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Griddle-cakes, Waffles, Etc

A historical recipe from Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland (1880).

A historical recipe

Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, by Marion Harland (1880). Project Gutenberg eBook #48804.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Source and licence

From Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland (1880). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #48804 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48804). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. If you have not used your griddle or waffle-iron for some time, wash it off hard with hot soap and water;
  2. wipe and rub well with dry salt.
  3. Heat it and grease with a bit of fat salt pork on a fork.
  4. It is a mistake, besides being slovenly and wasteful, to put on more grease than is absolutely necessary to prevent the cake from sticking.
  5. A piece of pork an inch square should last for several days.
  6. Put on a great spoonful of butter for each cake, and before filling the griddle test it with a single cake, to be sure that all is right with it as well as the batter.
  7. The same rules apply to waffles.
  8. Always lay hot cakes and waffles upon a hot plate as soon as baked.
  9. BUCKWHEAT CAKES.
  10. ✠ 1 quart buckwheat flour.
  11. 4 tablespoonfuls yeast.
  12. 1 teaspoonful salt.
  13. 1 handful Indian meal.
  14. 2 tablespoonfuls molasses—not syrup.
  15. Warm water enough to make a thin batter.
  16. Beat very well and set to rise in a warm place.
  17. If the batter is in the least sour in the morning, stir in a very little soda dissolved in hot water.
  18. Mix in an earthen crock, and leave some in the bottom each morning—a cupful or so—to serve as sponge for the next night, instead of getting fresh yeast.
  19. In cold weather this plan can be successfully pursued for a week or ten days without setting a new supply.
  20. Of course you add the usual quantity of flour, &c., every night, and beat up well.
  21. Do not make your cakes too small.
  22. Buckwheats should be of generous size.
  23. Some put two-thirds buckwheat, one-third oat-meal, omitting the Indian.
  24. FLANNEL CAKES.
  25. ✠ 1 quart milk.
  26. 3 tablespoonfuls yeast.
  27. 1 tablespoonful butter, melted.
  28. 2 eggs, well beaten.
  29. 1 teaspoonful salt.
  30. Flour to make a good batter.
  31. Set the rest of the ingredients as a sponge over night, and in the morning add the melted butter and eggs.