Tea Cakes (M. L. Williams)

History

This is the second of two tea cake recipes in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913), credited in the book to M. L. Williams. It is the plainer and larger of the pair: "Beat five eggs very light, with five cups of sugar, a heaping cup of lard, well creamed, and two cupfuls of sour milk, with a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in it. Mix through enough flour to make a soft dough, roll half an inch thick, cut out and bake in a quick oven."

Set beside the Betsy Vaughn version — butter instead of lard, buttermilk instead of sour milk, nutmeg for flavour, rolled half as thick — the two make a useful pair. The book prints both rather than reconciling them, which preserves the fact that two cooks made the same thing differently.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular recipe.

That the book names contributors like this one is worth holding alongside what it does not do: the Black cook who taught the author her kitchen is credited with five recipes and never named, appearing only by a household role-title. Food historians have documented this as a convention of early-twentieth-century Southern cookbooks.

Ingredients

• 5 whole eggs
• 5 cups sugar
• 1 cup lard
• 2 cups sour milk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• flour

Instructions

1. Beat the eggs very light. Cream together the sugar and lard until well combined. Mix the eggs and creamed lard-sugar mixture together. Add the sour milk with the dissolved baking soda. Mix in flour gradually until you have a soft dough. Roll the dough out to half an inch thick, cut out shapes as desired, and bake in a quick oven until done.