BREADS AND GRAINS

Country Biscuits

Take 1 quart of flour, 3 teaspoonfuls of cream of tarter, mixed well through the flour, 2 tablespoons of shortening, 1 teaspoon of soda, dissolved in enough warm water to mold the quart of flour. For large families the amounts can be doubled.

Soda Biscuits

To one quart of sour milk, add 1 teaspoon of soda, 1 teaspoon salt and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Add enough flour to make dough and roll them out

Cornmeal Mush

1/2 cup Cornmeal
2-3/4 cups Water
3/4 teaspoon Salt

Sprinkle cornmeal into boiling water, stirring constantly. Add salt and cook for about half an hour.
Serve with sugar and cream. (Circa 1830)

Indian Cornmeal Cake

1-1/2 cups Yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Flour
3 teaspoons Rosewater (Vanilla)
1-2/3 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup Butter
8 Eggs

Mix the sugar, butter and eggs. Mix the cornmeal and salt together, and combine with the sugar, butter and egg mixture. Add vanilla and cinnamon and mix well. Pour into a floured cake pan and bake in a moderate oven. (Circa 1830)

Jonny Cake (Rice)
(sometime called Journey)

To 3 spoonfuls of soft boiled rice, add a small tea cup of water or milk. Then add 6 spoonfuls of rice flour. This will make a large Jonny cake or 6 waffles.

Jonny Cake (Cornmeal)
(sometime called Journey)

In a large bowl combine 1 cup stoneground white cornmeal, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in 1 3/4 cups milk, or enough to make a thin batter. Drop this batter by the tablespoons onto a hot well-oiled heavy iron griddle and cook the cakes over low heat for 4 or 5 minutes or until underside is browned. Turn the cakes over and cook them for5 minutes, or until the other side is browned. Serve the jonnycakes very hot with butter and maple syrup.

Indian Bread

Mix together, 1 quart of buttermilk, one quart of corn meal, 1 quart of course flour, (wholewheat?) 1 cup molasses, and a little soda and some salt. Mix well and bake.

COOKING MEAT

Fried Squirrel

Rinse skinned squirrel in cold water and pat dry. Dip in buttermilk and then in seasoned flour, and fry in hot fat. If the squirrel is young, steaming is not necessary. Otherwise, drain off excess fat and add a cup of water and steam covered.

Make gravy in the frying pan by adding leftover seasoned flour and milk or water. Serve with biscuits and wild plum jelly. (from 1818)

Coon (Raccoon)

The Best way to cook a coon is to leave the coon whole after gutting and leave it soak all night in salt water. Parboil the coonfor a little while and then take out of the water and fill the chest cavity with sweet potatoes. Then bake in the oven until brown and tender.

Rabbit

Cut the rabbit across the middle of the back and insert the fingers and pull both ways. Lift the legs out of the pelt.

Cut the rabbit into sections. If young and tender, salt and pepper and roll in flour and fry in hot lard. Remove rabbit and all grease but about 3 tablespoons of grease. Add salt and let brown. Then add 2 tablespoons of flour and let brown. Then add about equal quantities of milk and water and let it cook until thick. Serve with rabbit and hot biscuites.

If rabbit is old, parboil and then fry as young rabbit.

Frog

Cut the legs off and clean them and throw the rest of the frog away. Heat grease moderately hot. If heated two hot the legs may jump out of the pan. Roll the legs as if they were chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper and fry until done.

Backbone Pie

Take the smallest end of the backbone, cut in peices 2 or 3 inches long; put in water and boil until done. Make a nice rich pastry; line the sides of a baking dish with the pastry, put in the bones, adding some water in which they were boiled; also salt, butter, and pepper to tast with bits of pastry.

Cover top of baking dish with pastry; put in stove and brown nicely

Salt Pork and Gravy

Salt pork is seldom used for anything other than seasoning now, but it was a staple of the early Texans. It was boiled to remove the excess salt and then prepared.

Slice one pound of salt pork thin. Freshen it by putting the slices in cold water and bringing to a boil. Then dry the slices, slit the edges and fry to a crisp. Make cream gravy with the drippings.

Cream Gravy

Keep about 3 tablespoons of the grease and as much browned bits in the pan. While still hot, Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour in the hot oil and quickly stir with a wooden spoon, to brown the flour. gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps.

Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Hog's Head Cheese

Clean the hog's head and remove the eyes. Cut into 4 pieces. Soak in salt water for several hours to draw out blood and wash in cold water. Heart, tongue and other pieces can be cooked with the head. Cover with hot water and cook until the meat can be removed from the bones. Run the meat through a grinder, strain the broth and add about one pint of the broth to about four pounds of meat. Add salt, pepper, red pepper and spice to taste. Mix throughly and put in pan or crock to set. Store in cool place.

Homemade Lard

Trim fat from different parts of the hog and intestines. Cut the fat into small pieces and place in a large kettle out of doors, string constantly as it becomes fluid. It will be done as soon as scraps of fat turn brown. Strain through a clean piece of cloth and store in earthen crocks. Lard from intestines does not keep long, so keep it separate and use it first.

Rice Pudding

Add 1 pint of rice flour to 1 quart of milk, boil them to a pap. Beat 6 eggs and add 6 spoonsful of Havana sugar and a spoonful of butter. When well beaten together, add to the milk and flour mixture. Grease the baking pan, grate nutmeg over the mixture and bake it.

Quick Pudding

Beat up 4 eggs, add a pint of milk and a little salt and stir in 4 large spoonfuls of flour and a little nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Beat it well and pour it into buttered tea cups, filling them half full. They will bake in a stove or Dutch oven in 15 minutes.

Venison Jerkey

6 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 1/2 lb. Boneless Venison

Combine all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl or, if you have one, a spare spice bottle with a shaker top.
Slice the venison with the grain into strips about 1/8 inch thick. Lay out the slices and sprinkle evenly with the seasoning mix. Pound the strips lightly, flip them over and repeat for other side.
Smoke the strips until dry.

Artifical Fried Oysters

Take young green corn, grate it in a dish. To one pint of this, add 1 egg, well beaten, a small teacup of flour, 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter, some salt and pepper. Mix it all together.

Drop tablespoons of the batter in hot fat. Fry them until light brown and butter them lightly when done.

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