A "Literary Recipe" from Kate Douglas Wiggin
I believe Kate Douglas Wiggin wrote tongue in cheek when including her Three “Literary” Recipes in the cookbook Dorcas Dishes, A Little Book of Country Kitchen, privately published and copyrighted in 1911. The section starts with the story about reading these recipes at a Dorcas Society meeting while wishing to refute the opinion that the authors know nothing about cookery. The following is one of her three submissions (from page 92 if any of you wish to find it in the book).
—Linda Towle, Hollis
—Linda Towle, Hollis
Large Family Bread
by Kate Douglas Wiggin
A little soda measured in a silver spoon; two-thirds and a half as much again cream of tartar. If the weather is hot simply reverse the quantities and say nothing to the neighbors.
1 cup of Bar Mills flour
1 cup of Hollis flour
1 cup of Buxton flour, in the order named
1 cup new milch cow’s milk
1 cup ordinary milk; sweet if sweet; sour if it has turned
Bathe the hands carefully, and plunge them into the mixture, kneading it vigorously for an hour, being careful to stand in the draft of an open window all the time. Grease the pans well with cocoa butter or beeswax. Pour in the mixture if soft enough; crowd or push it in if it resists force, as it sometimes does with an inexperienced cook. Never allow the fire to go out when bread is baking as it often spoils it. Remove the pans, when, according to your best judgement, the bread is done, and never ask advice, as it is always unsettling. Keep the loaves in a tin cake box under the spare room bed, where the children can run and get a piece whenever disposed. This recipe sometimes cures the bad habit of eating between meals.
by Kate Douglas Wiggin
A little soda measured in a silver spoon; two-thirds and a half as much again cream of tartar. If the weather is hot simply reverse the quantities and say nothing to the neighbors.
1 cup of Bar Mills flour
1 cup of Hollis flour
1 cup of Buxton flour, in the order named
1 cup new milch cow’s milk
1 cup ordinary milk; sweet if sweet; sour if it has turned
Bathe the hands carefully, and plunge them into the mixture, kneading it vigorously for an hour, being careful to stand in the draft of an open window all the time. Grease the pans well with cocoa butter or beeswax. Pour in the mixture if soft enough; crowd or push it in if it resists force, as it sometimes does with an inexperienced cook. Never allow the fire to go out when bread is baking as it often spoils it. Remove the pans, when, according to your best judgement, the bread is done, and never ask advice, as it is always unsettling. Keep the loaves in a tin cake box under the spare room bed, where the children can run and get a piece whenever disposed. This recipe sometimes cures the bad habit of eating between meals.