The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-22
HoEcAKE AND CoRNDoDGERs.
Are They to Disappear Because of Mod
 ern Cooks and Cook Stoves?

Are They to Disappear Because of Mod
 ern Cooks and Cook Stoves?
 While our government is industrious ly at work trying to introduce Indian corn into the domestic economy of Eu-
 ropean families, 1t seems to take no
 note of the lamentable fact that in this country corn is less used for bread than formerly.
 Most middle-aged persons remember
 we'll when corn bread was served upon nearly all tables in the south and west at least twice day. Sometimes it ap-
 peared in the form of "hoecake" or
 dodgers" at other times as egg or
 batter bread" and again in "pones." It was par excellence "the' bread of the
 negro, and every man who served in the Confederate army was also full graduate in the use of 1t. Now the dar- kies escheW it where wheat bread is to be obtained, and upon the tables of thousands of southern and western whites 1t never appears at all, while others continue to use it only for din- ner.
 Now, why is this? Surely cornmeal is
 as good as it ever was. Those who
 sincerely, but probably mistakenly, be- lieve that ''waterground' meal is bet ter than the product of mills turned by
 steam can always find supply of that In most cities, and it is common enough
 in the country. There is no trouble about the meal, but we doubt whether
 the art of cooking it has been preserv- ed. The high-toned colored damsels who are turned out by our public schools are not the adopts that our old
 Aunt Dinahs and Aunt Peggys were.
 No self-respecting pan of dough would
 be conjured into shape by such unskill- ed hands. And then we may doubt whether corn bread can be cooked in a
 stove as we'll as in an open fireplace, The Indians laid their dough cakes between layers of forest leaves, or upon the hard ground, and cooked them in the hot ashes. Hence "ashcake," a very
 luscious product, indeed, when one has
 whetted his appetite for it by long days hunting
 The hoecake is so called because it was originally baked upon a hoe-that ever ready and useful instrument of ag- riculture, which is to be found upon every plantation. But later on cooking utensils were manufactured, which took the place of the humble hoe. So, too, shingles were used whereon to place the
 dough while it went through the pro- cess of becoming we'll done ashcake
 In MT. Lanes Choir Invisible" which
 contains many interesting incidents of border life in Kentucky We observe that there the favorite shingle for this purpose was cut from the ash tree. In eastern Virginia and North Carolina a cypress shingle was generally used, but any sort would do where the best was
 not to be had.
 Cracking bread,' too, was much in vogue in the olden days, especially shortly after hog-killing time. For the | composition of this bread it was neces-
 sary not only to have cornmeal but
 also choice bits of crispy, fried hog
 meat It could be baked either as an ashcake in the ashes or as pone in an
 oven.
 | In Europe the insuperable objection l to the use of cornmeal for human food | is that in most countries the family baking is done only once a week. Now
 it is we'll known that corn bread is not
 as palatable when cold as when hot 1 Hence our transatlantic friends and
 knsmen have never esteemed cornmeal | highly for family food. They but it
 nowadays in great quantities, but use l it for the most part as cattle feed.