 A johnnycake in a cast iron fry pan | |
| Alternative names | Jonnycake, shawnee cake, hoecake, johnny cake, journey cake, and johnny bread |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Cornmeal |
Johnnycake, also known asjourney cake,johnny bread,hoecake,shawnee cake or spider cornbread, is acornmealflatbread, a type ofbatter bread. An early North Americanstaple food, it is prepared on the Atlantic coast fromNewfoundland toJamaica.[1] The food originates from the indigenous people of North America. It is still eaten in the Bahamas, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda, Canada, Colombia,Aruba,Curaçao, Bonaire, Dominican Republic,Puerto Rico,Saint Croix,Sint Maarten, Antigua,[2] and the United States.
The modern johnnycake is found in thecuisine of New England[3] and is often claimed as originating inRhode Island.[1]
The earliest attestation of the term "johnny cake" is from 1739 (in South Carolina); the spelling "journey cake" is attested only from 1775 on theGulf Coast, but may be the earlier form.[5][6]
The word is likely based on the wordJonakin, recorded in New England in 1765, itself derived from the wordjannock, recorded in Northern England in the sixteenth century.[7] According toEdward Ellis Morris, the term was the name given "... by the Americans to a cake made of Indian corn (maize)."[8]
Another suggested derivation is that it comes fromShawnee cake, although some writers disagree.[9][10]
The termhoecake is first attested in 1745, and the term is used by American writers such asJoel Barlow andWashington Irving.[11] The origin of the name is the method of preparation: they were cooked on a type of iron pan called a hoe. There is conflicting evidence regarding the common belief that they were cooked on the blades of gardening hoes.[12][13]
A hoecake can be made either out of cornbread batter or leftover biscuit dough. A cornbread hoecake is thicker than a cornbread pancake.[14]
Indigenous peoples of the Americas using ground corn for cooking are credited with teaching Europeans how to make this food.[15] It is also claimed that johnnycakes were made by theNarragansett people as far back as the 1600s.[16]
From this culture came one of the main staples of the Southern diet:corn (maize).[17] Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes from the familiarcornbread andgrits toliquors such aswhiskey andmoonshine, which were important trade items. Cornbread was popular during theAmerican Civil War because it was very cheap and could be made in many different sizes and forms. It could be fashioned into high-rising, fluffy loaves or simply fried for a fast meal.
To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes that the Southeastern Indians live on today is the "soul food" eaten by both black and white Southerners. Hominy, for example, is still eaten ... Sofkee live on as grits ... cornbread [is] used by Southern cooks ... Indian fritters ... variously known as "hoe cake", ... or "Johnny cake."... Indian boiled cornbread is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal dumplings", ... and as "hush puppies", ... Southerners cook their beans and field peas by boiling them, as did the Indians ... like the Indians they cure their meat and smoke it over hickory coals.[18]
Johnnycakes are an unleavenedcornbread made of cornmeal, salt, and water. Early cooks set thick corn dough on a wooden board orbarrel stave, which they leaned on a piece of wood or a rock in front of an open fire to bake.[19]
In the American south during the 18th century versions were made with rice or hominy flour and perhaps cassava.[20] A 1905 cookbook includes a recipe for "Alabama Johnny Cake" made with rice and 'meal'.[21]
The difference between johnnycake and hoecake originally lay in the method of preparation, though today both are often cooked on a griddle or in a skillet. Some recipes call for baking johnnycakes in an oven,[22] similar tocorn pones, which are still baked in the oven as they were traditionally.[23]
Johnnycakes may also be made usingleavening, with or without other ingredients more commonly associated with Americanpancakes, such as eggs or solid fats like butter. Like pancakes, they are often served withmaple syrup,honey, or other sweet toppings.[3]
According to the manuscript ofAmerica Eats, aWorks Progress Administration (WPA) guide to American food culture in the beginning decades of the twentieth century, Rhode Island "jonny cakes" were made in the 1930s as follows:
In preparation, [white corn] meal may or may not be scalded with hot water or hot milk in accordance with preference. After mixing the meal with water or milk, it is dropped on a smoking hot spider [pan] set atop a stove into cakes about 3"x3"x1/2"[a] in size. The secret of cooking Johnny cakes is to watch them closely and keep them supplied with enough sausage or bacon fat so they will become crisp and not burn. Cook slowly for half an hour, turn occasionally, and when done, serve with plenty of butter.[24]
In Australia the bread usually known asdamper, made withwheat flour rather than cornmeal and cooked as smaller, individually-sized portions, is sometimes called "johnny cake".[25][26][27] It is uncertain if this name was influenced by the term for North American cornmeal bread.[8] Australian johnny cakes are baked in the hot ashes of a fire or fried in fat in a frying pan (skillet).[25][8]
In the Bahamas, "Johnny cake" refers to a bread made with flour, sugar, butter, and water. After being kneaded, the bread is baked until lightly browned, and has a soft and malleable middle. This bread is usually eaten with soup or on its own.[citation needed] The common bread consumed in the Bahamas in 1725 was made of corn and flour. According toMark Catesby, an English naturalist who visited North America and the Caribbean in the early 1700s, "Their bread is made of Maiz, or Indian Corn, and also of Wheat; the first they cultivate, but not sufficient for their consumption. Wheat is imported to them in Flour from the Northern Colonies."[28]
TheBoney M music disco group sang about Johnny Cakes in their song, "Brown Girl in the Ring", eating fried fish and Johnny Cakes on Saturday night.
Yaniqueques oryanikeke are a Dominican Republic version of the johnnycake, supposedly brought over in the nineteenth century by English-speaking migrants (possibly of Afro-Caribbean descent). They are a popular beach snack, especially inBoca Chica.[29][30]
The modern johnnycake is a staple in the traditional cuisine ofNew England,[3] where it is believed to have originated inRhode Island.[1][16] A modern jonnycake is friedgruel made from yellow or white cornmeal that is mixed with salt and hot water or milk, and sometimes sweetened. In the Southern United States, the same food is referred to as a hoecake.
The eighth episode of season six of theHBO crime dramaThe Sopranos is namedJohnny Cakes, after the modern dish found mainly inNew England.
The firstLittle houseIn the big woodsLaura Ingalls Wilder book describes theJohnny cake in its penultimate chapter,The wonderful machine.
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{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Corn-dodger, corn-pone, and hoe-cake are different only in the baking. The meal is prepared for each precisely in the same way. Take as much meal as you want, some salt, and enough pure water to knead the mass. Mix it well, let it stand for fifteen or twenty minutes, not longer, as this will be long enough to saturate perfectly every particle of meal; bake on the griddle for hoe-cake, and in the skillet or oven for dodger or pone. The griddle or oven must be made hot enough to bake, but not to burn, but with a quick heat. The lid must be heated also before putting it on the skillet or oven, and that heat must be kept up with coals of fire placed on it, as there must be around and under the oven. The griddle must be well supplied with live coals under it. The hoe-cake must be put on thin, not more than or quite as thick as your forefinger; when brown, it must be turned and both sides baked to a rich brown color. There must be no burning—baking is the idea. Yet the baking must be done with a quick lively heat, the quicker the better.
