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Hoe Cake
Use the same mixture as for ash cake, making it a little thinner but not so thin that it spreads when dropped on a griddle-you may use a hoe if you wish to be literal about it, but better a heavy metal pancake sheet which accommodates a dozen at a time. Grease lightly, lay on large spoonfuls of the batter, shaping each cake with the spoon until it is half an inch thick, fry slowly, and when brown turn over and cook the other side. A daub of butter smeared on top before turning keeps the cake from sticking. The longer they cook without scorching the thicker the crust. And it is this golden crust-crunchy, nutty and sweet-which makes the kind of Southern mammy hot breads that put hair on your chest. Eat with plenty of butter.
A plain griddle cornbread that depends entirely on the ash-cake batter it refers back to and on low, patient heat. The crust is the point.
- The batter it refers toAsh cake is typically a stiff cornmeal dough: cornmeal, salt, and boiling water worked together, sometimes with a spoonful of fat. Thinned slightly it becomes hoe cake batter — the recipe's test is that it should not spread when dropped, so aim for a thick drop-biscuit dough rather than a pourable pancake batter.
- Use white cornmeal if you canSouthern cornbreads were commonly made with soft white meal, generally finer and less sweet than modern yellow degerminated cornmeal. Stone-ground meal absorbs more liquid and takes a few minutes of resting before you can judge the thickness.
- Griddle heat"Fry slowly" means gentle, medium-low heat. Too hot and the outside scorches before the interior sets; that is the failure this recipe is built to avoid.
- TimingCook them slowly and for as long as they will go without scorching; the recipe treats extra time as extra crust. The crust releasing cleanly from the pan without tearing is the sign the first side is ready to turn.
- The butter trickSmearing butter on the raw top before turning both loosens the cake and gives the second side its crust immediately. Do it with the back of the spoon rather than a brush; the surface is soft.
- VesselA "heavy metal pancake sheet" is a flat cast-iron griddle or plancha. A large cast-iron skillet works for four or five cakes at a time.
- YieldThe recipe says a full pancake sheet takes about a dozen cakes at a time. They are best within minutes of leaving the griddle and go leathery if held warm.