The CWI Cookbook

Archive for the ‘rolls, biscuits & breads’ Category

Raw bread dough
1-2 tbs. lard or butter

In kneading dough for the day’s baking, after adding and working in the risen sponge, set aside enough [dough] for a loaf of tea-rolls. Work into this a heaping tablespoonful of lard or butter, and let it stand in a tolerably cool place (not a cold or draughty one) for four hours. Knead it again, and let it alone for three hours longer. Then make into rolls, by rolling out, very lightly, pieces of the dough into round cakes, and folding these, not quite in the centre, like turn-overs. The third rising will be for one hour, then bake steadily half an hour or less, if the oven is quick. Having seen these rolls, smoking, light, and delicious upon my own table, at least twice a week for ten years, with scarcely a failure in the mixing or baking, I can confidently recommend the receipt and the product. You can make out part of your Graham dough in the same manner.

From Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comments: It is a rare household indeed these days where the words “the day’s baking” would be in common use. Most of us bake with such frequency that we need to check our oven for cobwebs and evidence of incursions by mice before using. Not so in the 19th century, where the words “give us this day our daily bread” were less a plea to a benevolent deity than a reminder to the senior female of the household of an unending chore.

These rolls would require less work than most bread products, since the long and numerous risings let the yeast provide most of the labor except for a couple of stints of kneading. Most delicate will probably be finding the right temperature that will allow that rising to proceed as planned. “Cool but not cold or drafty” is not exactly something one can program into the household thermostat. Pick a spot that seems right then check in on the dough after one hour. If it seems to be expanding at such a rate that it will double its original volume after three additional hours, let it be. If it is expanding too fast, cool it further; if not expanding at all, either it is too cold and needs to move to a warmer spot or you did something wrong and the entire project is a miserable failure. Not that we would have any experience with such outcomes, mind you.

And “Graham dough” is that which is made with Graham flour, or what we would today call whole wheat. Graham was one of numerous proponents of dietary reform, advocating whole foods, pure water, reduced or eliminated meat consumption (what, you thought these were new ideas?)

His main claim to fame today is the Graham cracker, which would seem to be sufficient immortality for anyone. Unfortunately this bears so little resemblance to the kind of food he originally recommended that if he were to return and see the items sold under that title today he would no doubt go instantly to court to sue the pants off certain cookie companies.

1 pint water
3-4 tbs. butter
Flour or corn meal
3/4 lb. cheese, grated
6 eggs

Put a pint of water, and a lump of butter the size of an egg, into a sauce pan; stir in as much flour as will make a thick batter, put it on the fire, and stir it continually till it will not stick to the pan; put it in a bowl, add three quarters of a pound of grated cheese, mix it well, then break in two eggs, beat them well, then two more until you put in six; when it looks very light, drop it in small lumps on buttered paper, bake it in a quick oven till of a delicate brown; you may use corn meal instead of flour for a change.

From The Virginia Housewife or, Methodical Cook, by Mary Randolph, 1860 edition.

Comment: This is an example of one of those delightfully confusing names which, when examined closely, turn out to be nothing like what you thought it was going to be when you first read it. Prepared as directed with flour, the result should be a sort of non-rising cheese biscuit. Made on the other hand with corn meal it would be a cheesy hushpuppy.

The final source of confusion, on which Mrs. Randolph gives us no guidance whatsoever, is the question of what sort of cheese to use here. Cheddar would seem like an obvious choice but just about any sort of hard or at least reasonably firm cheese should work well.

 1 qt. milk
3 tbs. [homemade] yeast
1 tbs. butter, melted
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp. salt
Flour

[Mix the milk, yeast and salt, then add enough] Flour to make a good batter. Set the rest of the ingredients as a sponge over night, and in the morning add the melted butter and eggs.

From Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: Mrs. Harland was even more cryptic than usual with directions here, so we have added the part in brackets.  Like many recipes of the time for breakfast breads–essentially pancakes– a careful balance had to be sought. Baking powder as we know it today had not yet been invented, and the product they used instead, known as “saleratus,” frankly tasted pretty nasty. This recipe uses a very small amount of yeast for the quantity of other ingredients, since it was to be left out overnight to save the cook a bit of time in the cold morning. That amount of yeast would induce just enough rising to make the dough light, without causing such an expansion as to engulf half the kitchen. If you try this today, seek out the coolest part of the room for the batter to spend its overnight stay, but do not refrigerate as this will keep the yeast from functioning at all. If homemade yeast is not available, try to find the moist cake form of the product rather than the dry powder in packets.

 1 and 1/2 lb. flour
1 and 1/2 lb. sugar
whites of 24 eggs
yolks of 18 eggs
cracked or ground coriander seeds (optional)
Yeast (optional)

Take a pound and a half of flour, a pound and a half of fine sugar, the whites of twenty-four, and the yolks of eighteen eggs, put in coriander seeds beaten small at discretion; mix these well together, and make them into a soft paste, add a little soft yeast or not. Lay this paste on paper, or in crusts about two inches broad, and four inches long, set them in a moderate oven, and when they begin to turn brown, take them out, and lay them on paper, in a dry place.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housekeeper” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston 1832

Comment: This is a rather peculiar recipe. We cannot think of another which lists “a little yeast” as an option, and give no other rising agent at least as an alternative. Without the yeast this will make a very flat, and we would think very dull, not to mention very tough, biscuit, almost of the level of hardtack. On the other hand the addition of so much egg, both yolk and especially the whites, might serve to induce some rising just from heat expansion of the gas bubbles included therein. Coriander, if used, will give a rye flavor to the bread.

The suggestion to bake “on paper” means cooking-quality parchment paper. Once available only in gourmet cookware stores, this can now be found in a fair range of supermarkets, in the same section as aluminum foil and rolls of plastic wraps

 1 quart sweet milk (half-cream if you can get it)
1 qt. flour–heaping
6 eggs
1 tbs. butter and the same of lard, melted together

Beat the eggs light–the yolks and whites separately; add the milk, with a little salt, then the shortening, lastly the flour, stirring in lightly. Bake immediately in well-greased rings half filled with the batter. Your oven should be hot, and the muffins sent to table so soon as they are taken up.

Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: “Sweet milk” as called for here is simply milk which has not gone sour, not one to which any sort of sugar has been added. This recipe may be more challenging in the realm of equipment than it is in ingredients or techniques. Those who go to the trouble of making muffins nowadays normally use the same utensil more commonly associated with cupcakes, although it is in fact still called a “muffin tin.”

The description above seems to indicate that the resulting breadstuffs are to be of considerably larger diameter, perhaps in the four to six inch range. Mrs. Harland apparently expects everyone to have “greased rings” of the requisite size, but it may take a trip to a cooking-gadget emporium somewhat more specialized than the average department store to find them.

 3/4 lb. flour
3 tsp. homemade yeast (1 drachm equals 60 grains, about 1 teaspoon. Use maybe a half a pack of commercial yeast, or half a cake)
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 oz. sugar
Cream
1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks)

To make a dozen small couglauffles, take three quarters of a pound of flour, three drachms of yeast, two of salt, two whole eggs, three yolks, two ounces of sugar, a little cream, and half a pound of butter. The preparation is made the same as the German Couglauffle. When the paste is made, divide it into twelve equal parts; butter a dozen small biscuit moulds, and fill each with your preparation, and let them stand; when risen so as to fill the moulds, put them into a brisk oven, and take them out as soon as they are of a light color.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housekeeper” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston 1832

Comment: We do not usually think of Boston in the 1830s as a hotbed of German immigration, but there was evidently enough that Mrs. Lee not only had a source for these couglauffle recipes but figured there was enough of an audience to include them in her (literally) encyclopedic work. Note also the mention of “small biscuit molds” which suggests there was a market for semi-useless kitchen gadgets as well. Rumors that these devices were only concocted with the advent of half-hour TV infomercials should hereby be put to rest.