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Bread

Cornmeal Drop Cakes

A batter of cornmeal, fat, salt, eggs, and hot water is dropped onto a griddle and cooked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cornmeal Drop Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, fat, and salt.

  2. Add hot water and stir until combined.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then add the beaten egg yolks.

  4. If the batter is too thick, add a little more milk or water.

  5. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Cook

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased hot griddle.

  2. Cook until browned and puffed with air bubbles, then flip and cook the other side until done.

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 body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help the cakes puff.
Hot water
Swells the cornmeal starch so the batter thickens into a workable mixture.
Fat
Adds richness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites trap air that makes the cakes rise and puff. Folding gently rather than stirring keeps those bubbles intact, so the cakes stay light.

“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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