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Title: The New England Economical Housekeeper.
Title: The American Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.
Author: Howland, Esther Allen
Publisher: Cincinnati: H. W. Derby & Co.
Publisher: Worcester: S. A. Howland.

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> THE ECONOMICAL HOUSEKEEPER.

> 1. Ripe Bread.

BREAD made of wheat flour, when taken out of the oven, is unprepared for the stomach. It should go through a change, or ripen, before it is eaten. Young persons, or persons in the enjoyment of vigorous health, may eat bread immediately after being baked, without any sensible injury from it; but weakly and aged persons cannot, and none can eat such, without doing harm to the digestive organs. Bread, after being baked, goes through a change similar to the change in newly-brewed beer, or newly-churned buttermilk, neither being healthy until after the change. During the change in bread, it sends off a large portion of carbon, or unhealthy gas, and imbibes a large portion of oxygen, or healthy gas. Bread has, according to the computation of physicians, one fifth more nutriment in it when ripe, than it has when just out of the oven. It not only has more nutriment, but imparts a much greater degree of cheerfulness. He that eats old ripe bread will have a much greater flow of animal spirits than he would were he to eat unripe bread. Bread, as before observed, discharges carbon, and imbibes oxygen. One thing, in connection with this thought, should be particularly noticed by all housewives. It is, to let the bread ripen where it can inhale the oxygen in a pure state. Bread will always taste of the air that surrounds it while ripening - hence it should ripen where the air is pure. It should never ripen in a cellar, nor in a close cupboard, nor in a bedroom. The noxious vapors of a cellar, or a cupboard, never should enter into and form a part of the bread we eat. Bread should be


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light, well baked, and properly ripened, before it should be eaten.

Bread that is several days old may be renewed, so as to have all the freshness and lightness of new bread, by simply putting it into a common steamer over a fire, and steaming it half or three quarters of an hour. The vessel under the steamer, containing the water, should not be more than half full; otherwise the water may boil up into the steamer, and wet the bread. After the bread is thus steamed, it should be taken out of the steamer, and wrapped loosely in a cloth, to dry and cool, and remain so a short time, when it will be ready to be cut and used. It will then be like cold, new bread.

2. Potato Bread.

Take a dozen and a half of good mealy potatoes well boiled; peel them, and mash them fine while warm; add two quarts of cold water, and then strain the mixture through a colander; add flour enough to make a thick batter; then a pint of good lively yeast; if the yeast is sweet, no saleratus is necessary; if sour, a very little saleratus; let the sponge set, until it is well fermented. With this sponge you may make a large or a small quantity of bread by adding flour and water or milk; if a small quantity, it may be put into the oven very soon; if the quantity be large, it must stand longer, or over night. Put in double the usual quantity of salt, but no shortening. Let the dough stand in a place moderately warm, but not near the fire, unless it is to be baked immediately. Milk or water may be used, but water is the best, for the sponge mixed with water keeps sweet the longest. The bread will be very light, sweet, and wholesome, having in it neither acids nor alkalies, to neutralize each other. The greater the proportion of potatoes, the lighter the bread will be; but if the proportion is very large, the bread will be so light as to dry up, if kept several days.

[Editorial note: The following note appears on the bottom of page fourteen in the original text.]

* All the receipts having a star prefixed to them, were prepared, or furnished, expressly for this work.

3. Wheat Meal Bread.

* Take two quarts of wheat meal, half a cup of molasses, a tea-cup full of lively yeast; mix up with warm


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water; let it stand in a warm place an hour and a half; if necessary, add a little saleratus; bake it an hour and a half.

4. Brown Bread.

* Put the Indian meal in your bread-pan, sprinkle a little salt among it, and wet it thoroughly with scalding water. When it is cool, put in your rye; add two gills of lively yeast, and mix it with water as stiff as you can knead it. Let it stand an hour and a half, in a cool place in summer, on the hearth in winter. It should be put into a very hot oven, and baked three or four hours.

5. Dyspepsia Bread.

* Three quarts unbolted wheat meal; one quart soft water, warm, but not hot; one gill of fresh yeast; one gill of molasses, or not, as may suit the taste. If you put this in the oven at the exact time when it is risen enough, saleratus will not be necessary.

6. Rice Bread.

Boil a pint of rice, soft; add a pint of yeast; then, three quarts of wheat flour; put it to rise in a tin or earthen vessel, until it has risen sufficiently; divide it into three parts; then bake it as other bread, and you will have three large loaves.

7. Wisconsin Loaf Bread.

Stir Indian meal in skim milk, to the consistency of pancake batter, about two quarts. Add two tea-spoonfuls of molasses, one of saleratus, two of shortening, and two teacups of wheat flour. Stir in the evening, bake in the morning, and eat while hot.

8. Sponge Bread.

* Make a batter of flour and water, thickness of flat-jacks; put it in a tin pail, and set this pail in a kettle of warm water, five or six hours, till it has risen; then mould it hard by adding more flour, and make it into loaves in basins, and let it stand till it begins to crack open. It is now ready to be put into the oven, and will bake in from thirty to forty-five minutes.

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9. Cream Tartar Bread.

* One quart of flour, two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar, one of saleratus, two and a half cups of milk; bake twenty minutes.

10. Yeast Bread.

Three pints of milk or water to one cup of yeast; stir in flour enough to make it a little thicker than batter, rise it over night, mould it up, and let it stand till it rises, then bake it.

11. Brown Bread, made of Indian and Wheat Meal.

* Take one quart of Indian meal, and one quart of wheat meal, one quart of sour milk, half a tea-cupful molasses, a heaping tea-spoonful of saleratus, and a little salt; stir it with a spoon, and bake it, in a tin or iron basin, about two hours.

12. Rye and Indian Bread.

* Take about two quarts of Indian meal, and scald it; then add as much rye meal, a tea-cupful of molasses, half a pint of lively yeast; if the yeast is sweet, no saleratus is necessary; if sour, put in a little; let it stand from one to two hours, till it rises; then bake it about three hours.

13. Sour Milk Bread.

Have ready your flour, sweeten your milk with a little saleratus, add a little salt, make it rather soft, and pour it into your pan, and bake it.

14. Potato Yeast.

* Five large potatoes boiled and mashed, three pints of boiling water, flour enough to make it a little thicker than flat-jacks, and one cup of yeast. This is enough to rise five loaves of bread, which may be mixed with water, or milk, and will rise enough while your oven is heating. Save out enough of this yeast for your next baking.

15. Rolls.

Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk, then add a spoonful and a half of yeast, and a little salt. Put


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two pounds of flour in a pan, and mix in the above ingredients. Let it rise an hour--or over night, in a cool place; knead it well, make into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. Add half a tea-spoonful of saleratus, just as you put the rolls into the baker.

16. Short Rolls.

Take about two pounds of flour; add a piece of butter half the size of an egg, a little salt, two spoonfuls of yeast, and mix it with warm milk; make it into a light dough, and let it stand by the fire all night; should it sour, put in a little saleratus. Bake them in a quick oven.

17. Brown Bread Biscuit.

Two quarts of Indian meal, a pint and a half of rye, one cup of flour, two spoonfuls of yeast, and a table-spoonful of molasses. It is well to add a little saleratus to yeast almost always, just as you put it into the article. Let it rise over night.

18. Bread Biscuit.

Three pounds of flour, half a pint of Indian meal sifted, a little butter, two spoonfuls of lively yeast; set it before the fire to rise over night; mix it with warm water.

19. Tea Biscuit.

* Take one pint of sour milk, one tea-spoonful of saleratus, flour enough to knead up, a small piece of lard or butter, a little salt; roll it out, and cut it into small biscuits.

20. Light Biscuit.

Take two pounds of flour, a pint of buttermilk, half a tea-spoonful of saleratus; put into the buttermilk a small piece of butter or lard rubbed into the flour; make it about the consistency of bread before baking.

21. Rice Biscuit.

Two pounds of flour, a tea-cupful of rice, well boiled, two spoonfuls of yeast; mix it with warm water; when risen enough, bake it.

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22. Griddle Cakes.

Rub three ounces of butter into a pound of flour with a little salt, moisten it with sweet buttermilk to make it into paste, roll it out, and cut the cakes with the cover of your dredging-box, and put them upon a griddle to bake.

23. Short Cake.

Rub in a very small bit of shortening, or three table-spoonfuls of cream, with the flour; put a tea-spoonful of dissolved saleratus into your sour milk, and mix the cake pretty stiff, to bake quick.

24. Superior Johnny-Cake.

* Take one quart of milk, three eggs, one tea-spoonful saleratus, one teacup of wheat flour, and Indian meal sufficient to make a batter of the consistency of pancakes. Bake quick, in pans previously buttered, and eat it warm with butter or milk. The addition of wheat flour will be found to be a great improvement in the art of making these cakes.

25. Rich Milk Biscuit.

Two pounds of sifted flour, eight ounces butter, two eggs, three gills of milk, a gill and a half of yeast. Cut the butter into the milk and warm it slightly, sift the flour into a pan, and pour the milk and butter into it. Beat the eggs and pour them in, also the yeast; mix all well together with a knife. Flour your moulding-board, put the lump of dough on it, and knead it very hard. Then cut the dough in small pieces, and knead them into round balls; prick and set them in buttered pans to rise till light, probably about an hour, and bake them in a moderate oven.

26. Butter Biscuit.

Eight ounces of butter, two pounds of flour sifted, half a pint of milk or cold water, a salt spoonful of salt. Cut up the butter in the flour and put the salt to it, wet it to a stiff dough with the milk or water, mix it well with a knife. Throw some flour on the moulding-board, take the dough out of the pan, and knead it very well. Roll it out into a large, thick sheet, and beat it very hard on both


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sides with the rolling-pin. Beat it a long time, cut it out, with a tin or cup, into small, round, thick cakes. Beat each cake on both sides with the rolling-pin, prick them with a fork, put them in buttered pans, and bake them to a light brown in a slow oven.

27. Common Toast.

* Put a lump of butter in your spider, set it over the fire, and pour some water from the tea-kettle; when the butter is melted, put in some thickening, made of flour, and milk, and water, and stir it all together; have your bread, either brown or white, toasting, and immerse it all over in the toast. If your bread is old and dry, dip it in hot water before you put it in the toast.

28. Cream Toast.

* Is made in the same way, by using cream instead of butter.

29. Yeast Cakes.

To have good yeast in summer is a desirable object with every housewife. She may have such, by the following simple process:--

Boil a single handful of hops (which every farmer can and ought to raise, to the extent of household wants) in two or three quarts of water; strain and thicken the liquor, when hot, with rye flour; then add two or three small yeast cakes, to set the mass. If this is done at evening, it will be fit for use early next morning. Reserve a pint of this yeast, which thicken with Indian meal, make into small cakes the size of crackers, and dry them in the shade for future use. In this way the yeast is always fresh and active. Yeast cakes kept a long time are apt to become rancid, and lose their virtues. The fresher the cakes, the better the yeast.

30. Yeast.

Boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, add a little salt, in two gallons of water, for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it and cork it close, and it will be fit for use in twenty-four hours. One pint of the yeast will make eighteen lbs. of bread.

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> 31. To preserve Bread, or prevent it from moulding.

Bread that is kept in a damp place, or not used soon after a heavy rain, is apt to collect a kind of moss or mould. This can be easily prevented, by mixing a small quantity of arrow-root with the flour, before the dough is ready for the oven. It is also useful in preparing sea biscuit for long voyages.

32. Cup Cake, No. 1.

One cup butter, two cups sugar, three cups flour, and four eggs, well beat together, and baked twenty minutes, in pans or cups.

* This same quantity, with currants or raisins added, makes a very good loaf cake.

33. Cup Cake, No. 2.

* Four cups of flour, two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, one cup of cream, four eggs, one nutmeg, half a tea-spoonful of saleratus, one cup of raisins, and one of currants.

34. Election Cake.

Four pounds of flour; three quarters of a pound of butter; four eggs; one pound of sugar; half a pint of good yeast; wet it with milk, as soft as can be moulded on a board. Set it to rise over night in winter; in warm weather, three hours is usually enough for it to rise. Bake it about three quarters of an hour.

35. Sponge Cake, No. 1.

The weight of six eggs in sugar, the weight of four eggs in flour, a little rose-water. The whites and yolks of ten eggs should be beaten thoroughly and separately. The eggs and sugar should be well beaten together; but after the flour is sprinkled, it should not be stirred a moment longer than is necessary to mix it well; it should be poured into the pan, and got into the oven with all possible expedition. Twenty minutes is about long enough to bake it.

36. Sponge Cake, No. 2.

* Four large eggs, two cups of flour, two cups of sugar, even full; beat the two parts of the eggs separate,


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the white to a froth, then beat them together, then stir in the flour, and without delay put it into the oven.

37. Cheap Sponge Cake, No. 3.

Four eggs, three cups of sugar, one cup of milk, one tea-spoonful of saleratus, flour enough to make it a good stiff batter, a little salt and spice, quick oven. Bake it twenty minutes.

38. Rice Flour Sponge Cake, No. 4.

It is made like other sponge cake, except that you use three quarters of a pound of rice flour, thirteen eggs, leaving out four whites, and add a little salt.

39. Raised Cake.

* Four pounds of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, one pint of new milk, one pint of yeast; when risen, put it in the oven, and bake it till you can put a knitting needle in, and draw it out clean.

40. Carraway Cake.

Take one pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, a glass of rose-water, four eggs, and half a tea-cup of caraway seed,--the materials well rubbed together, and beat up. Drop them from a spoon on tin sheets, and bake them twenty or thirty minutes, in rather a slow oven.

41. Loaf Cake, No. 1.

* Four pounds of flour, two pounds of sugar, one pint of yeast, three eggs, two nutmegs, one pound of raisins; rub half the sugar and butter when you mix it, let it rise, then rub the rest of the butter and sugar, and pour it into pans, and bake immediately.

42. Loaf Cake, No. 2.

* Three pounds of flour, one pound and a half of butter, one pound and a quarter of sugar, one pound of raisins, one pint of yeast, ten eggs; spice to your taste.

43. Loaf Cake, No. 3.

Two pounds of flour, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs, a gill of sweet yeast, half


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an ounce of cinnamon, a large spoonful of rose-water; if it is not about as thin as good white bread dough, add a little milk. Bake it about three quarters of an hour.

44. Loaf Cake, No. 4.

* Five eggs, two large tea-cupfuls of molasses, the same of brown sugar rolled fine, the same of fresh butter, one cup of rich milk, five cups of flour sifted; add powdered allspice, cloves, and ginger, to your liking. Cut up the butter in the milk, warm them slightly, warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and butter, then stir in gradually the sugar, and let it cool. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour; add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard. Add half a pound of currants or raisins, and bake it in a moderate oven.

45. Loaf Cake, very nice, No. 5.

* One pound of flour, three eggs, one cup of sugar, one of butter, one pound of raisins, half a pound of currants, two tea-spoonfuls of rose-water, nutmeg, one cup of cream, one tea-spoonful of saleratus.

46. Cheap Loaf Cake, No. 6.

Two cups of flour, one cup of molasses, two eggs well beat up, half a cup of currants, half a cup of raisins, half a tea-spoonful of cloves, the same of nutmegs, one tea-spoonful of saleratus, half a cup of butter.

47. Loaf Cream Cake, No. 7.

* Twelve cups of flour, seven cups of sugar, six eggs, one pint of cream, one tea-spoonful of saleratus; salt and spice to suit your taste. This is enough for two loaves; put raisins or currants in one of them.

48. Wedding Cake, No. 1.

* Four pounds of flour, four pounds of sugar, three of butter, forty eggs, five pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of currants, one ounce of mace, half an ounce of nutmeg, six tea-spoonfuls of rose-water, four tea-spoonfuls of cream of tartar, stirred in the flour, two tea-spoonfuls of saleratus well dissolved. Beat the butter and


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sugar to a cream; beat the yolks and whites separate, add the flour gradually, then the spice and saleratus. Bake it two hours and a half.

49. Wedding Cake, No. 2.

* Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty-four eggs, one ounce of mace, and three nutmegs. A little molasses makes it dark-colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron improves it. Bake it two and a half or three hours.

50. Wedding Cake, No. 3.

* Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, four pounds of sugar, thirty eggs, three and a half pounds of currants, one pound of citron, one ounce of mace, a little cinnamon, very little cloves; make it into loaves of convenient size. Bake it two and a half or three hours.

51. Frosting for Cake, No. 1.

* Beat the whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five tea-spoonfuls sifted loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is hot or cold, as is most convenient. A little lemon juice squeezed into the egg and sugar, improves it. Spread it on with a knife, and smooth it over with a soft brush, like a shaving brush.

52. Frosting for Cake, No. 2.

* Three and a half pounds of loaf sugar, the whites of twelve eggs, lemon juice, and a little potato starch.

53. Cheap Tea Cake.

Three cups of sugar, three eggs, one cup of butter, one cup of milk, a spoonful of dissolved saleratus, and four cups of flour, well beat up. If it is so stiff that it will not stir easily, add a little more milk.

54. Gingerbread, No. 1.

Rub four and a half pounds of flour with half a pound of lard, and half a pound of butter; a pint of molasses, a gill of milk, two table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful


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of saleratus, stirred together. All mixed, bake in shallow pans, twenty or thirty minutes.

55. Soft Gingerbread, No. 2.

Six tea-cups of flour, three of molasses, one of cream, one of butter, one table-spoonful of ginger, and one of saleratus.

56. Family Gingerbread, No. 3.

Four cups of molasses, two cups of