Hoe Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Sift the cornmeal into a bowl.
Add salt to the cornmeal.
Pour in boiling water while stirring continuously until well combined and hot.
Wet your hands with cold water.
Bake and serve
Spread the mixture onto a board.
Place it before the fire to bake until one side is done.
Turn it over and bake the other side.
Split it open.
Butter it generously.
Serve hot.
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 cake, setting into a firm, sturdy texture as it cooks.
- Boiling water
- Hydrates the cornmeal and gelatinizes its starch, binding the mixture into a workable dough.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that melts into the split cake, softening its texture and adding flavor.
The step that matters
Pour in boiling water while stirring continuously. Boiling water must be stirred in evenly so the cornmeal starch hydrates and cooks uniformly; unevenly wetted pockets stay dry and crumbly, while the mixture needs to be hot enough to bind.
“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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