Old Maids
Made at night like common light bread. Roll out the size of saucers in the morning, for the second rising. Bake on a hoe, turning over as a hoe cake. Then toast the sides, in front of a fire. A very nice, old-fashioned bread.--Mrs. Dr. E.
This is a set of instructions rather than a formula: the dough is the book's "common light bread," and everything here concerns shaping, rising and cooking it on a griddle. Treat it as a griddle-baked yeast roll in the family of the English muffin.
- The dough is elsewhere"Common light bread" means the book's plain white yeast dough, which would be flour, water or milk, salt, yeast and at most a little lard or butter. Any lean, moderately soft white bread dough will behave the same way; nothing sweet or enriched.
- Mixed at night on purposeThe dough is set overnight so it is ready to shape in the morning, and a cool slow rise suits it. An overnight rise in the refrigerator is a reasonable substitute and is easier to time in a heated house.
- "Size of saucers"A tea saucer of the period runs roughly 5 inches across. Roll or pat the pieces about half an inch thick and let them prove on a cornmeal-dusted board or cloth until puffy, 45 minutes to an hour at room temperature.
- A "hoe"The flat iron blade of a field hoe, used over coals as a griddle. Use a dry cast-iron griddle or heavy skillet, ungreased or barely greased, over medium-low heat — around 325 to 350F if your griddle is adjustable.
- The hinge: low heat, long turnThese are thick enough that high heat scorches the outside before the centre sets. Give each side 6 to 8 minutes, turning once as you would a hoe cake, until the sides spring back and the bread sounds hollow. An instant-read thermometer should show about 200F at the centre.
- "Toast the sides"The griddle cooks the two flat faces; the rim stays pale. The old method stood them on edge before an open fire. A broiler, a toaster oven, or simply standing them on edge in the hot skillet for a minute a side does the same job.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; yield depends entirely on the batch of light bread you start from. Split them while warm — pull them open with the fingers rather than cutting, as with muffins — and serve with butter. They stale fast and are meant to be eaten the day they are made, or split and toasted the next.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), edited by Marion Cabell Tyree, is a compilation of contributions from Virginia housekeepers, credited by name or by initials, which is why this one arrives credited to "Mrs. Dr. E." and assumes the reader already knows how to set light bread overnight. Griddle-baked yeast breads of this kind cook on a flat iron surface over coals and need no oven, which mattered in kitchens where the bake oven was fired only occasionally. The name is unexplained in the book and no documented origin survives. The technique, a soft yeast dough proved twice and cooked on a griddle rather than baked, is close to the one that produces the English muffin, and the instruction to toast the untouched edges before the fire belongs to the open hearth.