The only place I know that serves anything called a “hoe cake” anymore is in a convenience store in Person County. Located on US 501 south of Roxboro, the convenience store is called King Bee #4 and the hoe cake makers call their little business Granny B’s Biscuits and Hoe Cakes, after the first owner’s grandmother, Luna Bell. They occupy a kitchen in the back of the convenience store. The name “hoe cake” probably originated in the 18th century, but the tradition of making them is much older. Native Americans were making them when European ships first reached these shores, and the early English colonists first learned to make hoe cakes from the coastal Algonquians who lived between here and the Chesapeake Bay. Algonquian cooks made the cornbread delicacies with a thick batter of just cornmeal and hot water. They made them into flat patties and baked them on rocks over an open fire. Originally, the early colonists did the same in their fireplace hearths, though eventually most used griddles and frying pans. Along with Indian-style corn mush (boiled cornmeal, pure and simple) hoe cakes became an important staple in early American cookery. They made up an especially large part of the slave diet before the Civil War. Many 19th-century cookbooks say that the name “hoe cake” came from field hands baking their cornbread over open fires on the flat blades of their hoes, but nobody seems to know for sure. Now and then, I still meet elderly cooks who make the old-fashioned hoe cakes with just cornmeal, hot water, and salt. I do it myself sometimes, too: I made the ones in the photo above just the other night, and I like to cook them especially when I’m out in the woods. I use a recipe that calls for a cup of cornmeal and a ½ teaspoon of salt for every cup of hot water. Most people gussy up their hoe cakes these days. They usually like to add some combination of butter, eggs, sugar, leavening, milk or buttermilk to the batter. Those recipes blur the lines between a “hoe cake” and a biscuit and a pancake, and nowadays the meaning of a “hoe cake” can differ even from one community to the next. In some places, local cooks have even stopped using cornmeal in their hoe cakes. Their efforts turn out breads resembling very large, flat biscuits. That’s how they are at Granny B’s, too. It’s not a recent thing, either. Based on what the crowd of elderly customers at Granny B’s told me this morning, that’s what people in that part of Person County have called hoe cakes all their lives. Instead of eating those hoe cakes doused with molasses, honey, or jam, like we do the Indian-style hoecakes, these are made for filling with bacon, fatback, country ham, butter, or maybe a fried egg. They’re good, though, and they fill you up: Granny B’s hoe cakes make ordinary biscuits look feeble and paltry. If you want to try that local version of hoe cakes, you can find Granny B’s at 5488 Durham Road (US 501), 5 miles south of Roxboro. They’re only open for breakfast—after breakfast, they cede their kitchen, tables, and take-out window to a Japanese restaurant called the Tokyo Grill.
———————– If you’re in that part of Person County this Saturday, February 19, you might want to drop by the annual Brunswick stew dinner at the Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department. It’s at 350 Ashley Road in the little community of Timberlake. To get there, turn east off the Durham Road (US 501) ontoHelena-Moriah Road, then right onto Ashley. The firefighters will start serving at 11 AM and you can eat there or get stew to take home.
The name hoe cakes seems to be more straightforward. The term hoe is an old term for a griddle, so substituting one word for another, you get griddle cakes, and a perfect description for just what they are.
The only place I know that serves anything called a “hoe cake” anymore is in a convenience store in Person County. Located on US 501 south of Roxboro, the convenience store is called King Bee #4 and the hoe cake makers call their little business Granny B’s Biscuits and Hoe Cakes, after the first owner’s grandmother, Luna Bell. They occupy a kitchen in the back of the convenience store. The name “hoe cake” probably originated in the 18th century, but the tradition of making them is much older. Native Americans were making them when European ships first reached these shores, and the early English colonists first learned to make hoe cakes from the coastal Algonquians who lived between here and the Chesapeake Bay. Algonquian cooks made the cornbread delicacies with a thick batter of just cornmeal and hot water. They made them into flat patties and baked them on rocks over an open fire. Originally, the early colonists did the same in their fireplace hearths, though eventually most used griddles and frying pans. Along with Indian-style corn mush (boiled cornmeal, pure and simple) hoe cakes became an important staple in early American cookery. They made up an especially large part of the slave diet before the Civil War. Many 19th-century cookbooks say that the name “hoe cake” came from field hands baking their cornbread over open fires on the flat blades of their hoes, but nobody seems to know for sure. Now and then, I still meet elderly cooks who make the old-fashioned hoe cakes with just cornmeal, hot water, and salt. I do it myself sometimes, too: I made the ones in the photo above just the other night, and I like to cook them especially when I’m out in the woods. I use a recipe that calls for a cup of cornmeal and a ½ teaspoon of salt for every cup of hot water. Most people gussy up their hoe cakes these days. They usually like to add some combination of butter, eggs, sugar, leavening, milk or buttermilk to the batter. Those recipes blur the lines between a “hoe cake” and a biscuit and a pancake, and nowadays the meaning of a “hoe cake” can differ even from one community to the next. In some places, local cooks have even stopped using cornmeal in their hoe cakes. Their efforts turn out breads resembling very large, flat biscuits. That’s how they are at Granny B’s, too. It’s not a recent thing, either. Based on what the crowd of elderly customers at Granny B’s told me this morning, that’s what people in that part of Person County have called hoe cakes all their lives. Instead of eating those hoe cakes doused with molasses, honey, or jam, like we do the Indian-style hoecakes, these are made for filling with bacon, fatback, country ham, butter, or maybe a fried egg. They’re good, though, and they fill you up: Granny B’s hoe cakes make ordinary biscuits look feeble and paltry. If you want to try that local version of hoe cakes, you can find Granny B’s at 5488 Durham Road (US 501), 5 miles south of Roxboro. They’re only open for breakfast—after breakfast, they cede their kitchen, tables, and take-out window to a Japanese restaurant called the Tokyo Grill.
———————– If you’re in that part of Person County this Saturday, February 19, you might want to drop by the annual Brunswick stew dinner at the Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department. It’s at 350 Ashley Road in the little community of Timberlake. To get there, turn east off the Durham Road (US 501) ontoHelena-Moriah Road, then right onto Ashley. The firefighters will start serving at 11 AM and you can eat there or get stew to take home.
A reader who volunteers at a historical site writes, “A common statement made by docents is that the cornmeal cakes eaten by slaves are called hoecakes because slaves used their hoes as baking implements when they were out in the fields working. This, however, implies that fires were kept burning in the tobacco fields in order for this cooking to take place. Clarify, please.”
The word “hoe cake” came not from the practice of cooking cornbread on agricultural hoes (which clearly did happen), but from griddle hoes. As Mr. Cofield states, “From a naming standpoint, the term hoe used for a cooking implement as early as the 1670s strongly suggests that when colonists baked a mixture of Indian corn (or wheat) and liquid on a peel or griddle, this food item became known as a hoe cake. The name stuck even when a hoe cake was cooked in a skillet or pan.”
First, a hoe cake is cornbread fried in fat and cooked over a fire. (That doesn’t mean fires were kept burning in the fields, however.) Fields were often located far from the slave quarters and rather than trudge back for the noon meal, it must often have been easier to build a small fire at the edge of a field, cook some cornbread, and find a piece of shade to rest and eat. Hoes were flat iron tools and could easily double as a griddle.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term hoe cake first appears in printed form in 1745. Washington Irving mentions hoe cakes at least twice in his satirical History of New-York (1809): Philip Vickers Fithian mentions it in his journals from the 1770s; and British soldier in the 1770s refers to cornbread: “Negroes bake it on hoes that they work with.” WIth that evidence, I thought I was on solid ground in saying that this was the origin of the term. Nope.
Hoe Cakes
FAQ
Why is a hoecake called a hoecake?
What is the difference between a pancake and a hoecake?
What is cornbread called in the South?
What is the history of hot water cornbread slavery?
What is a hoe cake?
By contrast, a hoe cake (or Johnny Cake) is essentially the most basic form of fried cornbread — a pan-fried, (sometimes unleavened) round made from a simple cornmeal batter. Hoe cakes are crisp and golden on the edges, dense and creamy on the inside, and sturdy enough to scrape up the rest of the meal that’s served on a plate.
Why is it called Indian hoecakes?
As a result, the dish is sometimes called “Indian Hoecakes.” European settlers in the Southern colonies learned the original recipes and processes for corn dishes from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek, and soon created their own recipes for using cornmeal in breads similar to those that were familiar in Europe ( source ).
What is the difference between a hoe cake and a pancake?
Pancakes are made fluffy and pliable with ingredients like eggs, flour, milk, and leavening. By contrast, a hoe cake (or Johnny Cake) is essentially the most basic form of fried cornbread — a pan-fried, (sometimes unleavened) round made from a simple cornmeal batter.
Why are Johnny cakes called johnny cakes?
It’s not clear why they’re called johnny cakes. It may be that originally they were known as journey cakes, since some recipes are made very simply with plain cornmeal, salt, and water – easy to whip up on a journey. Or it might be an English version of the Native American word “janiken,” which means “corn cake.”