QUICK BREAD
HOE CAKE (Johnny Cake)
Clabber milk is a nearly forgotten taste of rural America made by allowing raw milk to curdle. The tangy liquid was served with fruit or ladled over corn bread. Buttermilk is a modern-day approximation. We learned all about it in 1982, when A. Barnes of Fort Lauderdale asked for help duplicating her grandmother's recipe for clabber-milk hoe cake.
C. Berry of Miami Beach, who grew up in the Ozarks, reminisced: ``Mom doesn't keep a milk cow anymore, but whenever some of us get home, we always manage to get clabber milk. The only way to make it is to use raw milk (unpasteurized and unhomogenized). If you use anything but raw milk, it will simply spoil.
``To get good clabber, take raw milk and simply set it out in the kitchen for two or three days, until it thickens and curds form. In hot weather, let it just start to thicken, then put it in the refrigerator to finish. After it clabbers, stir it and keep it in the refrigerator. Chill it, bake a big pan of corn bread, set out lots of butter, green onions, radishes and tomatoes and enjoy. You also can use the clabber as the liquid in making corn bread or biscuits.''
Berry shared her recipe, and explained that the term hoe cakes comes from the method once used to bake them ``on the iron blade of a hoe in a fireplace or over an open fire. And the term Johnny cakes is an abbreviation of journey cakes -- they kept well while traveling.''
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar (if desired)
• ¼ cup bacon drippings (or vegetable oil)
• 1 or 2 eggs
• 1 cup or more clabber milk (or buttermilk)
Sift all dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Heat bacon drippings in 8- or 9-inch heavy iron skillet; pour off and reserve most of the grease but leave the skillet well oiled. Add eggs and milk to dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Add the hot drippings you poured off the skillet and mix until well blended. Batter should be about the consistency of pancake batter, so you may need to add more milk.
Pour batter into hot skillet. Cook the mixture any of three ways: For corn bread, bake uncovered in 350-degree oven until top is brown and bread is done, about 30 minutes. For hoe cake, cook over low flame on top of stove with skillet tightly covered for about 15 minutes. Flip and cook another 10 to 15 minutes. To make Johnny cakes, pour the batter into the skillet about 1/3 cup at a time, and cook as you would pancakes. Butter as soon as they are done. Makes 8 servings.
Per serving: 204 calories (35 percent from fat), 7.9 g fat (3.3 g saturated, 3.2 g monounsaturated), 34.1 mg cholesterol, 4.6 g protein, 28.5 g carbohydrates, 1.5 g fiber, 299.9 mg sodium.
