Doughnuts (No. 2)

This is a shorthand entry — the second of several doughnut variants printed in a row, with the sugar, eggs and method left to the recipe above it. Read it as a set of proportions rather than a standalone recipe.

• What is missingThere is no sugar, egg or salt listed and no mixing or frying instructions. Compiled cookbooks of this type often ran variants in sequence and expected the reader to carry over the method from the preceding recipe; the sugar and egg quantities are not recoverable from this entry, so any figures used are the modern cook's guess. Mix as for any cake doughnut.
• Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured whole milk. The term existed to distinguish it from sour milk or buttermilk, which would have called for soda instead of baking powder.
• Heaping teaspoonsA heaping teaspoon holds appreciably more than a level one, and the strength of period baking powders varied. Two heaping teaspoons for two-thirds of a cup of milk is generous by current standards; reducing to about 2 level teaspoons of modern double-acting powder is a reasonable starting point.
• Flour to rollDeliberately vague because flour absorbency varied batch to batch. Add flour only until the dough is just firm enough to pat out and cut. Too much flour makes a heavy, tough doughnut.
• FlavoringIn recipes of this period 'spice' usually meant grated nutmeg, sometimes with a little cinnamon or mace; 'lemon' meant lemon extract or grated rind. About half a teaspoon of nutmeg or a teaspoon of extract suits a batch this size.
• Frying fat and temperatureThe original would have used lard or a beef-suet shortening in a deep iron kettle, judged by dropping in a scrap of dough. Hold the fat at 365-375F: below that the doughnuts soak, above it the outside colors before the crumb sets.
• YieldYield cannot be worked out from this entry, since the sugar, egg and flour amounts are all missing. Fry only three or four at a time so the fat temperature does not crash.