Hoecake

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Hoecake is a type of cornbread/bread made of cornmeal or unleavened flour, salt and water, which is very thin in texture, and fried in cooking oil in a skillet. It became known as "hoecake" because field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe held to an open flame. [1]Hoes designed for cotton fields were large and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through. The blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle.

Hoecake is notably the namesake of the cakewalk dance form. During the 19th century, slaveholders would hold dance competitions for their slaves, offering hoecake as a reward to the winner. Then known as the chalk line dance, the form became known as the cakewalk when it rose to prominence with the advent of ragtime music.[2]

The hoecake is also known as the johnny-cake, the Shawnee cake, the ash cake, and the no cake.

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[edit] Fiction

In Jean Fritz's children's book George Washington's Breakfast the protagonist finds out that George Washington did eat hoecakes for breakfast.

In Isaac Asimov's novel Second Foundation, a peasant family on the planet Rossem is preparing hoecake for their meal.

[edit] Music

"Ho Cake" [3] is a song by soul/funk/R&B band JJ Grey & Mofro. Lyricist and lead singer JJ Grey sings a tribute to his grandmother's southern cooking "My Granny makes the best cracklin' ho cake/It tastes so good I can't wait to dip my plate..." [4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1948). Cross Creek, 219. ISBN 0-684-81879-5. 
  2. ^ Cakewalk Dance. Streetswing Dance History Archive. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
  3. ^ Ho Cake. Mofro CD "Blackwater". Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  4. ^ Ho Cake lyrics. Mofro CD "Blackwater". Retrieved on 2008-03-21.

[edit] See also

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