Jonnycake
Encyclopedia
Jonnycake is a cornmeal
flatbread
that was an early American staple food
and is prepared on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Jamaica
. The food probably originates from the native inhabitants of North America. It is still eaten in the West Indies, Dominican Republic
,Bahamas, Colombia
, and Bermuda
as well as in the United States
.
The modern jonnycake is a staple in the cuisine of New England
and is often said to have originated in Rhode Island
. A modern jonnycake is fried gruel
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 hoecake.
, the term was the name given "by the [American] negroes to a cake made of Indian corn (maize)."
, the term hoecake first occurs in 1745, and the term is used by American writers such as Joel Barlow
and Washington Irving
. The origin of the name is the method of preparation: field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe held to an open flame. Hoes designed for cotton fields were large and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through; the blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle
.
were using ground corn for cooking long before European explorers arrived in the New World. The jonnycake originates with the native inhabitants of Northern America; the Algonquians
of the Atlantic seaboard
are credited with teaching Europeans how to make the food.
Southern Native American
culture (Cherokee
, Chickasaw
, Choctaw
, Creek) is the "cornerstone" of Southern cuisine. From their culture came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn
(maize), either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy
, also called masa, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization
. Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes from the familiar cornbread
and grits
to liquors such as whiskey and moonshine
, which were important trade items. Cornbread was popular during the American 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.
made of cornmeal (but see the Australian version below), salt, and water. The dough was set on a wooden board or barrel stave and placed at an angle in front of an open fire to bake. Hoecake was traditionally cooked on a hoe
: "Hoe-Cake: A cake of Indian meal, baked before the fire. In the interior parts of the country, where kitchen utensils do not abound, they are baked on a hoe; hence the name."
The difference between jonnycake 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 jonnycakes in an oven, similar to corn pones which are still baked in the oven like they were traditionally.
Jonnycakes may also be made using leavening
, with or without other ingredients more commonly associated with American pancake
s, such as eggs or solid fats like butter. Like pancakes, they are often served with maple syrup
, honey
, or other sweet toppings.
According to the manuscript of America Eats, a WPA guide to American food culture in the beginning decades of the twentieth century, Rhode Island "jonny cakes" were made in the 30s as follows:
"In preparation, [white corn] meal may or may not be scalded with hot water or hot milk in accordance to preference. After mixing 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" in side. The secret of cooking jonny 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."
, the word "Johnnycake" refers to a quick bread
made with flour
rather than cornmeal; the cakes are baked in the hot ashes of a fire or fried in fat in a skillet.
version of the jonnycake, supposedly brought over in the 19th century by the Cocolo
s, or English-speaking migrants (possibly of Afro-Caribbean descent). Like the Australian version, these cakes are made with flour, baking soda, and water; they are, however, typically deep-fried. They are a popular beach snack, especially in Boca Chica
.
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is flour ground from dried maize or American corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to fine, medium, and coarse consistencies. In the United States, the finely ground cornmeal is also referred to as cornflour. However, the word cornflour denotes cornstarch in recipes from the...
flatbread
Flatbread
A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour, water, and salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened: made without yeast or sourdough culture: although some flatbread is made with yeast, such as pita bread....
that was an early American staple food
Staple food
A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...
and is prepared on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. The food probably originates from the native inhabitants of North America. It is still eaten in the West Indies, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
,Bahamas, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, and Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
as well as in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The modern jonnycake is a staple in the cuisine of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and is often said to have originated in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. A modern jonnycake is fried gruel
Gruel
Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked...
made from yellow or white cornmeal
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is flour ground from dried maize or American corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to fine, medium, and coarse consistencies. In the United States, the finely ground cornmeal is also referred to as cornflour. However, the word cornflour denotes cornstarch in recipes from the...
that is mixed with salt and hot water or milk, and sometimes sweetened. In the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, the same food is referred to as hoecake.
Etymology
Jonnycake
The earliest attestation of the term "johnny cake" is from 1739 (in South Carolina); the spelling "journey cake" is only attested from 1775 (on the Gulf coast), but may be the earlier form. The word is likely based on the word "Jonakin," recorded in New England in 1765, itself derived from the word "jannock," recorded in Northern England in the 16th century. According to Edward Ellis MorrisEdward Ellis Morris
Edward Ellis Morris was an educationist and miscellaneous writer.Morris was born at Madras, India, fourteenth child of John Carnac Morris, accountant-general of the British East India Company at Madras, and his wife Rosanna Curtis. Morris was educated at Rugby School and Lincoln College, Oxford,...
, the term was the name given "by the [American] negroes to a cake made of Indian corn (maize)."
Hoecake
According to the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
, the term hoecake first occurs in 1745, and the term is used by American writers such as Joel Barlow
Joel Barlow
Joel Barlow was an American poet, diplomat and politician. In his own time, Barlow was well-known for the epic Vision of Columbus. Modern readers may be more familiar with "The Hasty Pudding"...
and Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
. The origin of the name is the method of preparation: field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe held to an open flame. Hoes designed for cotton fields were large and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through; the blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle
Griddle
A griddle is a cooking device consisting of a broad flat surface that can be heated using a variety of means, and is used in both residential and commercial applications for a variety of cooking operations. Most commonly, the griddle consists of a flat metal plate, but in the non-industrialized...
.
Origin
Native AmericansIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
were using ground corn for cooking long before European explorers arrived in the New World. The jonnycake originates with the native inhabitants of Northern America; the Algonquians
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
of the Atlantic seaboard
Atlantic Seaboard
The Atlantic seaboard watershed is a watershed of North America along both*the Atlantic Canada coast south of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence Watershed &*the East Coast of the United States north of the watershed of the Okeechobee Waterway....
are credited with teaching Europeans how to make the food.
Southern Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
culture (Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
, Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, Creek) is the "cornerstone" of Southern cuisine. From their culture came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
(maize), either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy
Hominy
Hominy or nixtamal is dried maize kernels which have been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization.The English term hominy is derived from the Powhatan language word for maize. Many other Native American cultures also made hominy and integrated it into their diet...
, also called masa, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization
Nixtamalization
Nixtamalization typically refers to a process for the preparation of maize , or other grain, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum...
. Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes from the familiar cornbread
Cornbread
Cornbread is a generic name for any number of quick breads containing cornmeal and leavened by baking powder.-History:Native Americans were using ground corn for food thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the New World...
and grits
Grits
Grits are a food of American Indian origin common in the Southern United States and mainly eaten at breakfast. They consist of coarsely ground corn, or sometimes alkali-treated corn . They are also sometimes called sofkee or sofkey from the Muskogee language word...
to liquors such as whiskey and moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
, which were important trade items. Cornbread was popular during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
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.
Preparation
Jonnycakes are a type of unleavened cornbreadCornbread
Cornbread is a generic name for any number of quick breads containing cornmeal and leavened by baking powder.-History:Native Americans were using ground corn for food thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the New World...
made of cornmeal (but see the Australian version below), salt, and water. The dough was set on a wooden board or barrel stave and placed at an angle in front of an open fire to bake. Hoecake was traditionally cooked on a hoe
Hoe (tool)
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural tool used to move small amounts of soil. Common goals include weed control by agitating the surface of the soil around plants, piling soil around the base of plants , creating narrow furrows and shallow trenches for planting seeds and bulbs, to chop...
: "Hoe-Cake: A cake of Indian meal, baked before the fire. In the interior parts of the country, where kitchen utensils do not abound, they are baked on a hoe; hence the name."
The difference between jonnycake 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 jonnycakes in an oven, similar to corn pones which are still baked in the oven like they were traditionally.
Jonnycakes may also be made using leavening
Leavening agent
A leavening agent is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action which lightens and softens the finished product...
, with or without other ingredients more commonly associated with American pancake
Pancake
A pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...
s, such as eggs or solid fats like butter. Like pancakes, they are often served with maple syrup
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then...
, honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, or other sweet toppings.
According to the manuscript of America Eats, a WPA guide to American food culture in the beginning decades of the twentieth century, Rhode Island "jonny cakes" were made in the 30s as follows:
"In preparation, [white corn] meal may or may not be scalded with hot water or hot milk in accordance to preference. After mixing 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" in side. The secret of cooking jonny 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."
Australia
In AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the word "Johnnycake" refers to a quick bread
Quick bread
Quick bread is an American term used to denote a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads includes many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, muffins, pancakes, scones, and soda bread.-History::"Quick...
made with flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
rather than cornmeal; the cakes are baked in the hot ashes of a fire or fried in fat in a skillet.
Dominican Republic
Yaniqueques or yanikeke are a Dominican RepublicDominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
version of the jonnycake, supposedly brought over in the 19th century by the Cocolo
Cocolo
Cocolo is a slang term common in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean used sometimes to refer to non-Hispanic African descendants...
s, or English-speaking migrants (possibly of Afro-Caribbean descent). Like the Australian version, these cakes are made with flour, baking soda, and water; they are, however, typically deep-fried. They are a popular beach snack, especially in Boca Chica
Boca Chica
Boca Chica is a municipality of the Santo Domingo province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district : La Caleta....
.
Further reading
- Beaulieu, Linda, The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook, Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2006, ISBN 0762731370.
- Bartlett, John Russell. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, fourth edition. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. (1889
- Hundley, Daniel R., Esq. Social Relations in Our Southern States. New York: Henry B. Price (1860).
- Vogel, William Frederick. "Home Life in Early Indiana". Indiana Magazine of History 10:2 (June 1914) 1-29. Indiana: Indiana University.