Rye Muffins

With sweet milk - 3/4 of a cup of rye meal, 3/4 of a cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoonful of soda, 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful of sugar, 1 saltspoon of salt, 1 egg beaten and mixed with 1/2 cup of sweet milk. Put the ingredients together in the order mentioned, and then drop small spoonfuls into hot fat. Cook until done when tried with a fork. With sour milk - 1 pint of sour milk, 1/2 cup of molasses, 1 saltspoonful of salt, the same of cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful of soda, and 2 eggs. Add enough rye flour to make a batter that will drop well from the spoon, and then fry in hot lard. These muffins are good eaten plain with an acid jelly or strong apple sauce; the old-fashioned way was to eat them with cider, but the apple sauce is the best accompaniment.

Doughnuts

This is an old Dutch recipe, which has been in use for more than a hundred years. Beat a cup of butter into 2 cups of sugar. Add 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, 2 eggs well beaten, and 2 cups of milk. Put in flour enough to make a stiff batter. Now add a cup of yeast, and continue stirring in flour till the dough is as stiff as you can stir it. Lay the mass over, sprinkle it with flour, and set it to rise. It will take from fifteen to eighteen hours. Then turn on a moulding board and roll out Cut in balls 1 1/2 inch in diameter. Slip a raisin in the centre of each one as you cut it out - make a sharp gash with a knife for the purpose, closing the edges by wetting them, otherwise the raisin will fry out in the fat. Let the cut-out nuts stand for half an hour, then fry in hot fat for ten minutes. When they are fried, drain them from all fat and roll them in powdered sugar. Epicures soak them in Santa Cruz rum, and heap them with ice cream for a dessert dish.