Mrs. Elizabeth Dufer is said to have brought the art of canning to Clarke County in the year 1864 when they moved to Hopeville. They moved to Murray in December 1869.

The following recipes used by the house wife of several years ago are somewhat different than those that our present cookbooks contain:

JOHNNY CAKE

Two cups corn meal, one cup wheat, one cup good eggs that you can eat, one half cup molasses too, one big spoon sugar added thereto, salt and soda each small spoon. Mix up quickly and bake it soon.

ROAST GOOSE

Kill a fat goose and dress it. Wash it well in a dish pan of hot soapy water. Rinse in a milk pail of cold water. Dry it thoroughly and hang it up in the woodshed over night. Next morning early mash a kettle of potatoes with cream and butter and a cup of chopped up onion and lots of salt and pepper. Stuff the potatoes into the goose and sew it shut. Rub the skin over with salt and pepper and sage leaves and put it in a not too hot oven. Dip the grease up every hour or two and save for cold-on-the-lungs and shoes.

CORNMEAL COFFEE

Mix cornmeal and molasses together as much as you want and put in a skillet and burn until mixture is crisp. It is then crumbled and brewed into a mixture called coffee.

BY GUESS BY GOSH GINGERBREAD

Take some flour, just enough for the cake you want to make. Mix it up with some buttermilk, just enough for the flour. Take some ginger, some like more, some like less. Put in a little salt and pearl ash, then pour in molasses, as much as you want. Build up a good fire and bake until done.

BATCH OF BREAD

Put a bushel of flour in a trough or a large pan; with your fist make a deep hole in the center thereof; put a pint of good fresh yeast into this hollow; add thereto two quarts of warm water and work in with these as much of the flour as will serve to make a soft smooth kind of batter. Strew this over with just enough flour to hide it. Then cover up the trough with a blanket to keep all warm.

When the leaven has risen sufficiently to cause the flour to crack all over its surface, throw in a handful of salt work all together; add just enough luke-warm soft water to enable you to work the whole into a firm, compact dough, and after having kneaded this with your fists until it becomes stiff and comparatively tough, shake a little flour over it and again cover it with a blanket to keep it warm in order to assist its fermentation.

If properly managed, the fermentation will be accomplished in rather less than half an hour. Meanwhile that the bread is being prepared thus, you will have heated your oven to a satisfactory degree of heat with a sufficient quantity of dry, small wood fagots; and when all the wood is burnt, sweep out the oven clean from all ashes. Divide your dough into four-pound loaves, knead them into round shapes, make a hole at the top with your thumb, and immediately put them out of hand into the oven to bake, closing the oven door upon them. In about two hours time they will be thoroughly baked, and are then to be taken out of the oven and allowed to become quite cold before they are put away in the cupboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last revised September 27, 2013