Georgia’s Kitchen: Hot Cakes

Georgia Diehm

Last week I gave several recipes for using cornmeal. I promised to share some more with you this week. These are old, interesting recipes that I believe you will enjoy having.

There are so many ways to use cornmeal that it is worth checking out other recipes for its nutritional and economical benefits. Just look in any cookbook or use the internet to search them out.

*The definition for sweet milk and the instructions to make sour milk are at the end of this column.

Hoe Cakes

1 pt cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt

Place cornmeal and salt in bowl and pour sufficient boiling water to moisten the meal. After it has stood 10 min., add cold water until mixture drops from spoon. Bake the same as griddle cakes; on a hot griddle or on a hoe. When done, place a bit of butter on top of each cake and serve hot.

Mush Pancakes

Make cornmeal mush according to directions on cornmeal container. Mold cold cornmeal mush into balls using a little flour to prevent sticking to hands. Flatten them and bake til brown on a hot griddle. Turn over when one side is brown. Split and butter them and send to table hot.

Country Fair Johnny Cake (1862)

2 cups sour milk
1 cup flour-sifted
2 cups cornmeal-sifted
3 Tbs melted butter
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp soda
2 eggs

Place milk and sugar in a mixing bowl, mix together; beat the eggs, in a separate bowl, until very light. Dissolve the soda in a little cold water and stir it into the mixture in the bowl. Then add the flour and meal sifted together, the melted butter and the eggs, stirring in the ingredients in the order named. Pour batter into well buttered tins. Bake 30 min in quick oven.

Crackling Bread

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour milk
1 cup diced salt pork cracklings

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Add milk and stir in cracklings. Turn into two large pans or into 16 muffin tins. Bake in a hot oven(400 degrees) for 30 min. If lard cracklings are used use 1/2 tsp more salt.
Note: Bacon fried crisp and crumbled would work in place of salt pork cracklings.

Slap Jacks(1834)

1 pt cornmeal mix
4 Tbs wheat flour
1 qt sweet milk
4 well beaten eggs
salt

Sift cornmeal mix with wheat flour, add sweet milk, well beaten eggs and a little salt. Bake small cakes on hot griddle. Stack high with butter. Dribble with warm syrup.

Early Colonial Pancakes (1802)

1 pt cornmeal
1 tsp salt
tsp soda
4 eggs-separated
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
sweet milk

Pour in boiling water to cornmeal, salt, and soda until a little thinner than mush. Let stand until cool. Separate 4 eggs;saving both parts. Then add the egg yolks and flour, in which cream of tartar is mixed in, to the cornmeal mixture. Stir in as much sweet milk or water as will make the batter suitable to bake. Beat egg whites well and add just before baking. Bake each separately in small frying pan.

Brown Bread (In rhyme)

1 cup sweet milk
1 cup of sour
1 cup of cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 tsp of soda
1 cup molasses

Mix all ingredients together. Steam for 3 hrs then eat it all up. One half tsp of salt should be added also even if it doesn’t rhyme!

*SWEET MILK- Sweet milk is an expression that means fresh milk. It means not spoiled, sour, or decaying; fresh: sweet milk. Whole milk works the best !!

*SOUR MILK-

1. Measure 1 cup milk. Whole or 2 percent works best in baking.
2. Add 1 tsp. plain vinegar or lemon juice. Stir the ingredients.
3. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes. The milk should began to curdle slightly. You now have sour milk for your baking needs.