One conspicuous bit of corn bread errata that can be found in a surprising number of reputable reference books is the contention that “hoe cakes” were actually baked on hoes. Nonsense. The Indians baked corn cakes on hot rocks, either placed over, or very close to, open fires. They didn’t need a metal hoe to […]
READ ONFor more than a few Southerners, the johnnycake is the ultimate example of the Confederate corn bread arts, it being a small, highly portable, highly palatable cake perfect for stowing in a military knapsack. True as that description may be, the johnnycake is in fact a far older invention. The cake goes back to Colonial […]
READ ONOne of the reasons I think it’s interesting to be making cookies and corn bread (or cakes) the same week is that they’re both proto-breads of different cultures, one for whom wheat was the most readily available grain, and another that relied on corn. Put early Eurasian peoples next to pre-colonial Native Americans, and they […]
READ ONThe reaction of colonists to Indian corn cakes is probably fairly well represented in the 1972 Robert Redford film, Jeremiah Johnson. In it our hero is forced, out of an accident of Flathead Indian etiquette, to take the tribal chief’s daughter as his wife. In their ensuing attempt to set up housekeeping, the girl collects […]
READ ONOne of my favorite memories from the block where I grew up concerns a Swedish couple that lived a few houses down. The woman of the house, a classic round-faced Nordic matron by the name of Lily, was the most accomplished baker in town. My sister and I would sneak in her back door on […]
READ ONWhen most scholars consider the year 1492, they see the collision of two great groups of peoples, of hunter-gatherer society and the Age of Exploration, of anthropomorphic spirit worship with Christianity, of “natural” man with the principles of parliamentary politics, accumulated capital and property rights. All wrong. Seen in the proper context, what 1492 really […]
READ ONThe corn bread recipe I posted this morning reveals me as a true Northerner. Why? Because there’s sugar in it. No self-respecteding Southerner would ever admit to putting sugar in his corn bread, something I’m going to have to work on if I’m to continue living here (the admitting I mean). What can I say, […]
READ ONYes, alright, I’ll give you permission to go and read Peter Reinhart’s blog if you want to. He’s a better baker than me, I’ll admit it. He’s got lots of awards, five cookbooks to his name, and a teaching post at Johnson & Wales University. I can certainly see why you’d be attracted to him. […]
READ ONI’m very excited to be able to put up the corn bread recipe below, as it’s a near exact copy of my all-time favorite corn bread by my baking hero, Peter Reinhart. In fact this recipe is by the man himself, likely a prototype that appeared in either Gourmet or Bon Appetit magazine just before […]
READ ONAll this talk of leavening and early American quickbreads put me in the mood for some good ol’ Southern Corn Bread Some of you may also have noticed that I didn’t talk much about cookies last week. The explanation of course is that I didn’t make them. So let’s try that again, shall we? Hermit […]
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