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Dessert

Ash Cake

A cornmeal cake cooked by covering it with hot ashes after wrapping in cabbage leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Ash Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Scald the cornmeal with boiling water.

  2. Add the salt and shortening.

  3. Mix until cool.

  4. Add more water if necessary.

  5. Form the mixture into oblong cakes.

Wrap and bake

  1. Wrap the cakes in cabbage leaves.

  2. Place one leaf under and one over the cakes.

  3. Cover the wrapped cakes with hot ashes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the cakes, absorbing water to become a firm, cohesive dough.
Shortening
Adds fat, which softens the texture and keeps the cakes tender.
Boiling water
Scalds the cornmeal, softening its starches so it can be shaped into cakes.

The step that matters

Scald the cornmeal with boiling water. Cornmeal needs enough hot water to hydrate evenly. Scalding gelatinizes some of the starch, which helps the dough bind and hold its shape instead of crumbling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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