Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1616

1444 Method.—Weigh the flour and meal on to the board, take the soda, acid and salt, and rub these ingredients through a fine hair-sieve on to the flour and meal, then add the sugar and fat and rub together until smooth; make a bay or hole in the centre, and work into a smooth paste with milk, taking care not to have it too dry or tight, or considerable trouble will be experienced in rolling out the cakes, as they will be found very short. Having wet the paste, take small pieces about the size of an egg, and roll these out thin and round with a small rolling-pin, dusting the board with a mixture partially of oatmeal and flour. When rolled down thin enough, take a sharp knife and cut them in 4, place them on clean flat tins, and bake in a warm oven. These cakes require very careful handling, or they will break all to pieces.

Time.—To bake, 20 to 25 minutes. Average Cost, 1s. Sufficient for about 18 small cakes.

Ingredients.—½ a lb. of double-dressed Scotch oatmeal, ½ an oz. of fat or butter, 1 pinch of carbonate of soda, sufficient to cover a threepenny piece.

Method.—Put about ½ a pound of meal into 1 pint basin, and have a teacup, into which put a small piece of butter, or lard, the size of a small hazel-nut, and a pinch of carbonate of soda; pour on this about ½ a teacup of hot water, stir until the butter is melted, and soda is dissolved, then mix quickly with the meal in the basin with the point of a knife, and when the mixture is thoroughly stirred, turn it out on a paste-board, and mould it quite compactly, keeping it round and flat, and with the knuckles spreading it gradually, taking care that it does not crack at the edges; strew plenty of dry meal over it to roll it out with the crimped roller, and every now and then rub the surface with the flat of the hand to disengage all superfluous meal; when rolled as thin as a penny-piece, and fairly round, put the knife in the centre and divide it into 3, then, having the girdle over the fire, lay the cakes on the hot iron, the plain side down, and as the cakes get done, move them in succession from a cool spot to a hotter. By pressing the nail on the surface, if they are not doughy it is a sign that they are sufficiently baked. With care the cakes can be baked in a greased frying-pan with a trivet underneath. Now move them from over the fire on to the toaster before the fire, and watch that they dry gradually, for they will soon burn, and as they are taken from the fire, stand them carefully on edge till they are quite cold. While this is proceeding over the fire mix more cakes, and when one is ready to go to the toaster, fill up the vacant place. The thick cake commonly eaten by the working classes is made by putting a quantity of meal in a wooden bowl or can, adding cold water at discretion, mixing in a compact mass, and then kneading it into shape wholly with the knuckles: and proceeding as above described.