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Corn Griddle-cakes
2 cups flour 1/2 cup corn meal 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/3 cup sugar 1 1/2 cups boiling water 1 1/4 cups milk 1 egg 2 tablespoons melted butter Add meal to boiling water, and boil five minutes; turn into bowl, add milk, and remaining dry ingredients mixed and sifted, then the egg well beaten, and butter. Cook same as other griddle-cakes.
Rice Griddle-cakes I 2 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup cold cooked rice 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 cups milk 1 egg 2 tablespoons melted butter Mix and sift dry ingredients. Work in rice with tips of fingers; add egg well beaten, milk, and butter. Cook same as other griddle-cakes.
A cornmeal batter cake in which the meal is cooked to a mush before the flour goes in, which is what keeps the grit out of the finished cake.
- The hinge: cook the meal firstStirring the cornmeal into boiling water and boiling it five minutes, as directed, hydrates the starch. Skip it and the cakes are likely to taste raw and gritty.
- Let the mush coolAdd the milk to the hot mush and check the temperature before the egg and baking powder go in. If the batter is still hot the egg will set in threads and the powder will spend itself in the bowl.
- CornmealUse plain fine or medium yellow or white cornmeal, not self-rising cornmeal mix and not coarse polenta grind. Self-rising versions already carry leavening and salt and will throw the proportions off.
- Baking powderA tablespoon and a half for two and a half cups of flour and meal is generous by modern standards, whatever the reason. With modern double-acting powder two to three teaspoons is enough, and cutting back also reduces the metallic aftertaste.
- Salt and sugarA teaspoon of salt is plenty for this quantity, and the third cup of sugar makes a distinctly sweet cake that browns fast. Reduce it to two tablespoons if you want something to carry savory toppings.
- Batter consistencyThe mush thickens as it stands, so judge the milk by eye rather than by the cup measure. You want a batter that falls thickly from the spoon and spreads a little on the griddle.
- Griddle heatMedium, around 375F on an electric griddle, lightly greased. Cornmeal batter browns sooner than plain wheat batter, so turn when the surface bubbles break and the edges look dry rather than waiting for a dark underside.
- YieldA large batch: roughly two dozen or more small cakes, enough for six.