have on the table a glass bowl with powdered sugar and powdered cinnamon, to eat with these waffles.