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Griddle Cakes with Buttermilk (No. 2)
3 cups buttermilk 2 cups cream (not very thick) 5 eggs (1 egg to each cup) 2 teaspoons (rounded) cream of tartar 2 teaspoons (heaping) bicarbonate of soda 1 teaspoon salt Flavor with nutmeg Five Roses.
Bake on a smooth hot greased griddle.
Use judgment in the use of soda; it depends on how sour the buttermilk is. If cakes are soggy or sticky, put in a little more flour or soda, or both. If cakes are too thick, add a little milk.
A flour-to-taste batter typical of milling-company books, where the flour was the product being sold and the cook was trusted to judge consistency. Two things need pinning down before you start: how much flour, and how much soda.
- The missing flourNo quantity is given; the brand name stands where a measurement would be. As a starting point, something in the range of 4 to 5 cups of all-purpose flour, adjusted toward a batter that ribbons thickly off the spoon.
- The egg rule"1 egg to each cup" refers to the cups of liquid: three of buttermilk plus two of cream equals five. If you scale the recipe down, keep that ratio.
- Soda and cream of tartar togetherCream of tartar is here as insurance in case the buttermilk is not sour enough to neutralize all the soda. Two heaping teaspoons of soda is a great deal for this volume; if your buttermilk is commercial and mildly acidic, start with two level teaspoons or the cakes will taste metallic and soapy and brown too fast.
- Cream "not very thick"Cream 'not very thick' -- This most likely means light or table cream rather than whipping cream. Table cream of about 18 percent is the nearest current equivalent; half-and-half will substitute at some cost in richness.
- Mix late, cook soonChemical leavening in an acid batter starts working immediately. Combine the dry and wet only when the griddle is hot, and do not let the batter stand more than a few minutes.
- Griddle heat'Smooth hot greased griddle' gives no temperature. In modern terms aim for a moderately hot surface, in the region of 375F, where a drop of water skitters rather than sits. Grease lightly and wipe the surface between batches; pooled fat fries the edges before the centre sets.
- Diagnosing the batterThe original's troubleshooting is sound but treat soggy cakes as underbaked or overthinned first. Add flour a tablespoon at a time; more soda past the amount already there buys colour, not lift.
- YieldAbout 30 to 36 cakes of four inches, enough for eight people. Halve it easily by using a cup and a half of buttermilk, one cup of cream and two or three eggs.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company of Montreal and Winnipeg, one of the great Canadian promotional cookbooks of the early twentieth century, compiled largely from recipes sent in by women who baked with the company's flour. That origin explains the shape of this recipe: the flour is never measured because Five Roses is the point of the exercise, and the instructions assume a cook who can read a batter by eye. It also explains the buttermilk. On a farm that churned its own butter, buttermilk was a by-product arriving in quantity and varying in sourness week to week, which is exactly why the recipe hedges on the soda and tells the cook to use judgment. Two griddle-cake recipes with buttermilk appear in sequence in this section, a sign of how routinely the household had it on hand.