Hoe Cake or Corn Pone
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix cornmeal and salt.
Moisten the mixture with boiling water or milk to form a dough.
Let the dough sit for a few hours until air bubbles form on the surface.
Shape and cook
Shape the dough into thick cakes.
Bake the cakes in the oven at 400°F (200°C), or cut into slices and fry in pork fat on a griddle.
Serve
Serve hot, breaking the cakes instead of cutting them.
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 bulk of the dough and provides the structure of the cakes once cooked.
- Boiling water or milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal so its starches swell and bind into a workable dough.
- Salt
- Seasons the dough and sharpens the flavour of the corn.
The step that matters
Letting the dough sit until air bubbles form. This resting period lets the cornmeal hydrate fully and begins gentle fermentation, which adds flavour and a lighter texture. Rushing it leaves the dough dense and flat.
“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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