Waffle

“ Should I be able to procure a small 'waffle,' or I should call it wafer, iron, in the city, I will teach you how they are made. I think them excellent. My mother made a cake dough similar to that of pound cake. To one portion she added cinnamon, to the other chocolate, and the last portion was flavored with vanilla. A piece of dough the size of a small marble was placed in the wafer iron, which was then pressed together and held over the fire in the range, by a long handle, until the wafer was crisp and brown. They are delicious and will keep indefinitely. ”

“ Baking waffles is a very exciting pastime. The metamorphosis that batter undergoes in almost [97] a twinkling of an eye into beautiful crisp brown beauties is a never ending delight and joy to the cook. ”

“ They sat down to supper soon after that and all hands agreed that it was an excellent meal. What appealed to their appetites most were the waffles, real old southern waffles, the kind that mother didn't make. A jug of molasses was produced as a surprise. Such a feast the boys had not had within memory. Cool, sparkling water was at hand. One had but to step to the stream and dip it up, but it was the waffles that put pretty much everything else out of mind. ”

“ Waffles 2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
11⁄3 cups milk
3 eggs
Sift dry ingredients; add yolks well beaten, milk, butter and stiffly beaten whites. Beat well and cook on hot waffle iron. The waffle iron should be heated fifteen or twenty minutes before using and greased thoroughly with salt pork fat.
New England Fried Bread 2 cups raised bread dough
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Roll dough to one half inch in thickness, sprinkle with cinnamon, cut in diamonds; raise; fry in deep fat; serve with sirup. ”

“ Mix the flour, baking-powder, and salt; put the beaten egg yolks in the milk, and add the melted butter, the flour and last the beaten whites of the eggs. Make the waffle-iron very hot, and grease it very thoroughly on both sides by tying a little rag to a clean stick and dipping in melted butter. Put in some batter on one side, filling the iron about half-full, and close the iron, putting this side down over the fire; when it has cooked for about two minutes, turn the iron over without opening it, and cook the other side. ”

“ The cake, when baked, is a delicious, thin, rich wafer, about the size of half a common soda cracker. I have never eaten these Christmas cakes at any place excepting at Aunt Sarah's. The wafer iron she possessed was brought by her Grandmother from Germany. The waffle or wafer irons might be obtained in this country.
ZIMMET WAFFLES (AS MADE BY FRAU SCHMIDT)
1⁄2 pound butter. 1⁄2 ounce cinnamon. 1⁄2 pound sugar. 3 eggs. Flour.
Work together and form into small balls. Place in hot buttered wafer irons, hold over fire and bake. This is an old German recipe which Frau Schmidt's grandmother used. ”

“ Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with half a pound of sifted flour. Then add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh brewer's or baker's yeast. Cover the pan with a clean thick cloth, and set it in a warm place to rise. When the batter has risen nearly to the top, and is covered with bubbles, it is time [442] to bake; first stirring in a wine-glass of rose-water. Having heated your waffle-iron in a good fire, grease it inside with the fresh butter used for the waffle mixture, or with fresh lard ”

“ One cupful each of flour and corn-meal, two cupfuls of thick sour milk, one cupful of sour cream, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of soda, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and two [Pg 183] eggs, beaten separately, the stiffly beaten whites being folded in last. Bake in a very hot, well-greased waffle-iron and serve very hot. ”

“ Waffles.—Make a thin paste with eight ounces of flour, six ounces of pulverized sugar, two eggs, a few drops of essence to flavor, half a liquor-glass of brandy or rum, and milk. Warm and butter both sides of the mould, put some of the paste into it, close it gently, set it on the fire, turn over to heat both sides equally, dust them with sugar when done, and serve either warm or cold. It takes hardly a minute for each with a good fire. ”

“ Why, they ate like a couple of canaries, dabbling with the one egg each they took, and nibbling at tiny wafers of toast. Life was low in their bodies; their blood ran thin; and they had slept warm all night. I had been out all night, consuming much fuel of my body to keep warm, beating my way down from a place called Emporium, in the northern part of the state. Wafers of toast! Out of sight! But each wafer was no more than a mouthful to me--nay, no more than a bite. It is tedious to have to reach for another piece of toast each bite when one is potential with many bites. ”

“ My warm stove is quick to get ablaze;
At the cold mirror I am slow in doing my hair.
With melted snow I boil fragrant tea;
Seasoned with curds I cook a milk-pudding.
At my sloth and greed there is no one but me to laugh ”

“ Art is required in drinking as in making this soup, and one point is this—always let your friends drink first; not only because it is more polite, but because the soup has a tendency to burn the mouth if taken too hot, and one drink of the bottom is worth two of the top, as all the goodness settles. ”

“ With the wassailing bowl I'll drink to thee.
Here's to Colly and to her long tail,
We hope our master and mistress heart will ne'er fail;
But bring us a bowl of your good strong beer,
And then we shall taste of your happy New Year.
Be there here any pretty maids? we hope there be some;
Don't let the jolly wassailers stand on the cold stone,
But open the door and pull out the pin,
That we jolly wassailers may all sail in.
Chappell's Ancient English Melodies.
[Pg 120]
BRING US IN GOOD ALE.
Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale ”

“ Presently bowls of delicious turtle soup are placed before you, and the aroma that rises is more than appetizing to a hungry man. As you convey luscious spoonfuls to your mouth, another aroma greets your olfactories: it is the fumes of coffee. ”

“ If any man ever did deserve two breakfast cups brimful of whisky, neat, before turning in, it was old, walrus-moustached, weather-battered, baby-eyed, sour-dough Jake, in the small, early hours of that Sabbath morning. ”

“ These viands, with mince-pies and other Christmas dainties, had probably somewhat the same origin, and that of considerable antiquity. The Wassail Bowl, or Lamb’s Wool, is another joyous accompaniment of this eve, a composition of ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples, still preserved in many parts. ”

“ Good whisky—ferry good whisky—and flung on the floor as if it was water, and as if there wass no one in the boat that would hef drunk it! But no matter, Mr. Eyre, no matter; the lass will drink whatever you give her, for she’s a good lass; and if we have all to drink champagne, that is no matter, too, but there is a man or two up on deck that would not like to know the whisky was spoiled. ”

“ The fresh air and the long road have set our teeth on edge and given us an appetite. We halt to break a crust. Some have brought canteens of wine or coffee; bottles of preserves appear, and the improvident—I am one—pay homage to those who pass a full flask. ”

“ At first the sensation on looking down is queer, but you soon think nothing of it. The air is very fine, the weather lovely, the feeding unexceptionable, and the only drawback consists in the "javelins," as old Francis Head used to call them—stinks of such wonderful crusted flavour that they must have been many years in bottle. ”

“ One hangs up all to dry and, sitting in a pair of mine host’s breeches, makes mirth with a vast platter of ham and eggs, to say nothing of a chicken stewed in its own soup, and a bottle of Burgundy, or a deep draught of cider, or a Yorkshire tea. ”

“ The nostrils have the like situation, because all scent likewise ascends; and they have, with great reason, a near vicinity to the mouth, because they assist us in judging of meat and drink. The taste, which is to distinguish the quality of what we take; is in that part of the mouth where nature has laid open a passage for what we eat and drink. ”

“ The nostrils open and close with strong expansive and contractive power, and blow the water away from them almost like the spouting of a miniature whale. When wide open they look as round as the aperture of a champagne or beer bottle, which they somewhat suggest, and this, perhaps, has given their bearer his title of bottle-nosed. ”

“ Meanwhile a table had been laid in the interior of our barge, and spread with cold ham, cold fowl, cold pigeon-pie, cold beef, and other substantial cheer, such as the English love, and Yankees too,—besides tarts, and cakes, and pears, and plums,—not forgetting, of course, a goodly provision of port, sherry, and champagne, and bitter ale, which is like mother's milk to an Englishman, and soon grows equally acceptable to his American cousin. ”

“ The poor little thing would lick its lips, draw in its cheeks, and turn up its eyes with an expression of the most supreme satisfaction when it had a mouthful particularly to its taste. On the other hand, when its food was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with its tongue for a moment as if trying to extract what flavour there was, and then push it all out between its lips. ”

“ Collapsing under the table, that is to say, under the deliquescent fruit, they still lick their lips, in the blissful drowsiness of a child that drops asleep with its slice of bread and jam at its lips. ”

“ If the stars drink champagne-cider out of tankards to the dregs, All the stars and little starlings with the garters on their legs, Shall an undiscovered cornet with a mile or two of tail Be put off with half a gallon of our humble home-brewed ale? ”

“ Tell him that we never see truffles, that champagne is only a tradition, and, except Moorish damsels, who never show us more of their faces than a pair of eyes,— —darting fire and anger,—we have no beauties. ”

“ A mask made to resemble a wasp's head and mouth, a waist contracted into the narrowest possible point, and a sheath, from which a sting could be emitted, sheathed, erected, or lowered at will, apprize the spectators what their dramatic character is to be. ”

“ Males and females suck whisky like milk, and are quarrelsome in proportion. The men fight (round-handed) , the women fleicht or scold, in the form of a teapot—the handle fixed and the spout sawing the air. ”

“ A mouse is baked in the oven to a 'scrump,' then pounded to powder, and this powder administered. Many ladies still have faith in this curious medicine; it reminds one of the powdered mummy, once the great cure of human ills. Country places have not always got romantic names—Wapse's Farm, for instance, and Hog's Pudding Farm. Wapse is the provincial for wasp.
Country girls are not all so shrewd as Louisa: we heard of two—this was some time since—who, being in service in London, paid ten shillings each to Madame Rachel for a bath to be made beautiful for ever. ”

“ I fed him whisky and milk, and sponged his burning nose and lips with cold water, and made him as comfortable as possible. When I had been fussing over him, I always felt well repaid when he licked my hand, and gave the edge of the box one thump with his tail. ”

“ Give us such whiskey as we call for of thy best, with lemons and sugar, but in place of hot water in the kettle, see to it that as often as it is replenished, it be filled with thy newest and palest rum. ”

“ The assemblage of people on the occasion comprised the wild in aspect, dirty in person, squalid, imperfectly clothed, all more or less strongly smelling of whisky, some dancing to music of their pipes ”

“ A slight froth rises during the process of fermentation, which is skimmed off; and the pulque is drawn into casks or pig-skins ready for transportation. What attraction to taste, sight, or smell this thin, sticky, sour, pale beverage can have, is one of the mysteries a stranger can never hope to elucidate. ”

“ When we take away the strength of any person’s ale, and give [Pg 338] it to another, we take a little quantity out of each barrel or stand of ale, and put it in a stoop in the Devil’s name, and in his name, with our own hands, put it amongst another’s ale, and give her the strength and substance and “heall” of her neighbour’s ale. ”

“ The higher classes are satisfied with drinking the cup of butter, but the lower classes add another half cup, which they draw up through the nostrils, imagining that they thus prevent bad air entering the body by those apertures. ”

“ Also raw, cooked, boiled, broiled, fried, smoked, or roast-beef, and they swallow with keen relish wines of all brands and vintages, beer, whisky, gin, and brandy, and evince a loving fondness for all grades of oil, from the dirtiest, coarsest whale's blubber to the finest olive. ”

“ When the brown bowl is filled for yule, let the dome or upper half be set on; then let the waes-haelers kneel one by one and draw up the wine with their reeds through the two bosses at the rim. Let one breath only be drawn by each of the morice for his waes-hael. ”

“ The ale which I am fond of is ale about nine or ten months old, somewhat hard, tasting well of malt and little of the hop—ale such as farmers, and noblemen too, of the good old time, when farmers’ daughters did not play on pianos and noblemen did not sell their game, were in the habit of offering to both high and low, and drinking themselves. ”