Cakes on the griddle

[Fran]

There I wuz in my ute blatting along the road coming home from the Show
(County Fair is what I think that would be in US speak) humming along to
John Denver singing "Thanks God I'm a Country Boy".

He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.

Anyone care to try to translate?

[Don Staples]

Post by Fran
There I wuz in my ute blatting along the road coming home from the Show
(County Fair is what I think that would be in US speak) humming along to
John Denver singing "Thanks God I'm a Country Boy".
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

Flannel cakes, griddle cakes, blankets for the pigs, flap jacks. Pan cakes.

[The Rock Garden]

Post by Fran

Post by Fran
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that

although

Post by Fran
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

Flannel cakes, griddle cakes, blankets for the pigs, flap jacks. Pan cakes.

And, griddle; wide, flat frying pan for cooking said pan cakes. Can also be
an electric griddle especially designed for pan cakes, etc., although I
believe the Denver song referred to the old stove top type...

ip


Skip & Christy Hensler
THE ROCK GARDEN
Newport, WA
http://www.povn.com/rock/

[dogsnus]

although I believe the Denver song referred to the old stove top type...

Ah, yes. My grandmother had one. Since I finally got a gas stove
for the first time recently, I toyed with getting one to make them
like Grandma did. But then I rememberd that I can't eat them anymore
since they sit in my gut like a rock now, much the same way that donuts
do.
Sigh...
And don't even get me started on green bell peppers and how sick they
make me now.

Terri

[s***@webtv.net]

Group: misc.rural Date: Mon, Jan 26, 2004, 12:16pm (CST+6) From:
***@micron.net (dogsnus)
"The Rock Garden" <***@povn.com> wrote in news:57qdnViW0bhU24ndRVn-***@povn.com:
although I believe the Denver song referred to the old stove top type...

Ah, yes. My grandmother had one. Since I finally got a gas stove for the
first time recently, I toyed with getting one to make them like Grandma
did. But then I rememberd that I can't eat them anymore since they sit
in my gut like a rock now, much the same way that donuts do.
Sigh...
And don't even get me started on green bell peppers and how sick they
make me now.
Terri

Ronny:
This might not help you;but awhile back I switched to canola oil because
it was supposed to be so healthy. But I started noticing it bothering my
stomach,so I switched back to plain vegetable oil like I had always
used. So far so good,as the same cornbread cooked on top of the stove
with plain vegetable oil doesn't bother my stomach,whereas that fried in
canola oil really bothered me. Like you said;it would cause food to sit
in my gut like a rock. So now I'm back to using the plain old Wal Mart
brand vegetable oil.

As far peppers,I love any type of pepper. Sorry to hear those bell
peppers make you sick now. :-( I do like hot peppers in salsa; but
another very good pepper I like is the sweet pimento. To me,they just
have a great,sweet taste to them. :-) Good to eat right off of the bush.
Ronny

[dogsnus]

Post by s***@webtv.net
As far peppers,I love any type of pepper. Sorry to hear those bell
peppers make you sick now. :-(

I suspect it's the oil in them when they're still green.
I can eat red, yellow and orange ones just fine but the green ones
make me feel like I have an extremely_ bad case of heartburn that
no amount of antacid will dispel. And that's just the first 12 hours.
After that, well...nothing else needs to be said. At least, not in
public.
Terri

[Ann]

Post by Fran
There I wuz in my ute blatting along the road coming home from the Show
(County Fair is what I think that would be in US speak) humming along to
John Denver singing "Thanks God I'm a Country Boy".
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

Pancakes? aka griddle cakes. A "classic" griddle is cast iron, round,
with a low rim.
http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemID=787&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=696&iSubCat=787&i1Cat=670&i2Cat=696&i3Cat=697&i4Cat=787

[Offbreed]

Post by Fran
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

The song probably references "Johnnie cake", one of the corn bread
recipies, but could be about any type of bread that can be cooked in a
fry pan. Most can, they only need to not collapse when turned over to
allow the top to brown.

[s***@webtv.net]

Group: misc.rural Date: Sun, Jan 25, 2004, 1:49pm (CST-3) From:
***@hotmail.com (Offbreed)
Fran wrote:
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that
although I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it
means in English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

The song probably references "Johnnie cake", one of the corn bread
recipies, but could be about any type of bread that can be cooked in a
fry pan. Most can, they only need to not collapse when turned over to
allow the top to brown.

Ronny:
I do love Johnny cakes; :-) but just call them cornmeal pancakes myself.
Those cooked in my cast iron skillet,then real butter melted over them
and then cane syrup to top them off! Now that's good eating! LoL
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/recipes/johnnycakes.html

[dogsnus]

Post by s***@webtv.net
Those cooked in my cast iron skillet,then real butter melted over them
and then cane syrup to top them off! Now that's good eating! LoL
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/recipes/johnnycakes.html

I've got a good recipe for skillet corn bread if anyone's
interested.

Terri

[Fran]

Thanks for the answers. I had visions of carrots cakes being fried but I
knew that had to be wrong.

My mother used to cook pikelets (sort of a fatter, smaller version of a
pancake) on the top of the stove and for Offbreed who mentioned Johnnie
cakes, we have Johnny cakes here but they have no cornmeal in them. One
recipe I read says that it has dried fruit in them so they are a sweet
pancake/pikelet..

[ConnieG999]

Post by Fran
Offbreed who mentioned Johnnie
cakes, we have Johnny cakes here but they have no cornmeal in them

Fran, that's interesting. Different names in different places for so many food
items! Here in the States, Johnnycake IS made with cornmeal.

SYLLABICATION: john·ny·cake
VARIANT FORMS: also jon·ny·cake

NOUN: New England & Upper Midwest Cornmeal bread usually shaped into a flat
cake and baked or fried on a griddle. Also called Regional batter bread,
Regional battercake, Regional corn cake, Regional cornpone, Regional hoecake,
Regional journey cake, Regional pone, Regional Shawnee cake. Also called
regionally Regional ashcake.
ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps by folk etymology from jonakin.
REGIONAL NOTE: When the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to cook with
maize, they must have taught them to make johnnycake, a dense cornmeal bread
whose thick batter is shaped into a flat cake and baked or fried on a griddle.
Johnnycake, also spelled jonnycake and also called journey cake and Shawnee
cake, is a New England specialty, especially in Rhode Island, where it is
celebrated by the Society for the Propagation of Johnny Cakes. The Usquepaugh,
Rhode Island, Johnnycake Festival features johnnycakes made of white Indian
corn called flint corn. Outside New England the name johnnycake is best known
in the Upper Midwest, but the food itself is most popular in the South and
South Midland states, where it is known as ashcake, batter bread, battercake,
corn cake, cornpone, or hoecake. The color of the cornmeal, the consistency of
the batter, the size of the cake, and the cooking method can vary from region
to region. For example, an ashcake, according to a Georgia informant, is
“made by wrapping cornbread batter in cabbage leaves and burying it gently at
the back of the fireplace” (Dudley Clendinen).


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton
Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.




Connie
*****************************************************
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

[Fran]

Post by ConnieG999

Post by Fran
Offbreed who mentioned Johnnie
cakes, we have Johnny cakes here but they have no cornmeal in them

Fran, that's interesting. Different names in different places for so many food
items! Here in the States, Johnnycake IS made with cornmeal.

(snip)

Post by ConnieG999
REGIONAL NOTE: When the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to cook with
maize, they must have taught them to make johnnycake,

(snip)

I've always found words interesting and the words used in America are
perhaps more interesting than most. You have a lot of uncommon English
words still in use which have long disappearred from common use in other
English speaking areas. I wonder if Johnny-cakes could be a word which came
with the settlers from England to the US (obviously even if the Native
Americans did teach the settlers to use a new world crop it's doubtfult aht
they'd have called them by such an English sounding names as Johnny-cakes
and then to have the same name turn up on the other dise of the world as
well - very interesting).

Anyway, here's a definition from the Budget Macquarie Dictionary (a
dictionary of Australian English):
johnnycake 1. a small flat damper of wheatmeal, or flour about as big as the
palm of the hand, cooked on both sides often on the tops of the embers of a
campfire or in a campoven. 2. US a similar cake or bread made of cornmeal
and water or milk. [origin obsure. The first element may be from obs.
jonakin, jonikin (apparently of Indian orign) a form of thin griddlecake]

I took this reference to "Indian" to be to natives of the Indian
subcontinent and not of the US but I don't know why. The Oxford dictionary
says that the name could have come from Journey cake and I guess they would
certainly go quite well as food for a journey. I could have been wrapped in
a handkerchief and stuffed in apocket. It's not too much of a jumpt from
journey cake to Johhny cake. the other thing that occurs to me is tha the
name jonakin has a very traditional British suffix. Traditionally "kin"
used at the end of English words means "small". Very interesting all round.

[Marvin]

Post by dogsnus

Post by s***@webtv.net
Those cooked in my cast iron skillet,then real butter

melted over them

Post by dogsnus

Post by s***@webtv.net
and then cane syrup to top them off! Now that's good

eating! LoL

Post by dogsnus

Post by s***@webtv.net
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/recipes/johnnycakes.html

I've got a good recipe for skillet corn bread if anyone's
interested.
Terri

I'm interested! Can you post it here, or do you want an
off-group request? Thanks in advance.

[dogsnus]

Post by Marvin
I'm interested! Can you post it here, or do you want an
off-group request? Thanks in advance.

Here you go:
2 C.yellow cornmeal
1 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp.salt
1 teas. sugar
1 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. cayenne (optional, but highly recommended by moi)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C whole-kernel corn,canned or frozen
1/2 chopped onion
2 Tables. lard or solid vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 400F.
Combine dry ingredients then add the egg and milk and mix well,
but do not beat.
Fold in corn and onions.
Heat the shortening in a 10" cast iron skillet until almost
smoking. Pur in batter and cook for 3-4 mins. or until edges
turn golden brown.
Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 45 mins. or until golden
brown. Let cool about 5 mins. then eat with a big pot of red beans
and rice, gumbo or beef stew.



Enjoy!

Terri

[Marvin]

Post by dogsnus

Post by Marvin
I'm interested! Can you post it here, or do you want an
off-group request? Thanks in advance.

2 C.yellow cornmeal
1 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp.salt
1 teas. sugar
1 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. cayenne (optional, but highly recommended by moi)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C whole-kernel corn,canned or frozen
1/2 chopped onion
2 Tables. lard or solid vegetable shortening
Preheat oven to 400F.
Combine dry ingredients then add the egg and milk and mix

well,

Post by dogsnus
but do not beat.
Fold in corn and onions.
Heat the shortening in a 10" cast iron skillet until almost
smoking. Pur in batter and cook for 3-4 mins. or until edges
turn golden brown.
Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 45 mins. or until

golden

Post by dogsnus
brown. Let cool about 5 mins. then eat with a big pot of red

beans

Post by dogsnus
and rice, gumbo or beef stew.
Enjoy!
Terri

Sounds good! Something tells me that batter would be good as
hush puppies too. Have you tried that?

[dogsnus]

Post by Marvin
Sounds good! Something tells me that batter would be good as
hush puppies too. Have you tried that?

I've made them, but not with this recipe. I wasn't
impressed with them and neither were the dogs.

*This*, from creatures who think nothing of grazing on
dead animals, yard snacks and crawfish mounds.
Maybe I'll try it again using this recipe.
It's *got* to be an improvement over my last batch.

Terri

[ConnieG999]

Post by dogsnus
2 C.yellow cornmeal
1 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp.salt
1 teas. sugar

Oh, dear. Now we have to discuss whether sugar belongs in cornbread. In my
family, which is what I'm used to, of course, it doesn't.
My family is from, and I was raised in, a small town in West Virginia.
Sweet cornbread is "corncakes", usually the same as Johnnycakes, flat like
pancakes/flapjacks and cooked on a griddle-type pan.



Connie
*****************************************************
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

[dogsnus]

Post by ConnieG999
Oh, dear. Now we have to discuss whether sugar belongs in cornbread. In my
family, which is what I'm used to, of course, it doesn't.

We can discuss it, but my huband has the world's biggest sweet
tooth and would notice if it were missing!
:)

Personally, I can go either way.

Terri

[Don Bruder]

Post by Fran
There I wuz in my ute blatting along the road coming home from the Show
(County Fair is what I think that would be in US speak) humming along to
John Denver singing "Thanks God I'm a Country Boy".
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.
Anyone care to try to translate?

...Sun's comin' up/I got cakes on the griddle...

Pancakes, on a griddle to cook, Fran...

[Jonathan Ball]

Post by Fran
There I wuz in my ute blatting along the road coming home from the Show
(County Fair is what I think that would be in US speak) humming along to
John Denver singing "Thanks God I'm a Country Boy".
He got to the bit about "cakes on the griddle" and I realised that although
I've heard that a thousand times I haven't got a clue what it means in
English.

Pity English isn't your native tongue.

Post by Fran
Anyone care to try to translate?

As several have already supplied: pancakes, hotcakes,
griddle cakes. That last is uncommon; the first two
are universal throughout the U.S.

Here's a recipe for an excellent, filling but uncommon
pancake:

Scottish Pancakes

1.5 cups rolled oats (uncooked)
2 cups buttermilk
1.5 tsp sugar
1 tbsp ("well-rounded") baking soda
.5 cup flour
2 eggs

Mix oats and buttermilk; let stand 5 minutes. Add
remaining ingredients to mixture and blend until
relatively smooth. Drop by spoonfuls on a hot greased
griddle; cakes should be about 4 inches diameter. Turn
when most surface bubbles begin to break, to brown the
top side.

Pancakes/hotcakes are most often served with butter and
maple syrup, but I'm sure you could think up a
kajillion different things to put on them.

The above pancakes, couple with some sausage links, are
one of our very favorites Sunday morning breakfasts.
The sausages are good and easy, too:

Pork link sausages (bulk sausage patties will do just fine)
1 large bottle or can American lager beer

Put sausages in pan; puncture each one several times
with a fork. Cover with water, bring to a boil, then
simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes (this gets rid of
a lot of grease.) Drain. Return sausages to pan, and
brown for a minute or so. Pour beer over sausages.
Bring to boil, then simmer, UNCOVERED, until beer is
reduced to a thick glaze (syrup consistency). Put
sausages on plate; spoon glaze over them.

NOTE: As the the beer gets close to evaporating
completely, you really have to watch the stuff, or else
it will be gone and you'll burn the whole goddamned thing.

NOTE #2: If you get one of those big 24 ounce
Budweiser or Miller beers, you can pour a healthy 18
ounces over the sausages, and still have a nice Sunday
morning swig left. If you get this going before
9:00AM, you'll feel delightfully decadent as you guzzle
7-8 ounces of beer on a Sunday morning.

NOTE #3: Don't try to get fancy and use some
extra-flavorful micro-brew or heavy foreign beer.
Those are definitely better beers to drink, but *not*
for cooking. This is where an American lager is just
the ticket. I made this sausage with a very good pale
ale one time, and the glaze was terribly bitter.

[Marvin]

"Jonathan Ball"

Post by Jonathan Ball
Pity English isn't your native tongue.

Nor ours, for that matter.

Post by Jonathan Ball
Here's a recipe for an excellent, filling but uncommon

I had saved this when you posted it before and totally forgot
about it. Thanks for the reminder.

Post by Jonathan Ball
The above pancakes, couple with some sausage links, are
one of our very favorites Sunday morning breakfasts.

Sounds good too. Thanks.

[ConnieG999]

Post by Jonathan Ball
Scottish Pancakes

Oh, that sounds good. I love just about any breads containing oats/oatmeal.
Thanks.


Connie
*****************************************************
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.