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Rhode Island Johnny Cake
Use white, soft ground meal, not the usual granulated variety. For each cupful add ¼ of a teaspoonful of salt. Dampen with boiling water, using only enough to barely moisten. Cover and let stand for ten or fifteen minutes, then gradually add cold milk, enough to make a thick batter which will hold its shape when dropped.
Drop by spoonfuls on a hot griddle which has been greased with salt pork fat. When brown put a bit of butter on the top of each and turn over. When the second side is nicely browned transfer to a pan and stand in the oven for about five minutes.
A short recipe that depends almost entirely on the meal itself. Two details in the text need decoding before you start.
- The "14 of a teaspoonful"This is a printing artifact for 1/4 teaspoon of salt per cup of meal. Nothing in the original suggests a larger amount.
- White, soft ground mealThis means stone-ground white cornmeal, traditionally from flint corn, milled fine and soft rather than the sharp, gritty yellow meal sold as "granulated." Steel-cut or degerminated supermarket cornmeal will not scald into the same smooth paste; look for a stone-ground white meal, ideally whole-grain, and keep it refrigerated since it goes rancid quickly.
- The scald is the hingeAdding only enough boiling water to barely moisten, then covering it, gelatinizes the starch and softens the hull. Skipping or rushing this step is why johnny cakes come out sandy. The ten or fifteen minutes the recipe allows is worth giving in full.
- Batter consistencyThe cold milk goes in gradually because scalded meal keeps absorbing liquid as it sits. You want a batter that holds a mound on the spoon and spreads only slightly on the griddle; if it runs flat, add a spoonful more dry meal and wait a minute.
- Salt pork fatRendered fat from salt pork gives the characteristic edge and seasons the griddle. Bacon fat is the closest substitute. If you use butter or oil instead, add a pinch more salt to the batter.
- Griddle heat and timingThe recipe gives no temperature or timing beyond "hot griddle" and browning on each side. A moderate griddle rather than a fierce one suits these: they are thicker than pancakes and need to cook through, and high heat browns the crust before the centre sets.
- The five minutes in the ovenThe recipe gives no oven temperature; a moderate oven is the reasonable reading. The point is to finish the interior, so the cakes are dry at the centre rather than pasty.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; a cupful of meal makes only a small batch. Serve immediately, with butter and, if you like, maple syrup.
Johnny cake in Rhode Island is a matter of local pride and long argument: the state's version is defined by white flint cornmeal, historically ground at small water-powered mills in the Narragansett Bay area, and it is traditionally made with nothing but meal, salt, water and sometimes milk. No egg, no leavening, no wheat flour. Whether the cakes should be thin and lacy or thick and cushiony has long divided the east and west sides of the bay, and this recipe sides firmly with the thick school. The name is usually traced to "journey cake" or to a corruption of an Algonquian word, but neither derivation is documented and the corn itself is the surer history: flint corn was the New England staple long before wheat flour was cheap.