From the Ravenclaw Common Room: Johnny Cakes

While researching cuisine I came upon several books in our public library about food in colonial America. I checked several of them out but I only ended up reading one: The Colonial Cookbook by Lucille Recht Penner. It was a very fun book to read and I learned a lot, like how the first settlers arriving in America were ill-prepared and by the time the second set of settlers arrived with more provisions the few survivors left were boiling their shoes for food. Something I thought was interesting, and I wish we still did today, was that the colonists hardly wasted anything, they found uses for almost every part of an animal and learned how to preserve an abundant array of foods.
After I read the first part of this book, I flipped through the recipes in the back looking for a 'final project'. I came across a simple recipe called Johnny Cakes. Johnny Cakes were small cornbread pancakes that were usually served with butter and maple syrup and, like many colonial foods, they could be eaten cold or warm. I had a lot of fun making them and they tasted super delicious, especially when eaten with jelly or maple cream.

Johnny Cakes

1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup milk

Put the cornmeal and the salt in a mixing bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed, now add the water (I'm not sure why the water has to be boiling but that's just what the book told me to do). Stir until the mixture is smooth. Now you add the milk.
Grease a large skillet and put it on a medium heat on the stove. Use a tablespoon and drop the batter onto the skillet. Let the cakes sit for five minutes until they're golden brown on the bottom then flip them over and wait another five minutes. Serve with butter, syrup, honey, jelly, jam, maple cream, or peanut butter.