Volume 8, Number 3 - Spring 1983
A Part Of
The Cooks Manual and American Housekeeper
by Ruth M. Baker; Published by T.W. Strong No. 98, Nassau Street, Boston in 1853
Johnny or Journey Cake
Sift a quart of corn meal, and having added a little salt, pour in enough boiling water to completely wet the meal, making a dough so hard as you can conveniently stir. Add a handful of wheat flour, or rye meal, and a little molasses, or brown sugar.
If you have an open stove, or fireplace, bake your cake on a board made for the purpose. Lay the dough on this with a spoon, about three-fourths of an inch thick. Wet your hands in cold water, and having levelled, smooth it off nicely; pick it with a fork, and set it before a strong fire with a flat iron against it. When done on one side, skip a case knife between the cake and the board and turn it off on a table. Take the knife and slide it back again and return the cake to the fire, setting it first rather obliqely, so that it will not slip from the board. When well done, cut in squares, butter, and send to the table.
This is the true bread of the Pilgrims, who named it "Journey Cake," because the materials could be conveniently taken with them in their way-farings and prepared by the roadside. We, as dutiful children, should make it once in awhile, if but to hold them and their passover in remembrance. It is now usually baked on the griddle, but, thus prepared it is far inferior. This cake is now found in perfection only in Rhode Island. Little Rhody is a true antiquarian.
The dedication of the book from which the above was copied reads:
To all wives who wish to please their husbands; all husbands who wish to please their wives; and all young people who wish to enter into that pleasing relationship, this volume is dedicated; and therefore an immense circulation is confidently expected by the author.
Note: W.D. "Bill" Cameron, contributor of this article. In 1853 the husband thought that he was Lord and master. In 1983 the roll has undergone a historical change and I ask that the ladies read this as a story of change and be thankful and amused.
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