[at-l] Fw: Corn Dodgers...was food packing, fruitcake, NAFTA, the constitution, Magna Carta, Genesis

[cballs@mindspring.com (Curtis Balls)]

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Neal" <nealb@midlandstech.com>
To: "'Curtis Balls'" <cballs@mindspring.com>; "AT-Mailing list (E-mail)"
<at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 9:36 AM
Subject: RE: [at-l] Fw: Corn Dodgers...was food packing, fruitcake, NAFTA,
the constitution, Magna Carta, Genesis


> How dare that Yankee claim that receipe is Southern?!!!! -- Uncle Bo


I have been confused with many things in my life, but this is the first
time anyone has confused me with a Yankee.  Nearly the first thing every
Yankee says to me (and they all do)  when they first hear me is, "Where are
you from?"  I say, "Can you guess?"  And they say,  "Well, down South
somewhere."  I never thought much about being a Southerner until I left the
South but I'm reminded of it frequently here in New York City.  Unlike a
lot of Southerners who leave the South, I never hated it.  I recognize and
feel for it's painful, troubled past and I'm rarely in agreement with its
current political climate, but I also celebrate it for its rich cultural
heritage and its gifts to American life from food to music to language to
politics, much of it created (although not all of it) out of the long,
painful intertwining (much longer than anywhere else in the country) of
European and African peoples, which is perhaps the most significant factor
in what makes us Americans and not Europeans or Africans.  It is still THE
defining American story.  Of course the South is not time-locked and
changes right along with the rest of the country.  Some of those changes
over the past 40 years have been for the good and some of them are sad and
disturbing, as they are everywhere, but the South is my home and I'm always
happy to be there.  So watch who ya' callin' a Yankee, boy.


> Actually it probably has it roots in the South.  But like "Yankee"
cornbread
> it is not "pure" Southern tradition.


Actually it has its roots in Native American cookery.  First off, it's
corn, and secondly, when the Europeans got here Native Americans from
Canada to Mexico were making bread with it. They called it "suppone" or
"appone".  That's where we got the word "pone."  The Europeans north and
south made bread with corn from the time they first began settling here.
However, as more and more European immigrants arrived on northern shores,
cornbread in the North was eventually supplanted almost entirely by the
wheat based European breads.  While more corn is grown in the Midwest,
cooks in the South held on to cornbread and to this day make several
incarnations of it from the lowly "hoecake", "ashcakes", "dodgers" to the
very apotheosis of cornbread: spoonbread, an idealized souffle of corn
airiness, credited as the creation of Thomas Jefferson.



The ol' timey corn dodgers were
> flattened on a rock, skillet, pot lid... and then "fried" facing the
> campfire.  Or, they were pan fried.  In either case they were turned at
> least once.  They were ready when they were a nice, crispy brown.  They
> should be drained or patted dry if you're not on a thru' hike or other
hike
> where you need energy.  They are greasy.
>
> If made a bit stiff or cooked a bit longer (watch for burning), they can
be
> sliced and a piece of fatback, bacon (the kind called streak-o-lean), or
> even a slice of cooked veggie can be put inside.  Then wrapped up and
> carried for lunch.  I did this a few times when helping Dad cut down
trees
> for Grandma's stove.



Hoecake?  Ashcake?  Dodger?  They all use the same basic ingredients,
essentially the same as the Native Americans "pone,"  but they're cooked
differently.   Cooked on flat rocks or metal surfaces they're "hoecakes,"
so named from the custom of Virginia slaves who baked it on their hoes;
boiled in water or baked in makeshift ovens they're "dodgers," named from
the motion the morsel makes as it boils; wrapped in cabbage leaves or
cornshucks and baked in the coals of the fire they're "ashcakes."  There's
also a "johnnycake" pone which is most likely a corruption of "journey"
cake or of "Shawnee" cake, from the tribe credited with it's origin.

There are also batter cakes, griddle cakes, eggbread, corn cakes, corn
muffins, skillet cornbread, lacey cakes, corn light bread and Lord knows
how many other names Southerners have concocted locally to describe
cornbread.


> Now if y'all got a sweet tooth, add some sugar to the "batter".  Then
serve
> with syrup.  Also good in the sweet tooth Dodger is a some corn (not
cream
> style) and/or a sausage link and then wrapped in a piece of bacon.  They
use
> to serve this at USC and it went quicker than anything for breakfast.



Sugar?  Cornbread with sugar in it has the mark of the North on it.  Most
Southerners, if they use sugar at all, would use very little of it.  I've
never turned down a piece of sugary Yankee cornbread although more
accurately it's "corn cake."



> Similar are Hush Puppies.  Which should be deep fried, but if you haven't
> that much oil, or that deep a pot.  Just add onion (I've used re-hydrated
> onion and I've used wild onion).  Almost mandatory for "fish fries".
Good
> any time.


I've made scores of hush puppy recipes over the years and the best one I
found was in the Junior League Cookbook from Nashville, circa 1975?
Delicious!  Sorry I don't have it and think the book is out of print.



> William, The "Late Unpleasentness" Turtle
>