journey cakes

[Dave_B]

Tonight, I made a small batch of journey cakes fried in a bit of bacon grease. I had some dipped in maple syrup, a few with honey and the rest hot out of the pan, plain.
While the bacon grease wasn't the best thing for my arteries, they sure tasted great.
Dave

 

[Swampman]

I've eaten thousands of them, and could still eat them 3 times a day. I love them.

 

[Dave_B]

I haven't had them since I was about 10. The recent Muzzle loader magazine has a story that mentions them, so out came the corn meal.
My grandma used to make them for me when I would spend the night many, many years ago. We used to watch sci-fi movies and eat journey cakes and honey. She was a great cook. And biscuits - lordy could she make biscuits.
Dave

 

[Swampman]

If it weren't for dried beans and journey cakes, me, and my children would have starved. My grandmother made them nearly everyday.

 

[boar]

Davey My buddy(65) from kentucky makes gravy with bacon grease and cornmeal.He is still going and they found out that his arteries have been to small all his life.Born with them. Dilly

 

[Dave_B]

Arteries or no, I still like the taste of eggs and potatoes fried in bacon grease, biscuits made with lard and perculated coffee. Pie crusts made with lard - yummy.
I remember reading somewhere that perculated coffee wasn't good for you either. :youcrazy:
Dave

 

[Trina]

I agree with you Dave B well minus the coffee, it sure does seem anything that is good, isnt good for you :shocked2:

 

[Dave_B]

Minus the coffee? I can't function without it.
Dave

 

[Bountyhunter]

Everything that we eat nowadays is supposed to be bad for our health.

I figger that good health is nothing but the slowest way that you can die.

B

 

[shmrck1]

Bountyhunter,
Eat good food, run everyday, see their DR. on a regular basis and are dead ass dead
at 40. Sorry but when it is your time to go you are goneIMHO
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

To my recollection, true journey cake contained no bacon grease, or grease of any kind. Long term storage for travel, the grease would have turned the cake rancid, ingredients were corn meal & water. Kept dry and after a few days of travel, they became very hard and as a rule for use had to be soaked in water or cooked up in soups, stews & such.

 

[Swampman]

A "johnny cake" is a hoe cake. We call it fried cornbread where I come from.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

As it evolved, journey cake over the years has been known by several names, johnny cake, hoe cake, ash cake, griddle cake, corn dodgers, corn pone, etc, and like you, we called it (still do) fried cornbread.

We also ate a lot of fried corn fritters when a kid, and I love them to this day.

As an aside, I get a kick when at Native American pow wows & such, one of the favorite foods being sold is "Indian fry bread." More than once, I have seen them peeling open that container of store bought refrigerated biscuits and plopping them into the cooking oil.:rotf:

 

[Dave_B]

Yeah, I know that journey cakes were originally corn meal, salt and water. They probably lasted darn near forever, similar to hard tack. Talk about bland!
I just prefer mine fried in a bit of bacon grease and dunked in honey, cane syrup, molasses or honey.
Don't forget the pot of coffee. Gotta have a pot of strong coffee. Makes me hungry.
Dave

 

[TANSTAAFL]

We used the light table molasses growing up on the farm, man I can still taste those buttered up pancakes smothered in that molasses. We raised the cane, every summer a guy would come by with his rig for crushing, pressing and cooking the juice down. I remember it foaming up when boiling, we would eat the foam and call it cotton candy.

Most of cane crop was cooked down for the thick, dark black strap molasses, used for mixing up sweet feed, (which consisted of cotton seed and soy bean meal cake from a local oil extraction mill) for the milk cows.

Almost forgot the coffee, doubt we could have survived without it, all us kids drank coffee soon as we could sit at the table. When times were hard, we got the chicory blend, stout stuff it was too. When things really got tough, we used to dig up the coffee weed (wild chicory) roots along the fence rows where it grew. We would wash the roots and Mother would bake and grind them up to brew.

Poor people got poor ways, but country folk can survive.

 

[Dave_B]

"When times were hard, we got the chicory blend, stout stuff it was too."

I like Chicory in coffee. I had a friend buy me a lb of Cafe Du Monde coffee with Chicory when they visited New Orleans a month or so ago. Dark and strong. Good stuff.
Dave