e."

There are sundry machines which do away with beating. It is possible
also to avoid it by running the dough, after mixing, several times
through a food-chopper. Also beaten biscuit can be closely imitated by
making good puff paste, rolling, cutting out, pricking and baking--but
rather more quickly than the real thing. All these are expedients for
those who live in apartments, where the noise of beating might be held
against good neighborhood. Householders, and especially suburban ones,
should indulge in the luxury of a block or stone or marble slab--and
live happy ever after, if they can but get cooks able and willing to
make proper use of it.

_Soda Biscuit_: (Old Style.) Sift a quart of flour with a heaping
teaspoonful of baking soda. Add a good pinch of salt, rub well through
lard or butter the size of the fist, then wet with sour milk to a
moderately soft dough, roll out, working quickly, cut with small round
cutter, set in hot pans, leaving room to swell, and bake in a quick oven
just below scorching heat. Handle as lightly as possible all
through--this makes flaky biscuit.

By way of variety, roll out thin--less than a half-inch, cut with
three-inch cutter, grease lightly on top, and fold along the middle. Let
rise on top a hot stove several minutes before putting to bake. By
adding an egg, beaten light, with a heaping tablespoonful of sugar to
the dough in mixing, these doubled biscuit will be quite unlike the
usual sort.

_Salt Rising Bread_: (As Mammy Made It.) Scald a tablespoonful of sifted
cornmeal, and a teaspoonful--heaped--of salt with a pint of boiling
water, let stand ten minutes, then stir in, taking care to mix smooth,
enough dried and sifted flour to make a thick batter. Damp flour will
not rise. The batter should be almost thick enough to hold the mixing
spoon upright--but not quite thick enough. Set the mixture in warm
water--just as hot as you can bear your hand in. Keep up the heat
steadily, but never make too hot--scalding ruins everything. Keep
lightly covered, and away from draughts. Look in after an hour--if water
has risen on top, stir in more flour. Watch close--in six hours the
yeast should be foamy-light. Have ready three quarts of dry sifted
flour, make a hole in the center of it, pour in the yeast, add a trifle
more salt, a tablespoonful sugar, and half a cup of lard. Work all
together to a smooth dough, rinsing out the vessel that has held the
yeast, with warm not hot water to