Finishing up Clementine Paddleford’s meanderings through New England where she collected recipes and stories for her classic cookbook, How America Eats (1960). More recipes in the series here.

For 12 years Clementine roamed the country collecting. The vast majority of the recipes are not from famous restaurants or chefs but from farmers’ wives, the town hostess, the diner cook. She has a delightful writing style–each set of recipes from a locale is accompanied by the tale of who the people are, what the place is like. So for us today, How America Eats may well be re-titled, How America Lived. The longer versions of the stories are published in a series The Old Books Blog.

Today we’re at Mrs. Metcalf’s home in Providence, Rhode Island. Mrs. Metcalf has invited four “johnnycake experts” to join she and Clementine for johnnycakes and talk of them. It’s a spirited conversation! A snip:

Mrs. Metcalf was critical of the johnnycake she passed at her luncheon. I took a third helping and my hostess raised an eyebrow. “These cakes,” she said, “didn’t turn out right.” A johnnycake, she explained, should be a glossy brown, thick crusted with creamy soft center.

Reinforcements of hot cakes came from the kitchen. Nobody, I noticed, held back with the fork because of a lack of the gloss. Here we tread on dangerous ground but right or wrong we choose the Metcalf recipe to add to our regional files. Who can say it isn’t the best? We are told that when the Rhode Island Federation of Women’s Clubs held a contest to determine just what should go into the state’s finest johnnycake, over 1,000 recipes were submitted, no two alike.”

—Clementine Paddleford, How America Eats (1960)

The Rhode Island Johnnycake Experts Speak | How America Eats

I looked this brand up at that great market in the sky, and let’s just say the reviews were mixed. I am pretty sure a finely ground white corn meal would substitute.

“What to eat with a johnnycake at the breakfast hour? Sausage the first round, maple syrup the second.”

RHODE ISLAND JOHNNYCAKE

Yield: 22 johnnycakes

3 C johnnycake meal
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 quart boiling water
½ C (about) milk

Sift together meal, sugar, and salt, and scald mixture thoroughly with boiling water. Thin with milk “using more or less of the quantity specified as needed for a thin batter.” Drop by spoonfuls to hot well-greased griddle and cook slowly on both sides. “Frying time is about 20 minutes for each griddleful of cakes—each cake three inches in diameter.”

Read the whole johnnycake story.