Don't Be Confused About This Simple Quick Bread

welcome I'm John Townsend and we're doing another special episode here at George Washington's Mount Vernon such a tremendous place and this is another in a series that we're doing if you haven't seen the earlier ones go back and watch them to help give you context for this episode we're going to be making something special again with Deb Colburn come along as we experience this dish it's going to be good hello Deborah I am hope I'm not late no okay I don't know we we've done fish three different episodes of fish fish sound like was just amazingly important to what was going on here at Mount Vernon absolutely it really was it was not only a major staple for the population both enslaved hired and the Washington's themselves but it was his met one of his major export businesses so the money is coming from a lot of the time right so what do we what what are we doing today today we're going to be working with another vitally important ingredient in our recipe we're making fried whole cakes which are cornmeal pancakes okay and that is Washington's second most important crop at Mount Vernon okay after his cash crop wheat because corn and this is white cornmeal ground at the grist mill here corn was being fed to the enslaved population as a major ration each each working hand is getting an entire quart of cornmeal daily it's like their bread days out of the year at our lutely right that's exactly right and so we're starting with the white cornmeal and water and a little cayenne pepper because we already talked about how much that is plentiful and it's something we know that they had a taste for it it's going to kind of liven up those Oh cakes you know you can do it without but why I do it without when you can add the spice right sure so whole cakes were probably one of the simplest things they were they were normally cooking right absolutely especially for the slaves there are more elaborate recipes using cornmeal and to make hoe cakes first a to Washington's table but over the slave you're looking at simply adding your meal okay your water and your spices and you're just going to get it to a pancake batter consistency so I'm going to start with probably the equivalent of about oh five cups or so of but it's always showing but it's the ratio I mean I'd be honest that other than weighing things from time to time it's rare that I measure it just going to go by feel sure so I'm going to add the to the cornmeal a little bit of that spice we talked about the cayenne pepper spice them up a little bit and a little bit of salt if that all mixed in and then we just add water now this is warm water you know and you know so basically any water that they would have been able to warm up by their fire before they they added it in warm water helps the cornmeal to rise up a little bit in the skillet but once we get this into a pancake consistency we're pretty thin yeah it's going to be ready to put in the skillet and so this would have been a wonderful thing for the slaves to prepare for themselves quick and easy first thing in the morning in the dark because they'd be in the fields by sunrise or any of their other Occupational locations depending on what they were doing for the Washington's and you know there's there's some conceptions that they're misconceptions that whole cakes were cooked on hoes out in fields yeah that's not that's not where they go that that term there were there were griddles that resembled hoes locusts and so that's where that terminology is coming from but you know you wouldn't want a fire in your field I don't think so no no gentleman farmer we condone that in Washington certainly wooden half so that's pretty much there we go a nice thin batter look at that ready for the skillet okay so okay we're going to start with our lard now that we've got our preheated skillet and our hot cooking coals underneath all right now you can pretty much just ladle in Oakhurst out the amount that you would use so just like pancakes they've got to sizzle up on the bottom and start to bubble a bit on top before we want to flip them so these guys are ready yeah I looked them over and they look good they do so now we're going to go ahead and take them on out of our Bowl okay okay pancakes let's take them to the table sounds like a plan these whole cakes they they look special and I don't know if I've ever I don't know if I've ever at no gigs with pepper and number four okay so it's a it's because it's a corn think of something you know a south western tradition oh haha oh yeah okay it's here being brought up by the enslaved populations at home West Indies Explorer and of course washings going into a chai one okay okay today they are not meant to stand on their own right now you're a come wid something else so beat you know because no bread is you know Brent can be very very plain if you can we eat at all time we like it it's wonderful this is like a bread right so it's meant to go with other things well you're probably put stuff on it if we wanted to we could or good have it with a soup or stew how about with the soup or stew uh-huh as an accompaniment that's a change in texture they taste great there's almost no ingredients here right now it's amazing isn't it I mean you're stir some water in and you're Gotham you got a little bit of seasoning and that's it it's all right and salt that's it that's the flavor is wonderful well I'm glad that guy's neck secure it was great and now it's a little deceiving because we taught them hoecakes but and we kind of liken them to pancakes but they're not light and airy like you all take their denser like bread I pointed out there's no no real leavening other than what the ground things kind of bring along with them which is fine this is this is such an important part of what's going on in the diet in the 18th century and it connects with these other things going on in other cultures too you know oat cakes that are happening with the Scots and you know but we take those those traditions that we come to America we've got corn and what are we going to make well the same thing corn cakes they're wonderful thank you for for bringing telling us all about this and making them for us and they they taste so wonderful and they're they're so fun to watch and experiment and and understand just how simple they are and that anyone can do them at home you can make me absolutely so simple so simple so wonderful I want to thank everyone and I specifically want to thank Debra here and all the folks at Mount Vernon they have just been so kind and so welcoming to us and you know it's so exciting to connect with these different historic sites Mount Vernon especially if you're ever in this area Northern Virginia this is a tremendous resource of national resource we need to be using this we need to be understanding it we need to be experiencing it I called you to do that whenever you have the opportunity and and to tell other people and I want to thank you for coming along on this video experiencing this with us as we savor the flavors in the aromas of the 18th century [Music]

Channel: Townsends

Views: 556,133

Rating: 4.9464407 out of 5

Keywords: mount vernon, townsends, jas townsend and son, reenacting, george washington, jon townsend, history, 18th century, 18th century cooking, historical reenacting, historic site

Id: ecnSW1t4dLk

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2017