ommerce will not be satisfactory in any receipt here
given. It has been bolted and kiln-dried out of all natural flavor. Take
the trouble to get meal water-ground, from white flint corn, and fresh
from the mill. Then you will have something worth spending time and
effort upon--spending them hopefully. Why, the wisest man can not
tell--but steam-ground meal is of a flavor wholly unlike that
water-ground. The grinding should be neither too fine nor too coarse.
Bran left in, and sifted out as needed, helps to save from musting, and
to preserve the delicate natural flavor. Fresh meal, in clean bright tin
or glass, or in a stout paper sack, where it is dry, cool and airy will
keep two months. Hence buy it judiciously, in proportion to your
family's corn-cake appetite.

It is impossible to give exactly the amount of liquid for any sort of
bread-making because the condition of flour and meal varies with weather
and keeping. This applies also to sugar--hence the need for intelligence
in the use of receipts. In damp muggy weather moisture is absorbed from
the atmosphere. Upon a dry day especially if there is much wind, drying
out is inevitable. Anything that feels clammy, or that clots, should be
dried in a warm, not hot, oven. Heating flour before mixing it, taking
care not to scorch it in the least, is one small secret of light bread,
biscuit and cake. Flour in a bag may be laid in the sun with advantage.
Use judgment in mixing. Note the appearance of what you are making
closely--when it turns out extra good, set up that first condition as a
standard.

* * * * *

_Beaten Biscuit_: (Old Style.) Sift a quart of flour into a bowl or
tray, add half a teaspoon salt, then cut small into it a teacup of very
cold lard. Wet with cold water--ice water is best--into a very stiff
dough. Lay on a floured block, or marble slab, and give one hundred
strokes with a mallet or rolling pin. Fold afresh as the dough beats
thin, dredging in flour if it begins to stick. The end of beating is to
distribute air well through the mass, which, expanding by the heat of
baking, makes the biscuit light. The dough should be firm, but smooth
and very elastic. Roll to half-inch thickness, cut out with a small
round cutter, prick lightly all over the top, and bake in steady heat to
a delicate brown. Too hot an oven will scorch and blister, too cold an
one make the biscuit hard and clammy. Aim for the Irishman's "middle
exthram