The Riddle we can guess 1
We speedily despise－
Not anything is stale so long
As Yesterday's surprise－
We speedily despise－
Not anything is stale so long
As Yesterday's surprise－
(F.1180/J.1222)
[1] Riddle:: riddle-bread, called for its porous form, or the method to make it similar to riddling corn. guess:: to figure out how to make the bread.
[2] despise:: the bread is hard and rarely liked by strangers to it.
[3] stale so long:: it may need to be placed for few days to harden it.
[4] surprise:: a fancy dish as a surprise to someone (OED 3b); and a surprise of the success in making the bread.
The bread used is made of oatmeal, and by some is called riddle bread. It is (lightly baked in thick cakes, being previously leavened. When it comes first from the fire, it is soft, tough, and as pliable as leather; but very porous. It is then placed for a few days upon some lathing in the roof of the kitchen, when it becomes as hard and as brittle as a biscuit. This bread is preferred to any other by those who have been accustomed to it from their infancy, but it is rarely relished at first by strangers. It seems to be peculiar to Lancashire and the west-riding of Yorkshire.——Monthly Magazine and British Register, Volume 28 (1797)
The riddle-bread, used in Lancashire and Yorkshire, is prepared from oat-meal, leavened by a little sour dough, preserved in the kneading trough from one baking to another. The meal and water are, in this case, mixed thin, and left all night to ferment. Next morning, the dough is poured upon a board, cut by furrows into squares. By a motion similar to riddling corn, the dough is made to expand — hence the name of riddle-bread. Bread thus made is spread upon a cratch, or a frame of wood, crossed with strings. Here the bread becomes very hard, and will keep almost any length of time. Before eating, it is usually toasted by the fire; and, when well buttered, is remarkably pleasant. A gentleman in Lancashire observes, that the proper quantity of butter, is, the same thickness as the bread.——The Remains of John Briggs (1825)
The flour is mixed with water until it forms a batter of moderate consistency, when it is left to ferment a little, but not to become actually sour, and then it is poured upon the griddle somewhat like pancakes, or rather resembling the Cakes made of oatmeal in Lancashire and some of the adjoining districts, and commonly called 'riddle-bread.' In the interior of the country, in most of the settlers' houses, that is, during the cold weather, the vessel containing the batter for these cakes, and the griddle on which to bake them, may be seen in a corner of the fireplace from one week's end to another, the custom being to have hot cakes morning, noon, and night.——Penny Magazine of the Society (1840)
