This morning, I followed a recipe for cornmeal griddlecakes from a 1796 cookbook by Amelia Simmons. She called the recipe “Indian Slapjacks” because they’re made from “Indian Meal.” This was common in that era. By the mid-1900s though “Indian Meal” was no longer referred to as such and instead called Cornmeal and was sometimes also called Maize Meal.
I’m in Alberta and there are not a lot of these different meals made from corn to be found unless you go to a specialty store. Sometimes regular cornmeal can be a task to find. I decided to read a bit about these different corn meals. Maize Meal is white and fine and is like a coarse flour and often referred to as corn flour. Cornmeal is yellow and can be fine, medium and stone ground. “Indian Meal” was either coarse or fine and was referred to as that in the 1800s and prior to distinguish it from other grains. Indigenous peoples taught settlers about corn and how to grind it so settlers referred to it as such.
Often cornmeal griddlecakes were made without a leavener even though Pearl Ash and Saleratus was used in 1796 as leavening agents. By 1830, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) was used to lighten baked goods and baking powder was available in the 1840s.
Often milk was scalded and then added to the cornmeal, but that causes the cornmeal to become gummy, so we will be using cold milk.
Today, we are using The First American Cookbook – A Facsimile of “American Cookery”, 1796 by Amelia Simmons, re-printed by Dover Publications with permission from Oxford University.
Here is the recipe from this cookbook.
Let’s get to it!
I made it two ways – one as the recipe says and one with added baking soda. The baking soda definitely helped to give it a bit of rise, making them a bit lighter. They were both delicious. We ate them with homemade jam and jelly, fried eggs and tea.
Here’s the cornmeal we are using. It’s stoneground cornmeal # 120.
Combine cornmeal, flour and salt.
Stir well. Add milk.
Let stand 10 minutes.
Add egg and mix well.
Add flour. If batter is too thin, add extra flour.
Here is the batter.
Spoon batter into a hot greased skillet. I am using cast iron. Cook until browned and flip. Continue cooking until browned. Remove from pan and continue cooking until batter is gone.
The griddlecakes on the left are original and the ones in the right have baking soda.
Here’s the original recipe:
1 qt milk
1 pt stone ground cornmeal
4 eggs
4 spoons flour
Little salt
So I decided to half the recipe as well as adjusting it a bit and here’s what I did:
2 cups milk
1 cup stone ground cornmeal or cornmeal #120
3 eggs
1-3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking soda
Combine cornmeal, flour and salt. Stir well. Add milk. Let stand 10 minutes. Add egg and mix well. Add flour. If batter is too thin, add extra flour. Spoon batter into a hot greased skillet. Cook until golden and flip. Continue cooking until browned. Remove from pan and continue cooking until batter is gone.
