Making corn pone

[Hank Trent]

Re: Making corn pone

Hank,
I will get the name of the reicipe book. It was from the 1850's. It's at Nancys house.
You are right the baking soda was called something else. That is a slight modification of vernacular of essentially the same thing.
Cheers
Terry Sorchy

Thank you! If it's 1850's, I'm even more interested. :)

Baking powder was a change from the pearlash/saleratus/soda continuum, because it included both the acid and the alkali in the same ingredient. The problem was keeping them from reacting to each other in the container, before they were put in the food. What's unique about that corn biscuit recipe is that it's designed only for baking powder--there's no milk or molasses or other acid like cream of tartar to react with an alkali like soda, and no other rising ingredient like yeast or beaten eggs to help.

It's unusual to find published recipes in normal recipe books which were designed for baking powder that early, though obviously someone was buying and using the baking powder that was being sold.

I think a lot of the early published recipes were put out by the baking powder companies to encourage use of their products, and thus specify "Reed's Baking Powder" or "Berwick's Baking Powder," etc., so it's also interesting to find recipes which call for it with no brand name.

Edited to add: Here's a good example, from the May 28, 1861 Savannah Republican newspaper:

Biscuit.

To a quart of flour, add a bit of butter, lard, or skimmings from a pot where salt beef has been boiled, as large as a butternut; if the fat is not salt, add a little; rub these well together, and add as much of Durkee's baking powder as the directions on that article order for the quantity of flour used; wet this to a dough, and make into cakes of the usual size; put on a tin pan and place it before the fire, with a few coals underneath; slant the pan, in order to get the reflection of the fire. But if you have no wheat flour, then make

Hoe-Cake.

Mix Indian meal with hot or cold water (hot is best), and a little salt, into a soft dough; spread it very thin on the surface of a board, slant it before the fire, and bake it to a light brown. With this rule, if you want variety, mix an egg, or a little flour and baking powder, with a bit of fat rubbed into the meal; in these cases it must be baked in a pan.

It's a reprint from the New York Tribune, with the heading, "I send you here a few hints as to camping out, from a lady who has an experimental knowledge of such matters." You can see how she's gradually assimilating the use of baking powder as a generic ingredient into her cooking, by still relying on Durkee's brand-name instructions in one recipe, while speaking of it generically in another.


Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Terry Sorchy]

Re: Making corn pone

Hank,
I will get the name of the reicipe book. It was from the 1850's. It's at Nancys house.
You are right the baking soda was called something else. That is a slight modification of vernacular of essentially the same thing.
Cheers
Terry Sorchy

[gilham]

Re: Making corn pone

The below receipts are buried somewhere in the massive, 1000 post thread on cooking. Don't knock corn oysters unless you've tried 'em.

I have made artificial oysters several times. They are quite tasty. I think I used the recipt from the Confederate Cookbook
I had the link book marked for The Confederate Cook Book but seem to have lost it.
If any one has could you post it.
Thanks

[Hank Trent]

Re: Making corn pone

Southern Corn Biscuits
...
3 Tbs Baking Powder
...

I've hesitated asking this, but I really am curious, and since this is the Authentic Campaigner forum...

What's the source of the recipe? I'm curious about the use of baking powder. It was around of course, but doesn't show up in many published recipes of the period, and I'm genuinely interested in those where it does. For example, the newspaper recipes that Silas posted are still two steps behind, calling for saleratus when soda was available.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Silas]

Things you can do with Cornmeal

The below receipts are buried somewhere in the massive, 1000 post thread on cooking. Don't knock corn oysters unless you've tried 'em.

Things you can do with Cornmeal
([HOUSTON] TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH, 8 September 1862, p. 1, c. 1)

Corn Crisp. Take one pint of meal, one table spoon of lard, a little salt and water. Spread it on a board thin, and bake it before the fire ; turn it with a string or knife.

Ash Corn Cake. Mix up meal with water and a little salt ; wrap it up in corn shucks or a collard leaf, and bake it in hot ashes.

Hoe Cake. Mix up meal and water, and bake on a hoe.

Corn Meal Ginger Cake. Take one pint of meal, three eggs, one cup of molasses, one table spoon of lard or butter, and ginger, or any other spices to suit your taste.

Johnny Cake. Take equal quantities of sweet potatoes (boiled) and corn meal. Mix with salt and lard and bake it over or on a board before the fire.

Corn Meal Cakes. Stir to a cream a pound and a quarter of brown sugar, a pound of butter, beat six eggs and mix them with the sugar and butter ; add a teaspoonful of cinnamon or ginger ; stir in a pound and three quarters of corn meal. Bake in small cakes and let it remain till cold.

Corn Cakes. One quart of milk, one tea spoon full of saleratus, two eggs and corn meal sufficient to make a batter of the consistence of pan cakes. Bake quick in pans buttered and eat warm.

Corn Bread. Take six pints of corn meal, one table spoonful of salt, four pints of water, mix with the hand and bake in oblong rolls two inches long. Make half an hour before baking. Use hot water in winter.

Light Corn Bread. Stir four pints of meal in three pints of warm water. Add one tea spoonful of salt, let it rise five or six hours, then stir it with the hand and bake it in a brick oven.

Another method is to make mush, and before it grows cold stir in a half pint of meal. Let it rise and bake as the first.

Corn Cakes. Six eggs well beaten ; one pint of milk ; one teaspoonful salt ; two pints of mush, almost cold ; two pints of meal and three tablespoonsful of melted lard ; grease the oven ; put one large spoonful of batter in each cake. Do not let them touch in baking.

Corn Muffins. Made in the same way as the above. Grease the muffling hoops, and heat the oven slightly before putting in either corn cakes or muffins.

Butter or Corn Cake. Beat the yolk of three eggs very light ; add one pint of milk, two pints of mush almost cold ; one teaspoonful salt ; three teaspoonsful of melted butter. To be well beaten together. Before frying them, ship the whites of the eggs to a strong froth, and stir it thoroughly in the batter. For frying all kinds of batter cakes, use no more lard than is necessary to make them turn well.

Mush. Two pints of water in a pot to boil ; then take one pint of cold water and mix smoothly into a pint of meal. When the water in the pot boils, stir this well into it and let it boil for ten or fifteen minutes, or until it looks clear.

Virginia Corn Bread. Dissolve one tablespoonful of butter in three and a half pints of boiling milk ; into this scald one quart of corn meal ; when cool, add a half pint of wheat flour, a little sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, and two eggs well beaten, mix well together, and bake in two cakes ; tins well greased or buttered.

Brown Bread. Mix three parts of corn meal and two parts of rye flour ; sift and wet down with sweetened hot water ; a little saleratus and yeast ; work into a stiff pudding. Bake with a steady strong heat until well done.

Corn Bread. To three pints of milk add as much corn meal as will make a thin batter, three eggs, two tablespoonsful of butter, a teaspoonful of saleratus, and salt to suit the taste. If not to be had, the bread is good without the eggs.

Corn Oysters. Take three dozen ears of large young corn, six eggs, lard and butter in equal portions for frying. The corn must be young and soft. Grate it from the cob as fine as possible, and dredge it with flour. Beat very lengthy the six eggs, and mix them gradually with the corn. Then let the whole be incorporated by hard beating ; add a teaspoonful of salt.

[Terry Sorchy]

Re: Making corn pone

Lard works the best. You can tell the difference:baring_te
Cheers:D
Terry Sorchy

[1stOVIGuard]

Re: Making corn pone

Do you d to use real lard or would crisco work?

Thanks!

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Making corn pone

Those corn cracker things that Terry makes are excellent. He gave me a bunch last year while at his house and I ate over half of the things on the way home to Michigan!

Thanks for sharing the recipe, Terry, I know I'll be making a ton of these at my restaurant.

[Terry Sorchy]

Re: Making corn pone

Yes it is but like I said cut the lard into it and wheat and rye flour make it tastier.
Rye flour was used as filler since wheat flour was more expensive or harder to find and rye is grown extensively in the south.
Cheers:D
Terry Sorchy

[BorderRuffian]

Re: Making corn pone

Terry,


Is this the recipe for the type Kiev brought to Pea Ridge?That was right tasty!

[Terry Sorchy]

Re: Making corn pone

Southern Corn Biscuits
2 Cups Rye Flour/If you prefer you can use one cup wheat and one cup rye
2 Cups Coarse ground Corn Meal
3 Tbs Baking Powder
1/3 Cup Lard about the size of an egg
Water to make dough
Cut the lard into the flour/meal/baking powder until it resembles oatmeal. Do not melt lard in. That will give you lard pockets. Add water till it makes a manageable dough, then roll it out about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a large round glass or can.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
You can also use this to make large mess size corn pones.
This recipe will give you a cornpone that is just as hard as hardtack.
If you prefer a fluffier citizens type biscuit then add milk instead of water to the recipe.
The water recipe biscuits will last a long, long, time.
This comes from one who lives in the frozen tundra:baring_te
Ask Pat Landrum how good these are. Happy Eating!
Cheers:D
Terry Sorchy

[High-Private]

Re: Making corn pone

Hi,

Thank you very much for the information.

Kevin Coyle
CS recruit

[tenfed1861]

Re: Making corn pone

When properly made,cornpone should hold up for a while.I still have in storage some cornpone my mother made for me for an event several years ago.

A lot of cornpone was made in the campr by the individuals,so you can just about make it any way you want to.If you want to make your pone a little sweet,add a little honey to it.Since the south was under the blockade,sugar would not have been able to really get through in massive quantities.Hince honey would be great.You could also use sourgum or molassas to add a little flavor to it.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Making corn pone

Corn pone (sometimes referred to as "Indian pone") is a type of cornbread, made of a thick, malleable dough made of cornmeal or hominy grits, shaped by hand and then baked or fried in butter, margarine, lard or bacon grease. Corn pone has been a staple of Southern U.S. cuisine, and has been discussed by many American writers, including Mark Twain. Typically corn pone is formed in two to three inch oval shapes and features a crunchy and/or chewy texture.

Just to say for reference, the above quote from Wiki, but it makes the major difference when it comes to cornbread vs. cornpone- Cornpone is fried in grease (bacon, butter, etc.), while cornbread is baked in an oven.

Hope you don't like your arteries... LOL

I make my cornbread in small cakes wrapped in cloth and tied with some string, so they will usually stand-up to haversack punishment while on-the-move.

Thanks- Johnny Lloyd

[Hank Trent]

Re: Making corn pone

Same here. It can have a harder outside crust so it will stay together fairly well for a couple days in a haversack, but doesn't get anywhere near as hard as hardtack. It always bites right off.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net