Breakfast and Tea Cakes

Handle soda biscuits as little as possible, make rapidly, and put directly in the oven. Do the same with baking powder biscuits.

Mix soda and cream tartar or baking powder in the flour (use baking powder with sweet milk, soda with sour) so the effervescence takes place in the flour.

One teaspoonful of soda and two of cream tartar, or three teaspoonfuls baking powder to every three pints of flour, is a proper proportion.

Build the fire some time before biscuits are made to avoid burning.

Bake biscuits in eight minutes. Any bread or pastry mixed with water requires a hotter fire than that mixed with milk.

Allow biscuits and rolls to rise one-half longer than bread rolls. Prick all biscuits and bread except brown and Graham bread with a fork before putting them in the oven.

Heat waffle irons, butter or grease with lard, fill one side with batter, close and lay on fire or stove, turn after a few minutes and brown underside. Muffins are baked in muffin rings. Both muffins and waffles take about twice as long to bake as griddle cakes. When eating, do not cut but break open.

Plunge stale bread, biscuit, and cake in cold water briefly, then bake in oven ten or fifteen minutes; eat immediately. Crackers, if put in oven dry, will taste fresh.

Make baking powder at home by mixing eight ounces flour, eight ounces soda, five ounces tartaric acid, and sieve.

To one quart of rich buttermilk add two small teaspoons soda, one teaspoon salt, flour to make stiff dough; mix quickly and as little as possible; roll out and cut; bake quickly. If they are yellow, use less soda; if heavy, more.