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Indian Pancakes
One pint Indian meal, one tea-spoon salt, small tea-spoon soda; pour on boiling water until a little thinner than mush; let stand until cool, add the yolks of four eggs, half a cup of flour in which is mixed two tea-spoons cream tartar; stir in as much sweet milk or water as will make the batter suitable to bake; beat the whites well, and add just before baking. - Mrs. W. W. Woods.
A scalded-cornmeal batter leavened partly by egg white and partly by an improvised baking powder. The scald is the whole point: it swells the meal so the pancakes are tender rather than gritty.
- Indian mealNineteenth-century American for cornmeal, usually stone-ground and coarser than what is sold today. Medium or fine yellow cornmeal works; avoid degerminated instant polenta, which absorbs water differently.
- Do not skip the coolingThe boiling water gelatinises the starch and softens the meal. Letting the mush cool fully before the eggs go in is the hinge of the recipe: added hot, the yolks scramble.
- Soda and cream of tartarTogether they are simply baking powder made at the bench; the ratio here is roughly one part soda to two parts cream of tartar, which is single-acting and starts working as soon as it meets liquid. If you substitute commercial baking powder, use about three to four teaspoons and omit both.
- Sweet milkMeans fresh, unsoured milk, as opposed to the buttermilk or clabber a period cook also had on hand. Whole milk is the closest match.
- QuantitiesA pint of meal is two cups. "Half a cup of flour" is a modern half cup; the milk is left to judgement, and you will want something near a cup — thin enough to spread on the griddle but not pourable like crepe batter.
- Bake means griddle"Bake" here means cooking on a hot griddle. Medium heat, lightly greased, about two to three minutes a side; cornmeal browns slower than a wheat batter and scorches if the pan is too hot.
- The whitesFold them in at the last moment and cook straight away. There is no second rise waiting in this batter.
- YieldAbout sixteen to eighteen pancakes of four inches, serving four to six.
Cornmeal pancakes under names like Indian cakes, hoe cakes and slapjacks were among the oldest breakfast breads in North America, and scalding the meal first came out of the same kitchen logic as mush and spoonbread: coarse home-ground corn needs hot water and time before it will behave in a batter. The attribution to Mrs. W. W. Woods is typical of community cookbooks assembled from named contributors.