Rye Biscuit
Put one cupful of cornmeal in a bowl, pour over it sufficient boiling water to moisten thoroughly and cover until cool; add one pint of scalded milk, one tablespoonful butter, one scant teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of sugar. When lukewarm add one-third of a yeast cake dissolved in a little lukewarm water and sufficient wheat flour to make a drop batter. Beat well and set aside until light and spongy, then add rye flour to make a soft dough. Flour the board with white flour (rye is too sticky).
A yeast-raised roll, not a chemically leavened American biscuit — the cornmeal scald and the long sponge do all the work. The original stops at the dough stage, so shaping, proofing and baking are left to the cook's judgment.
- "Biscuit" here means a rollIn this period a yeast biscuit is a small hand-shaped roll, closer to a dinner roll than to a baking-powder biscuit. The recipe gives no yield.
- The cornmeal scald is the hingePouring boiling water over the meal and letting it cool gelatinizes the starch, which is what keeps a rye loaf from turning dense and dry. Do not shortcut it, and do not add the yeast until the mixture is genuinely lukewarm — hot mush will kill it.
- Yeast cakeCompressed yeast cakes of this period varied in size, commonly somewhere in the range of about 0.6 to 1 oz, so any equivalence is approximate; one-third of a cake corresponds to roughly 1/2 teaspoon of modern active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve active dry in the lukewarm water as written; instant can go straight into the flour.
- MeasuresOne pint of scalded milk is two cups. Scalding is usually explained as deactivating an enzyme in raw milk that weakens gluten, though period cooks also scalded milk for keeping and cleanliness; with pasteurized milk it is unnecessary, though warming it to lukewarm is still convenient.
- "Drop batter" and "soft dough"A drop batter is thick enough to fall from the spoon in a lump rather than pour — roughly the consistency of a thick pancake batter. The recipe asks only that the sponge be "light and spongy"; with one-third of a yeast cake this may take several hours. Rye flour is then worked in until the mass just holds together and is still tacky.
- Why rye stays stickyRye has little gluten-forming protein and a lot of pentosans, which hold water and give the dough its gumminess. No amount of kneading will make it behave like wheat dough; flour the board with white flour as directed and handle it briefly with a bench scraper.
- Finishing the recipeThe original stops at the dough and gives no oven direction. Shape into rolls, set on a greased pan, cover and let rise until nearly doubled, then bake hot — around 400 to 425F is a reasonable modern choice — for about 20 minutes, until the crust is firm and the bottoms sound hollow.
Rye and cornmeal together are one of the oldest habits in American baking, going back to the colonial "rye and Injun" loaves that stretched scarce wheat with the two grains that grew reliably in New England. By the time this book appeared, wheat flour was cheap and abundant, and rye had shifted from necessity to preference — kept on for its flavor, its keeping quality and its association with a plainer sort of table. The recipe reflects the transition: wheat flour builds the sponge and provides the structure, while rye is added at the end for character. The scalded-cornmeal base is a technique also found in anadama bread and other New England yeast breads, though the resemblance is one of method rather than documented lineage, and the small fraction of a yeast cake with a long, slow rise is often said to have suited kitchens that set their sponge at night and baked in the morning.