205. The materials for a good batch of cakes are as follows:--3 ounces of good fresh Hops; 3-1/2 pounds of Rye Flour; 7 pounds of Indian Corn Meal; and one Gallon of Water.--Rub the hops, so as to separate them. Put them into the water, which is to be boiling at the time. Let them boil half an hour. Then strain the liquor through a fine sieve into an earthen vessel. While the liquor is hot, put in the Rye-Flour; stirring the liquor well, and quickly, as the Rye-Flour goes into it. The day after, when it is working, put in the Indian Meal, stirring it well as it goes in. Before the Indian Meal be all in, the mess will be very stiff; and it will, in fact, be _dough_, very much of the consistence of the dough that bread is made of.--Take this dough; knead it well, as you would for _pie-crust_. Roll it out with a rolling-pin, as you roll out pie-crust, to the thickness of about a third of an inch. When you have it (or a part of it at a time) rolled out, cut it up into cakes with a tumbler glass turned upside down, or with something else that will answer the same purpose. Take a clean board (a _tin_ may be better) and put the cakes _to dry in the sun_. Turn them every day; let them receive _no wet_; and they will become as hard as ship biscuit. Put them into a bag, or box, and keep them in a place _perfectly free from damp_. When you bake, take two cakes, of the thickness above-mentioned, and about 3 inches in diameter; put them into hot water, _over-night_, having cracked them first. Let the vessel containing them stand near the fire-place all night. They will dissolve by the morning, and then you use them in setting your sponge (as it is called) precisely as you would use the yeast of beer.
206. There are _two things_ which may be considered by the reader as obstacles. FIRST, where are _we_ to get the _Indian Meal_? Indian Meal is used merely because it is of a _less adhesive_ nature than that of wheat. White pea-meal, or even barley-meal, would do just as well. But SECOND, to _dry_ the cakes, to make them (and _quickly_ too, mind) _as hard as ship biscuit_ (which is much harder than the timber of Scotch firs or Canada firs;) and to do this _in the sun_ (for it must not be _fire_,) where are we, in this climate, to _get the sun_? In 1816 we could not; for, that year, melons rotted in the _glazed frames_ and never ripened. But, in every nine summers out of ten, we have in June, in July, or in August, _a fortnight of hot sun_, and that is enough. Nature has not given us a _peach-climate_; but we _get peaches_. The cakes, when put in the sun, may have a _glass sash_, or a _hand-light_, put over them. This would make their birth _hotter_ than that of the hottest open-air situation in America. In short to a farmer's wife, or any good housewife, all the little difficulties to the attainment of such an object would appear as nothing. The _will_ only is required; and, if there be not that, it is useless to think of the attempt.