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Graham Cakes
Mrs. Spence.
One pint Graham flour, one pint white flour, one tablespoonful of butter or shortening, two tablespoonsful of molasses, two teaspoonsful of cream tartar, one teaspoonful of soda; sift cream tartar and soda in with the white flour; do not sift the Graham flour; rub well together; then rub your shortening in thoroughly; wet with milk or water not too stiff; roll out and cut in cakes; bake in a quiet oven. Baking powder may be used instead of cream of tartar and soda.
A rolled-and-cut soda biscuit, half whole wheat, sweetened only by two spoonfuls of molasses. The whole thing hinges on handling: this is biscuit method, not batter, and overworking the dough after the liquid goes in will make the cakes tough.
- A pint of flourFlour was measured by volume, so a pint is 2 cups. Figure roughly 8 oz Graham flour and 8-9 oz white, for about 4 cups of dry mixture total.
- Graham flourCoarse, unsifted whole wheat, bran and germ included. Stone-ground whole wheat flour is the closest modern equivalent; ordinary fine whole wheat works but gives a smoother, less speckled cake. The instruction not to sift it is deliberate, since sifting in that era would strip out the bran the flour is named for.
- A quiet ovenA gentle, steady, moderate heat; in a modern oven something in the region of 350F is a reasonable reading, though the book gives no temperatures. The Graham flour and molasses both brown quickly, so err low, and watch them rather than the clock.
- Cream of tartar and sodaTwo parts cream of tartar to one part soda is the standard nineteenth-century self-raising pair. If substituting, 4 teaspoons of baking powder replaces the pair here, sifted into the white flour exactly as directed.
- Order of operationsLeavening into the white flour only, then the Graham flour rubbed in, then the fat, then the liquid last. The acid and soda begin reacting the moment the milk goes in, so get the cakes cut and into the oven promptly.
- Wet with milk or waterNo quantity is given because it depends on the flour. Add liquid gradually until the dough just holds together and is soft enough to roll without cracking, roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups. "Not too stiff" is the whole instruction.
- ShorteningThe recipe allows butter or shortening, which in this period would have meant lard or drippings; modern vegetable shortening works too. Cold fat rubbed to a coarse crumb gives a flakier cake than soft fat.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; roughly a dozen and a half cakes from a 2 1/2-inch cutter. Best warm; like all soda biscuits they stale quickly.
Graham flour takes its name from Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian preacher and dietary reformer whose lectures in the 1830s urged Americans back to coarse, unbolted wheat and away from the fine white flour of commercial bakers. By the time The Home Cook Book was compiled in the 1870s, Graham flour had shed most of its sectarian associations and settled into the ordinary household repertoire as a wholesome alternative to white flour, mixed with it in equal parts as here. The recipe's small print is a useful period marker too: cream of tartar and soda are given first, with baking powder offered as an alternative, which suggests the book belongs to the decades when commercial baking powder was widely available but not yet the default. The contribution is credited to Mrs. Spence, one of the many local subscribers whose names run through this collective community cookbook.