New England Jonny Cakes: A Character-building Enterprise

Much is made of “Yankee Ingenuity” and “Yankee Thrift,” yet no one ever talks about “Yankee Frustration Tolerance.” In my business, it is understood that high frustration tolerance is one of the strengths a person needs to achieve success in life. This past weekend, I refined my understanding of this assumption. I also discovered that a person needs the frustration tolerance of a Yankee lobsterman, mill worker, or farmer to make jonny cakes, a traditional specialty of Rhode Island.



Last fall, I acquired some jonny cake meal of white flint corn at Fiddleheads Market in New London, CT. According to the label, the meal is grown at The Davis Farm (established 1654) in Pawcatuck, CT. No expert on cornmeal, I nevertheless recalled Cathy2’s mention that cornmeal stone-ground by water power is superior to machine-ground corn. The Davis Farm Jonny cake meal is ground in Exeter, Rhode Island.



I had made a casual attempt to test the superiority of water-power stone-ground corn meal a couple of weeks after my purchase, but I could not achieve any edible results, in spite of the advice of Imogene Wolcott's New England Yankee Cookbook which counsels a trial and error approach when thinning the batter: “Rhode Island jonnycakes are NOT easy to make. The trick is to get the batter thin enough so that cakes will be about 1/8 inches thick, yet not too thin, or it will be difficult to turn the cakes." Indeed. But I found that the 1/8" directive offered me no help. So, I decided to refrigerate the cornmeal (as suggested on the package) in case I should have an opportunity to try my hand at jonny cakes again sometime.

Today, armed with the calm brought on by a sunny, snowy Sunday morning, and the sense of a clean slate induced by the New Year, I attempted jonny cakes once again. This time, I decided to attempt the “purist” recipe on the package, which calls for only boiling water, corn meal (in a 2-to-1 ratio), a bit of salt. Milk is added a few tablespoons at a time to thin the batter.



Initially, I used a small cast iron two-egg skillet and a bit of butter on medium heat, dropping a scant tablespoon of batter for each jonny cake. (Unfortunately, I am stuck with an electric stove at present.) The first jonny cake had the desired lacy quality, but fell apart upon being turned.



As I worked, I noticed that the batter thickened, most likely as the cornmeal absorbed the liquid. I added more milk and the batter thickened in just a few minutes. I tried working with a thicker cake, but it burned around the edges before it cooked in the middle.



A more uniformly thick layer of batter was completely unworkable. This led me to add more milk and thin the batter past the point where only the edges were lacy. Oddly, the thinner batter appeared to develop elasticity as it rested, which I did not expect in the absence of wheat gluten. I continued to attempt a thin cake, and found that lowering the heat to just below medium permitted the lacy cakes to “set up” such that they became more solid and I could loosen the edges as they browned. Still, they came apart as I tried to turn them.



Then, about 30 minutes after I mixed the batter, things started to come together. With lower heat, and with a longer resting time for the batter, the cakes appeared to dry out before they browned and then could be browned and flipped to brown on the opposite side

.

Here is the way the batter looked at the perfect stage, thicker than heavy cream, but far from thick, as it only barely reveals the pattern of stirring and clings to the side of the mixing container.



Unfortunately, the cast-iron skillet became less and less willing to give up the cakes without a struggle. I decided to use the Teflon skillet. This permitted me to make a stack of two cakes and to eat them hot with some maple syrup from my brother’s farm.




I have to say that there was a small victory in that stack of jonny cakes, but the texture of the surface of the cakes was slick and inferior to the cakes that came from the cast-iron skillet. Still, the tangy, crunchy jonny cake was as satisfying as the fried cheesy bits that escape the corners of your grilled cheese sandwich, and well worth the frustration.


My homey conclusion about making jonny cakes is that patience and persistence are eventually rewarded. I learned to wait for the batter to set up awhile and not to rush the cooking. I also lowered the heat to just below medium and added more milk as the batter thickened. Frustration melted away with each bite.


The Davis Farm
Pawcatuck, CT
(860) 599-5841
1 lb. $6.50

Where does the name come from?

I just finished reading the apple chapter of Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire about the myth of Johnny Appleseed, which I never really learned about as a kid and was therefore new to me. I know there's no relationship, but your post got me thinking about Pollan's discussion of the ideals John Chapman came to represent--patience, perseverance...the same ideas, it seems, surrounding the jonnycake (and probably a lot of pioneer foods).

I heard one story that during the Civil War they picked up the name from the southern Johnny Reb's who ate them. Not sure if this has one bit of truth.

I am now curious about making them. It seems as though maybe 10% wheat flour might go a long way toward making them easier.

happy_stomach wrote:Where does the name come from?

In The New England Yankee Cookbook (1939), Imogene Wolcott wrote:

"Johnnycakes (sic) were originally called "journeycakes." As the Pilgrim Father's travelled from the Plymouth Colony to their garrison post at Russell's MIlls, Dartmouth, Mass. they stopped on a hill in what is now New Bedford and at the journey cakes they had brought with them. In time, the hill became known as Johnnycake Hill. Today the Bourne Whaling Museum and Seaman's Bethel, containing records and relics of New Bedford, are located on this hill, just above the Acushnet River. This historical note and the recipe for New Bedford johhnycakes comes from Mrs. Herbert A. Manchester, Jenny Lind St., New Beford, Mass."

Regarding the spelling of the term, jonnycake/johnnycake/jonny cake* Ms. Wolcott's note for the Rhode Island Jonnycake includes the following:

"A true Rhode Islander would not dream of using an "h" in Jonnycake. "Shepherd Tom," Thomas Robinson Hazard, in his famous book, "The Jonny Cake Papers," has settled this point for once and for all, especially for those from south county. It is said of Rhode Island Jonnycakes that they were served as a matter of course for breakfast; midday dinner was considered incomplete without them, and if a wife wished to give her husband a special treat for supper, she served jonnycakes."

The Jonny-Cake Papers of Shepherd Tom is avaialable in a downloadable version from Google Books. Here is the link:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id= ... t#PPA76,M1

*I adopted the spelling, "jonny cake" for my post to follow the Davis Farm spelling of their product. I don't know whether this two-word version is used in Connecticut or whether it is unique to the Davis Farm folks.

happy_stomach wrote:I just finished reading the apple chapter of Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire about the myth of Johnny Appleseed, which I never really learned about as a kid and was therefore new to me. I know there's no relationship, but your post got me thinking about Pollan's discussion of the ideals John Chapman came to represent--patience, perseverance...the same ideas, it seems, surrounding the jonnycake (and probably a lot of pioneer foods).

Sharon, that is an interesting observation. Plain virtues, Pilgrim forefathers, and all. I wonder if the Pilgrim Fathers of an earlier era were replaced by Civil War icons of struggle and perseverance in a time of war, as noted by teatpuller, below. It certainly seems as though the South has a bit of a lock on corn as a foodstuff, in spite of Indian Pudding and Jonnycakes.

teatpuller wrote:I heard one story that during the Civil War they picked up the name from the southern Johnny Reb's who ate them. Not sure if this has one bit of truth.
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I am now curious about making them. It seems as though maybe 10% wheat flour might go a long way toward making them easier.

Wheat flour would certainly help, as would added fat, but if the teflon changed the texture, then would you really have the same delicious outcome with added wheat? The key, though, has to be the grind of the meal itself.

teatpuller wrote:I heard one story that during the Civil War they picked up the name from the southern Johnny Reb's who ate them. Not sure if this has one bit of truth.

Sandy Olver's culinary history website, foodtimeline.org lists the Confederate Receipt Book (1863), a facsimile of which is posted on the Documenting the American South website. Scroll down to page 26 for a recipe for "jonny cakes or journey cakes." They call for cooked rice and milk - no corn.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/receipt/receipt.html