Post by spence on Jun 17, 2022 17:37:03 GMT -7
In 1662 John Winthrop, Jr., son of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's first governor and at that time governor of Connecticut, in a report to the Royal Society, on the virtues and uses of corn/maize:
"The English [in New England] make a very good Bread of the Meale, or flour of it being ground in Mills... but to make good bread of it there is a different way of ordering it, from what is used about the Bread of other Graine, for if it be mixed into stiff past[e], it will not be good as when it is made into a thinner mixture a little stiffer than the batter for Pancakes, or pudding, and then baked in a very hot oven, standing all day or all night therein."
"This Corne the Indians dress it in severall manner for their food sometimes they boyle it whole, till it swell, and breake, and become tender, and then eat it with their Fish, or Venison in stead of bread... sometimes they bruise it in a morter and boyle it and make very good food of it, baking it under the embers."
He also described his favorite method for making cornbread, "....stir the corn into a thin batter, spread it on a wooden palette, place it on the floor of a hot oven, and add successive layers as the bottom layer cooks."
Well, when I found this tidbit I had cooked cornpone by frying it in a skillet with oil and without, baking it as a journey cake at home before a trek, boiling it, boiling it and then baking it to create a harder shell for handling, cooking it in ashes and on a hot stone, and had done this without leavening using coarse meal ground in a water mill and with modern cornmeal mixes with leavening. Of course I had to try this strange method.
I did a simple experiment at home in the toaster oven because I don't have a clay oven, and used a simple pan instead of a wooden board...just because. It came out like this:
The first layer tended to get too brown around the edges where it wasn't covered, but wasn't burnt. My batter was a bit too thick, so I had to "pour" it on and spread the layer with a spoon, but it made a not-too-bad pone. Inside you couldn't see the layers, and the taste was pretty much as with any other baked pone.
If I'm ever able to get out on another trek I'm looking forward to trying this on a bannock board in camp. I think it will work.
Spence
"The English [in New England] make a very good Bread of the Meale, or flour of it being ground in Mills... but to make good bread of it there is a different way of ordering it, from what is used about the Bread of other Graine, for if it be mixed into stiff past[e], it will not be good as when it is made into a thinner mixture a little stiffer than the batter for Pancakes, or pudding, and then baked in a very hot oven, standing all day or all night therein."
"This Corne the Indians dress it in severall manner for their food sometimes they boyle it whole, till it swell, and breake, and become tender, and then eat it with their Fish, or Venison in stead of bread... sometimes they bruise it in a morter and boyle it and make very good food of it, baking it under the embers."
He also described his favorite method for making cornbread, "....stir the corn into a thin batter, spread it on a wooden palette, place it on the floor of a hot oven, and add successive layers as the bottom layer cooks."
Well, when I found this tidbit I had cooked cornpone by frying it in a skillet with oil and without, baking it as a journey cake at home before a trek, boiling it, boiling it and then baking it to create a harder shell for handling, cooking it in ashes and on a hot stone, and had done this without leavening using coarse meal ground in a water mill and with modern cornmeal mixes with leavening. Of course I had to try this strange method.
I did a simple experiment at home in the toaster oven because I don't have a clay oven, and used a simple pan instead of a wooden board...just because. It came out like this:
The first layer tended to get too brown around the edges where it wasn't covered, but wasn't burnt. My batter was a bit too thick, so I had to "pour" it on and spread the layer with a spoon, but it made a not-too-bad pone. Inside you couldn't see the layers, and the taste was pretty much as with any other baked pone.
If I'm ever able to get out on another trek I'm looking forward to trying this on a bannock board in camp. I think it will work.
Spence