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Corn Griddle Cakes
1/4 cup corn meal 3/4 cup boiling water Milk (about 1/2 cup) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 egg 2 tablespoons molasses Add meal to boiling water and boil five minutes; when lukewarm stir in the milk; add dry ingredients, sifted, the beaten egg and molasses. Bake on a hot griddle and serve with butter and maple sugar.
A cornmeal batter cake that begins as a small pot of mush, which is what keeps it tender rather than gritty. The method is sound as written; a few particulars need translating.
- Scald the meal first, and mean itThe five-minute boil is the hinge of the recipe. Untreated cornmeal stirred straight into batter stays sandy on the tongue; gelatinizing the starch in boiling water first is what gives these cakes their soft interior. Stir constantly, it will thicken quickly and catch on the bottom.
- Cool before the milk and egg"When lukewarm" is a real instruction, not a nicety. Milk and beaten egg added to hot mush will curdle and scramble. The mush should be under about 110F before anything else goes in.
- Corn meal to useThe recipe specifies only 'corn meal'; fine or medium grind works best here. Stone-ground meal is coarser and will want the full five minutes and possibly a little extra water. Do not substitute corn flour or masa harina.
- The milk is a guide, not a measure"About 1/2 cup" acknowledges that mush thickens unpredictably. Add it gradually and aim for a batter that drops thickly from the spoon and spreads slowly on the griddle, a shade stiffer than a plain buttermilk pancake batter.
- Griddle heatThe recipe says only 'a hot griddle'. The molasses sugars brown faster than a plain batter, so work at a moderate heat and test with one cake before committing the batch.
- Baking powderThree teaspoons to one cup of flour is generous by modern standards. Two teaspoons gives plenty of lift and avoids any metallic aftertaste.
- Maple sugarHard maple sugar was sold in cakes and could be shaved or grated over hot cakes. Maple syrup does the same work; if you want the original effect, grate a maple sugar candy over the butter.
- YieldAbout ten to twelve cakes of three inches, enough for two or three at breakfast. Best baked soon after mixing rather than held overnight.
Cornmeal griddle cakes belong to the long American practice of stretching wheat flour, which was expensive and often shipped in, with corn, which was local and cheap. Scalding the meal is the older technique, inherited from the mush and hasty pudding that stood behind almost every early American corn dish, and it survived into printed cookbooks long after wheat flour became plentiful because it simply makes a better cake. The molasses and maple sugar are consistent with Northeastern practice, where maple sugar was sold in pressed cakes and grated at the table.