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Rye Biscuit
Mrs. Lamkin.
Two cups rye meal, one and-a-half cups flour, onethird cup molasses, one egg, a little salt, two cups sour milk, two even teaspoons saleratus.
An ingredient list with no method, which is typical of contributed recipes in this book; the writer assumed any cook knew what to do with a soft sour-milk batter. What follows fills in the gaps.
- Saleratus is baking sodaSaleratus began as potassium bicarbonate, though by the 1870s much of what was sold under the name was sodium bicarbonate; either way, modern baking soda substitutes one for one. Two even teaspoons is on the generous side for two cups of sour milk; 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons will lift the batter without leaving a soapy, metallic aftertaste.
- Sour milk means buttermilkThe original relied on raw milk left to clabber. Use cultured buttermilk, or milk soured with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per cup. Sweet milk will not react with the soda and the biscuits will be flat and bitter.
- Rye meal, not rye flourRye meal is coarsely ground whole rye, grittier than the light sifted rye sold for bread. Whole or dark rye flour is the closest supermarket match; light rye will work but gives a paler, blander crumb.
- "Biscuit" here is a small quick breadWith two cups of buttermilk this is a soft drop batter, not a rolled dough. Spoon it into greased muffin or gem pans, or drop it in mounds on a greased sheet.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A hot oven, 400 to 425F, for 20 to 25 minutes suits a molasses batter of this size; molasses browns quickly, so check the bottoms before the tops look done.
- Mix and bake at onceThe soda begins working the moment it meets the sour milk. Combine dry and wet only when the pans are greased and the oven is up to heat, and stir just until no dry meal shows.
- YieldAbout a dozen muffin-sized biscuits, or fifteen smaller drops. Best warm; rye and molensses keep them moist a day, but they toughen after that.
The Home Cook Book (Chicago, 1874) was compiled from recipes donated by named local women, which is why this one carries Mrs. Lamkin's name and none of her instructions. Rye was the everyday grain of the northern states before cheap Midwestern wheat displaced it, and a batter of rye meal cut with a little white flour, sweetened with molasses and raised with sour milk and saleratus is a direct descendant of the older New England rye-and-Indian breads. Chemical leavening was still relatively new in domestic use: saleratus reached American kitchens in quantity in the second quarter of the century. The heavy hand with soda here, two teaspoons, may reflect the variable strength of the product.