SOLON ROBINSON, 1837 85 



ing simple recipes are valuable, in my family. If you 



find room for them, I hope they will prove so in many 



other families. 



Yours truly, Solon Robinson. 



BUTTERMILK BREAD. 



Many of your readers are not aware of the value of 

 buttermilk, in making biscuits. Let me tell them how to 

 use it, I am sure they will thank me. 



Take a large table spoonful of sal aratus, (not pearl 

 ash,) pulverize or dissolve the lumps, and put it into 

 buttermilk enough to wet up a gallon of flour. Lard 

 or butter may be added to make the biscuit short if re- 

 quired. In summer it must be baked directly, or it will 

 sour. In cold weather the dough may be kept. The bis- 

 cuit will be very light, very sweet, very palatable, very 

 nourishing, very wholesome, and a very considerable 

 item of economy in the consumption of an article that is 

 too often made food for hogs, when so valuable as food 

 for man. Bonnyklauber will answer as a substitute for 

 buttermilk. But the latter may be put up in jars, or a 

 butter keg, in the fall, and kept till spring, by occasion- 

 ally pouring off the water that rises on the top. No 

 matter how sour it becomes, put in sal aratus enough 

 and it will become as sweet as fresh yeast, and answer 

 the same or a better purpose. 



While upon the subject, let me tell those who are not 

 informed, the difference between 



SAL ARATUS AND PEARL ASH. 



Pearl ash is made from the lye of wood ashes ; it will 

 make soap, and by the affinity it has for water, is very 

 likely to dissolve and waste when exposed to the air; it 

 gives food an unpleasant soapy taste when used in ex- 

 cess, with lard or other greasy matter. 



Sal aratus is made from pearl ash, by a process that 

 destroys the soapy principle, and the affinity for water, 

 so that it will keep dry as well as chalk, &c. It is also 

 much more valuable in cooking, on account of possessing 



