874 
fore it is added to the other materials ; and 
the fugar ftirred in about a pint of milk, and 
being freed from lumps, the whole muft be 
mixed and kneaded weil together. This may 
be done in a very few minutes, and the 
dough will be inftantly ft for rolling out and 
baking. It is to be obferved, that the 
milk with which the cake is moiftened if 
' dour or coaguiated will be preferable. 
_To make pot-ath cake light and good, 
it is neceflary to conduct the baking brifk- 
ly. - Therefore the firft ftep towards mak- 
ing it fhould be, to kindle a fire that a fufi- 
ciency of hot coals may be feafonably pro- 
vided. By the aid of thefe the dough, 
though perfe&tly flat and unleavened when 
put into the baking: pan, will be puffed up 
during the operation, into fine and {pungy _ 
cake. 
if it 1s your wifhto make a cheaper cake 
than the one for which directions have been 
given, rye-flour may be employed in the. 
place of wheaten, fweet lard inftead of but- 
ter, and treacle or melaffes in lieu of fugar. 
‘The pot-ath will enliven thefe, but the 
cake will be injured by a mixture of eggs. 
‘Thefe appear to invifcate and entangle the 
alkali fo much as to prevent its rare- 
fying or expanfive force. It is there- 
fore a maxim in preparing this cake, 
that the plainer and fimpler the materials 
are, the better it will be. Some under this 
idea add cream inftead of butter or lard. 
I do not pretend to be a protound che- 
mift, Sir; but I underftand that the air 
which puffs up the cake, that I have de- 
fcribed, is the carbonicacid. The pot-ath 
employed ought therefore not to be in a 
cauftic flate, but muft have been expofed 
to the atmofphere long enough in a jar 
bettle, or fome fuch thing, to have become 
a carbonate. ‘Thus the fubfiance to be 
mingled with the cake isa carbonate of 
pot-afo. It is well_known that caloric, if 
duly applied, will expel the carbonic acid 
from the vegetable alkali, and tne brifk 
heat of a baking-pan feems confiderable 
enough for this purpefe; thongh I am in- 
clined to think that the /aic acid of the 
four milk, by a fuperior attraction for the 
pot-ath affifts in the extrication of the 
fixed air, and thereby facilitates the procefs. 
By this means, if the ingredients are well 
proportioned, the cake never taftes of the 
alkali, which is now no longer a carbonate 
but a /adtate of pot-afb. 
Pleafe to caution thofe, Sir, whe wifh to 
make this kind of cake, that they co not, in 
their eagerne{s to have it light, add pot-afh 
-too much over the common rule, which 
would not only give the cake an alkaline 
-tafte, but make it as heavy as it would 
Receipt for Pot-afh Cake. 

et 7 
[ Decen 
have been had . pot-afh not. entered; the 
mixture. I think from what I pies: ea 
‘the chemifts fay, the reafon muft be this ; 
the carbonic acid of the pot-afh being fet 
loofe in a quantity difproportioned to the — 
other ingredients, inftead of diffufing itfelf 
gently through, and raifing the cake, flies 
in a body too great for the compofition to 
contain, and finds vent by burfting holes in 
the cake, and leaving it in a ftate very far 
from f{pungy. This is an error which 
experienced hands feldom commit. 
Thus our American houfe-wives are 
enabled to provide light cake for their vifi- 
tors and friends, in a few minutes. And 
really, Sir, this is a great convenience in 
a rural fituation, where a woman cannot 
fendto a baker, for rufk, tea-cake, or 
bifcuit, and where perhaps yeaft is not te 
be got, and her leaven is fpoiled. Or 
even if the had plenty of leaven, where the 
company cannot wait three or four hours 
for carbonic acid to be produced in the 
common mode by fermentation, to raife 
a batch of dough for them. . 
It is a matter of furprife to me, that 
this method has not been known generally 
and followed in Europe. There is a faving 
both of time and of fuelinmaking it. The 
materials are zot coffly, and the cake itfelf 
is highly zutritious. and wbholefome. And 
I am quite of opinion with Dr. Mitchill, 
in his letter to Mrs F.—that no {mall pare 
of its falubrity is to be afcribed to the 
portion of pot-afh mingled with it, and 
lying ready to. neutralize and quiet any 
fuperfluous feptic acid, with which. the fto- 
mach of a child or of a grown perfon who 
eats it, may happen to be incommoded; 
and I am further of opinion, that the in- 
troduétion of this kind of bread into ufe 
in Great Britain, if it is not already prac- 
tifed there, and in other parts of Europe, 
would have a very beneficial and happy 
tendency in bettering the condition of 
the middling and lower orders of houfe- 
keepers. I hope, Mr. Editor, that you 
and Mr. Loft will recommend pot-afb-cake 
to them, and inftruét chem how to make 
if. 
T cannot forbear here, however, to mett= 
tion, that, although our American women 
have always employed. pot-a/h, that I fa- 
{pect foda is preterable.’ The carbonate of 
foda is a mild and friendly falt; more 
congenial to the human _ conftitution, 
than the carbonate of the other alkali, 
I have no doubt the fubftitution of - the 
mineral for the vegetable baiis, would be 
an excellent change in the receipt. The 
reafon why pot-afh and not foda has been 
ufed among my countrywomen, is evident 
enough; 
DEF, 
* 
ee 
