Recipes
Recipes
Corn cakes are the easiest bread to make on a board by
a fire.
People made this bread based on their personal taste and
what
they had available. An easy recipe is two cups corn meal
mixed with
hot water until you have a stiff, workable dough.
Shortening or salt
may be added. Pat into flat cakes the size
of a biscuit about an inch
thick. The cake can then be baked on
a flat board or metal plate
before a fire. Avoid resinous woods
such as
pine.
Crust: Use two cups flour with one cup lard (bacon grease,
butter,
or even drippings were used). Add 1 tsp baking powder
and 1 tsp. salt.
Add boiling water enough to made an easily
worked dough. Wrap the
dough in cloth and let stand
(preferably in a cool place) until ready
to roll out on a
floured board.
Steam and drain berries. Sprinkle 1tbs tapioca and
1 tbs. sugar
over lower crust. Fill the lower crust with
about 2 ½ cups of
berries. Push berries back from the
center to allow juices to pool
there. Add 1 tbs. tapioca, about ¼
cup sugar and 1/8 tsp. salt. Pour
¾ cup of the berry juice
and 1 tsp. lemon juice over the berries. Fit
and secure
top crust.
Fry Bread: 3-4 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking powder
1 cup milk
Knead until soft and not sticky. Roll out very thin. Place in cast iron frying pan in light coating of grease.
This type of bread could also be made fairly easily on a journey (of sometimes called Journey Bread.) It could be cooked on a flat board heated by a fire. But the preferred method was on a piece of tin which was first heated by the fire, and possibly given a light coating of bacon grease.
Another frequently used and easy to prepare bread was corn bread
Boil two cups of water.
Add ½ tsp salt
Sprinkle in cornmeal slowly
Keep stirring in the cornmeal until it thickens.
This can be eaten as is, as a mush with butter, honey or maple syrup. Or it can be put in a baking pan, allowed to set, then fried on both sides in butter and eaten with butter, honey or maple syrup.