The Lizzie Borden Society archive

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1. "Pass the maple syrup please."
Posted by Harry on Mar-3rd-02 at 5:42 PM

Now we all can have Johnny Cakes. Direct from the B&B the recipe for them.

http://recipecircus.com/recipes/philocrates/BREAD/LIzzie_Borden_JOHNNYCAKES.html

This looks wonderful!  I have a feeling that Bridget didn't make hers quite like these.  Same with the cookie recipe posted earlier.  They might make them at the B & B nowadays, but I don't think they're an original Borden/Sullivan recipe.  Fantastic recipes to have.  Once again, thanks to Harry!

I wondered if the "light cream" replaced any egg or oil.
Is Johnny Cakemix anything like Corn Bread Mix, do you know?

I think it is Corn Bread mix.  My wife makes corn bread with "Jiffy" brand.

Johnnycake is made from a corn meal (verus corn bread) mix.  The major difference is the consistency and color.  Corn bread mix (also a corn meal compound) is course in texture and yellow in color.  Johnnycake mix is a finer texture and white in color.  The difference is the type of corn used in grinding the corn meal.  Johnnycake batter is comparable to our modern day pancake batter that you get when you add water/milk and/or eggs to a boxed mix from the super. As a child growing up in the Midwest my mother made johnnycakes for breakfast many times.  She would use the white corn meal mix with milk and eggs and fry them on a griddle.  We would saturate them with butter and syrup just as we would do to pancakes later when boxed pancake mixed became popular.  Aunt Jemimia was the preferred brand for pancakes.  Another popular use for the white corn meal was a concoction called "mush".  This preparation was more detailed and was my father's favorite breakfast food.  To make "mush" one cooked or better yet boiled the white corn meal, similar to the old cream-o-wheat cereal, until the mix was thick.  The mix was then poured into a 9 x 13 buttered baking pan and placed in the fridge to cool and solidify.  Once solid the "mush" could be removed in a single slab, sliced, flour coated and fried in grease or oil.  The result was a crispy textured food that looked like lard on the inside.  My siblings and I detested both the appearance and the taste which to this day (four plus decades later) beyond description.  The johnnycakes were one thing but the "mush" was strictly for Father.

(Message last edited Mar-9th-02  7:48 PM.)

Jiffy brand corn muffins are the BEST!

Hey, BOBCOOK, do you cook?  What about the missing eggs from this B&B Bridget receipt?

BTW:  That was a really good post!

Kat: as a matter of fact I do "cook" I am the eldest of twelve so as a child my late mother taught me the finer arts of not only cooking but baking and all other domestic chores.  When my wife married me she aquired a ready "maid" butler..haha.  Truthfully over my twenty odd years as a firefighter I have had the dubious honor of being the shift cook.  Three years ago I won an even more dubious honor of being selected as a "runner-up" to a Fire House Cook Off sponored by Fall River's very own, Emeril Lagese.  I had the pleasure of traveling to NYC and appeared on his "Emeril Live" show.  He had as much fun knowing someone from Attleboro as I did being in his presence.  (Something for my book I guess)  Anyway regarding the eggs found in the B & B recipe verus Mother's own...eggs are an option.  When added to the batter it forms a "richer" texture, color and taste. Depending upon your families ethnic background could give cause for the variation.  My Mother's family were Hungarian and my Father's were German.  Sometimes eggs, which were plentiful as we lived on a farm as a child, were added to certain recipes while not to others.  Our "johnnycake" recipe did not call for eggs though I have had them both ways.  After you drown them in butter and syrup they all taste the same.  Bon apetite!

Thanks Bob, now I know why I couldn't find any Johnny cake mix at my local supermarket!  Seen tons of corn meal.

Jiffy brand mixes are near the top for quality and ease of making, most of them require only water/milk an egg and rarely veggie oil.  Mix thoroughly and pop it in the oven and there you have it.  Not to date myself but I can remember when Jiffy mixes were 10 cents a box. Now I think they run close to a dollar.  Back in 1892 though there werent any "quick mix" in a box only real mix in a bag, flour, corn meal, sugar, etc.  You can make a form of "johnnycake" using modern day pancake mix but if you want the "real McCoy" or should I say the "real Borden" follow that website recipe...I cant wait until Saturday morning the 23rd of March...when I wake up at the Lizzie B & B to a sumputous breakfast back in 1892...mmmmmmmm....I can smell the cakes on the griddle now...