“The pones were simply large, round, thin corn-meal cakes baked in a fritter-spider in a hot oven. I have lately written to Cousin Ellen, who now lives in the far Northwest, to ask her just how they used to make those pones at the old farm. She has replied lightly that for a batch of pones, they merely took a quart of yellow corn-meal, two tablespoonfuls of wheat flour, a teaspoonful of salt and half a teaspoonful of soda, all well stirred to a thin batter in boiling-hot water. This batter was then poured into large fritter-spiders, forming thin sheets, and baked yellow-brown in a hot oven. To make these pones into "Johnny-reb toast," they were basted while still hot with butter, then moistened plentifully with Jersey milk which was half cream, allowed to stand five minutes, then served still warm.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Yolks 4 eggs 1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons cold water 1½ tablespoons corn-starch Flour 1¼ teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt Whites 4 eggs 1 teaspoon lemon extract Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon-colored, add sugar gradually, and beat two minutes; then add water. Put corn-starch in a cup and fill cup with flour. Mix and sift corn-starch and flour with baking powder and salt, and add to first mixture. When thoroughly mixed add whites of eggs beaten until stiff, and flavoring. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. This is an excellent mixture to use for whipped cream pies.
Sources: The passage is from C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens, When Life Was Young: At the Old Farm in Maine, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — plum cloth, sheaf stamp.