Read The Cornbread Gospels Online
Authors: Crescent Dragonwagon
The Cornbread Gospels (39 page)
ESLIE
’
S
N
ARRAGANSETT
B
AY
–S
TYLE
T
HICK AND
H
EARTY
J
ONNYCAKES
S
ERVES
2
AS THE MAIN ITEM
, 4
AS PART OF A SUBSTANTIAL BREAKFAST
A few changes in proportion and technique, and you end up with a wholly different jonnycake: thick, hearty cakes, perfect for starting a cold morning. Just ask Leslie Shaw, who grew up eating them every Sunday. Leslie is a Narragansett Bay native whose family tree is rooted in the soil of 1630s Rhode Island.
Sometimes Leslie’s family served the Sunday morning jonnycakes loaded with maple syrup. Sometimes they accompanied them with sausage, bacon, or fried eggs. Leslie’s favorite memory: summertime, at the family camp at Lake Champlain. “There, we had jonnycakes with fresh-water perch, breaded in cornmeal and fried.”
Leslie’s grandfather also had his preferences. “See, he had this trick: He would warm the cornmeal, and brown it just a little, in a skillet on the stove, before he added the boiling water.” That, and frying the jonnycakes in bacon drippings, she said, were the secrets (although these days she usually uses oil). “Oh, and you have to get the consistency just right. You don’t want the batter so thick you could shape it into patties.”
Kenyon’s Grist Mill’s Johnny Cake Corn Meal is preferred for this recipe. To order, go to
www.kenyonsgristmill.com
.
1½ cups stone-ground white cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
3 cups boiling water
1 egg
Milk as needed
Bacon drippings and/or oil as needed, enough to reach a depth of ¼ inch in the skillet
Optional accompaniments: fried eggs, bacon or tempeh bacon, sausage or soysage, or perch; pure maple syrup and/or hot milk and butter (in which case the jonnycakes are served in a bowl, the hot milk poured over them)
1.
Place the cornmeal in a large saucepan or a deep skillet, setting the pan over medium heat. Toast the dry cornmeal, stirring, until it just starts to brown and smells like popcorn, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the salt.
2.
Transfer the cornmeal, in its pan, to the sink. Slowly pour in the boiling water, and use a wooden spoon to stir it in a little at a time, until the meal is moistened. (Working in the sink prevents cornmeal from spraying here and there during this procedure.) Transfer the soaked cornmeal to a bowl, and wash the skillet.
3.
Make a well in the cornmeal and drop in the egg. Beat it into the cornmeal mixture with the wooden spoon.
4.
Begin adding milk, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, until the right consistency is achieved: The batter should be like very soft cookie dough and slump a little when dropped into the hot fat.
5.
Place the bacon drippings or oil in a skillet to reach a depth of ¼ inch. Now, begin to heat the skillet over a medium flame.
6.
When the fat is good and hot, but not smoking, drop spoonfuls of batter about the size of a biscuit or smaller, and about ¼ inch thick, into it. These thick cakes cook slowly; they will need at least 10 minutes per side. You want both sides to be golden brown and the interior to remain moist and soft.
7.
As the cakes are done, set them on paper towels to drain. Serve with the accompaniments of your choice.
ARIATION
:
S
OUTH
C
OUNTY
J
ONNYCAKES
Try this South County version. It is not the same as Leslie’s with its extra-crispy exterior, but it’s also an almost-classic and mighty good (makes about 18 browned-but-not-fried cakes): Combine 1½ cups stone-ground white cornmeal, pretoasted in a skillet as above; 1½ cups boiling water; ½ teaspoon salt; 3 tablespoons butter; and 2 tablespoons milk. Let the dough stand for 15 minutes, then shape into cakes about 2½ inches round and ¾ inch or so thick. Brown them on a well-oiled skillet over medium heat, allowing about 10 minutes per side (check to make sure they are browning right), and adding a little oil as needed.
·M·E·N·U·
J
ANUARY
N
OR
’
EASTER
B
REAKFAST
Sautéed Apples and Onions, or Baked Apples, or Cranberry Juice–Poached Pears
*
Leslie’s Narragansett Bay–Style Thick and Hearty Jonnycakes
*
Sautéed Sausage or Soysage, Bacon or Tempeh Bacon
*
Poached or Sunnyside-Up Eggs
*
Hot Chocolate • Coffee
R
HODE
I
SLAND
S
ANGFROID
Besides its direct claim to cornbread fame, the small state of Rhode Island, 1,200 square miles of territory, boasts more than 350 miles of coastline. Much of it is rocky and treacherous to sailors, but because of the area’s convenience to coastal traffic routes, mariners have always used it anyway, relying on lighthouses to warn them of especially dangerous spots. There were plenty of shipwrecks, even so.
In 1875, a freak March snowmelt moved enormous chunks of ice down the Providence River, destroying the small lighthouse keepers’ home and the pier on which it stood at the treach erous Conimicut Point on Narragansett Bay. The lighthouse keeper and his son barely escaped with their lives. The lighthouse itself still stood; but without a keeper, who would tend the light? Who would risk his life, even if to possibly save other lives out at sea?
The intrepid Captain John Weeden, that’s who. Former keeper of another lighthouse, he volunteered to row out to Conimicut Light (which, since its pier was now gone, could only be reached by boat). But, as Weeden began tending the light, making repairs, and so on, more upriver ice chunks moved down and destroyed his boat, leaving him trapped.
Then a blizzard set in.
What did Weeden do? Somehow, he built a fire, and he is said to have “calmly prepared himself a breakfast of tea and jonnycakes.” Only then did he ring the fog bell, alerting those on the mainland to his plight.
That evening, he was finally rescued.
LOCK
I
SLAND
J
ONNYCAKES
S
ERVES
2
AS THE MAIN ITEM
, 4
AS PART OF A MORE SUBSTANTIAL MEAL
Block Island jonnycakes are similar to my friend Leslie’s (see
page 226
): thick and with a touch of sugar as well as egg. If you like, you can toast the cornmeal before adding it to the batter (see step 1 of the aforementioned recipe).
1 cup fine stone-ground white cornmeal, preferably whitecap flint (see Pantry,
page 350
)
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup boiling water
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
3 to 4 tablespoons butter, melted
1.
Combine the cornmeal, salt, and sugar in a medium-size, heat-proof bowl. Pour in the boiling water and stir well with a fork. There will be just enough water to moisten the ingredients. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2.
Beat together the egg and milk with a fork in a small bowl, then stir this into the moistened cornmeal along with 1 tablespoon of the butter. This will make a thick dough-like batter; knead it if you like.
3.
Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat with another tablespoon or so of the butter. When it is good and hot, drop the batter by rounded tablespoonfuls and flatten slightly with the back of the spoon onto the skillet, so that you end up with cakes about 2½ inches in diameter and about ¾ inch thick.
4.
Reduce the heat. Brown the cakes slowly, patiently allowing 8 to 10 minutes per side. You want them brown and crispy but cooked through, and this takes time. Repeat with the remaining batter and butter, remembering to begin each round with the skillet good and hot, then lowering the heat for the long, slow browning.
“Lovely! See the cloud, the cloud appear!
Lovely! See the rain, the rain draw near!
Who spoke? What talk?
It was the little corn ear
High on the tip of the stalk.”
—T
RADITIONAL
Z
UNI CORN GRINDING SONG
J
ONNYCAKES
:
P
URELY
R
HODE
I
SLAND
For sheer hard-headed contentiousness in matters of cornbread, no one—not even Southerners—matches Rhode Islanders. This tiny state has no fewer than three distinct versions of their form of cornbread, the jonnycake,
and
there is actually a state regulation, passed in 1937 and still on the books, stating that anything known as a
jonnycake
must be made from whitecap flint corn that has been grown and ground within the borders of Rhode Island. And it turns out that H, not A, is the scarlet letter in this case: Any corn cake in the state that does
not
meet these stringent requirements must be spelled with a telltale “h,” making it a mere
johnnycake.
When did all this hoopla begin? A bread very similar to a jonnycake was made by the Narragansett Indians, who shared the recipe with early European settlers. Legend has it that the settlers called the bread “journey-cake” because it kept well and could be carried while traveling. The jonny cake has been enjoyed as an authentic, if argued-about, Rhode Island recipe ever since.
But there is agreement about one thing: the use of whitecap flint corn. Like all corn, it is a great-great-great grandchild of the wild grass first crossed and domesticated by indigenous people in central Mexico. Native Americans developed and bred varieties of corn appropriate to differing climates and microclimates. The Narragansetts’ whitecap flint variety, some 500 years old, is particularly well suited to Rhode Island’s soil, long winters, and coastal weather.
Today whitecap flint is considered notoriously difficult to raise. It cannot be grown near any other variety of corn. It’s a purebred, a corn strain that reproduces by open-air pollination. This means it mutates, losing its unique qualities, on contact with any other strains of corn. And even when grown in contented isolation, whitecap flint corn produces yields that are only half to three quarters that of most corn breeds. Nor does its finickiness end at harvest. Although all flint corns are hard, the whitecap is one of the very hardest varieties, and is thus difficult to grind.
Yet, Rhode Islanders insist that the only true jonnycake meal is made from Rhode Island-grown whitecap flint corn. Over and over you’ll hear it: Any other kind of cornmeal
will not do.
(My local real estate appraiser, Leslie Shaw, who was born and raised in Narragansett Bay and whose jonnycake recipe appears on
page 226
, has hers shipped to Vermont.)
P.S. In HBO’s
The Sopranos,
season six offers a plot line where a closeted gay Mafia guy tries to escape his world and hides out in a small New England town. There, he falls in love with a handsome volunteer fireman/short-order cook. This character’s specialty? “Jonnycakes,” also the episode’s title.
AVORY
O
NION
-S
CALLION
C
ORN
C
AKES
M
AKES
12
CAKES; SERVES
2
AS AN ENTRÉE
, 4
AS A SIDE DISH
Almost fritter-like, but not fried, these are an excellent supper side dish and an off-the-charts entrée when served as a Mexi-Stack (see the variation that follows). If you like, substitute ¼ cup masa harina (see Pantry,
page 354
) for ¼ cup of the cornmeal, to give the cakes a bit of corn tortilla-like flavor and a smoother texture.
1 cup unbleached white flour
½ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal (or ¼ cup each stone-ground yellow cornmeal and masa harina)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sugar
½ onion, finely chopped
3 scallions, trimmed, white and green portions thinly sliced
Kernels cut from 3 ears of fresh corn (about 1½ cups; see Shuck and Jive,
page 49
)
½ to 1 green chile, finely minced (with seeds for heat, without for mildness)
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1.
Combine the flour, cornmeal or cornmeal and masa harina, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring well. Set aside.
2.
Combine the buttermilk, egg, and sugar in a second, smaller bowl, whisking together. Set aside.
3.
Combine the onion, scallion, corn, and chile in a third bowl. Set aside.