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[Mjkoaktreecottag AT aol.com]

Hello again ~ I don't know anything about the Alonguin spelling for corn  
cakes, so won't comment on the derivation of the term, but I have made "hoe  
cakes" on the open hearth, both on a hoe blade (he old hand-forged ones were  
wider than the hoe heads of today) and on a hanging griddle.  I used a  17th- 
18th 
C. recipe--very simple--- coarsely ground meal, and water to  hold them 
together. I cheated and added a little salt, but they were still  
unappetizing to 
my 20th century tastebuds, although those cooked on the griddle  in sidemeat 
[bacon] drippings were a tad better, because of the flavor the  salty fat 
gave 
them.  So I can easily imagine 
that they were subsistence food and not eaten by choice.  Then I read  in 
several accounts, recollections by old-timers rhapsodizing about hoe cake,  
which 
 "wondered me", until I learned that later recipes included such  refinements 
as buttermilk, ocassionally an egg, possibly even saleratus [a  forerunner to 
baking soda or powder] so were more like cornbread,  thus more palatable, 
especially when smothered in molasses!  So  sometimes even recollections have 
to 
be taken with a grain of salt....
maggie
 
 



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