Ingredients
- three drops of rose-water
- a quart of white cornmeal
- a teaspoonful of salt
- salt
Directions
To the white of an unbeaten egg add a cupful and a quarter of pulverized sugar, and stir until smooth. Add three drops of rose-water, ten of vanilla, and the juice of half a lemon. It will at once become very white, and will harden in five or six minutes.
CHAPTER IX
DISTINCTIVELY SOUTHERN DISHES
[Sidenote: The Cornmeal.]
[Sidenote: The Hoe.]
The dishes in which the South excel, and which may be called distinctive to that section, are those made of cornmeal, of gumbo or okra, and those seasoned with sassafras powder or twigs. The cornmeal used in the South is white and coarse-grained (it is called there water-ground), and gives quite a different result from that which is finer in grain and yellow in color, which is usually sold at the North. The hoe used for baking corn-cakes is an article made for the purpose, and not the garden implement usually associated with the name.
Sift a quart of white cornmeal, add a teaspoonful of salt; pour on enough cold water to make a mixture which will squeeze easily through the fingers. Work it to a soft dough. Mold it into oblong cakes an inch thick at the ends, and a little thicker in the center. Slap them down on the pan, and press them a little. These cakes, they say, must show the marks of the fingers. The pan must be hot, and sprinkled with the bran sifted from the meal. Bake in a hot oven for about twenty minutes.