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Flannel Cakes
Mix with two pounds of flour, half a dozen well-beaten eggs, half a teacupful of yeast and a little salt with enough milk to form a thick batter, and set one side to rise. Bake in small well-greased tins.
A yeast-raised griddle batter of the old school, written for a cook who already knew what flannel cakes looked like. The quantities are large and the method is compressed, so a few things need spelling out.
- Scale it downTwo pounds of flour is roughly 7 cups and will feed a dozen or more people. Quartering the recipe — half a pound of flour, 1 or 2 eggs — gives a manageable household batch.
- Half a teacupful of yeastThis means liquid barm or a wet homemade yeast, not modern granules. A teacupful was commonly reckoned at 4 to 6 fl oz, so this is perhaps 2 to 3 fl oz of barm; as a rough modern stand-in, about one packet (2 1/4 tsp) of active dry yeast, proofed in a little warm milk.
- How much milkThe original leaves it to judgment. For two pounds of flour expect roughly 3 to 4 cups, worked in until the batter drops thickly from the spoon rather than pouring — closer to a thick pancake batter than a crepe batter.
- "Set one side to rise"Set the bowl aside, covered, in a warm place. Two to three hours at room temperature, or overnight in a cool larder or the refrigerator. The batter should be domed and bubbly, and it will smell faintly of beer.
- Don't beat it downThe whole point of a flannel cake is the open, soft, fleecy crumb the yeast gives it. Stir once gently to loosen, then ladle. Vigorous mixing after the rise flattens them into ordinary pancakes.
- "Small well-greased tins"Most likely shallow rings or small pans set on a griddle over direct heat, though the wording does not rule out an oven. A greased griddle at moderate heat, with or without metal rings, does the same job. Cook until the surface is set and pocked with holes, then turn once.
- Yield and servingThe full quantity makes something in the region of forty 4-inch cakes. Served hot with butter and syrup.
Flannel cakes were a familiar item on American hotel and boarding-house breakfast tables through the nineteenth century, and the name is usually explained as descriptive: the yeast-raised batter cooks to a soft, napped texture unlike the tighter crumb of a soda or baking-powder pancake. Recipes of this kind predate reliable chemical leaveners, and the half-teacupful of yeast points to a kitchen with access to live barm, kept from bake to bake or bought from a brewer.