johnnycake

john·ny·cake

J0052300 (jŏn′ē-kāk′)n. New England & Upper Midwest Cornmeal bread usually shaped into a flat cake and baked or fried on a griddle. Also called regionally ashcake, batter bread, battercake, corn cake, cornpone, hoecake, journey cake, pone, Shawnee cake.

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[Perhaps alteration (influenced by the name Johnny + and cake) of earlier jonakin; perhaps akin to English dialectal (Lancashire) jannock, flat loaf of oaten bread, perhaps from Jan, variant of the name John.]Our Living Language When the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to cook with maize, they must have taught them to make johnnycake, a dense cornmeal bread whose thick batter is shaped into a flat cake and baked or fried on a griddle. Johnnycake, also called journey cake and Shawnee cake, is a New England specialty, especially in Rhode Island, where johnnycakes are often made of white Indian corn called flint corn. Outside New England the name johnnycake is best known in the Upper Midwest, but the food itself is most popular in the South and South Midland states, where it is known as ashcake, batter bread, battercake, corn cake, cornpone, or hoecake.

john•ny•cake

(ˈdʒɒn iˌkeɪk)

n. Northern U.S. a flat cake or bread made with cornmeal, usu. cooked on a griddle. [1730–40, Amer.; probably by folk etym. from earlier jonakin, of obscure orig.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.johnnycake - cornbread usually cooked pancake-style on a griddle (chiefly New England)johnny cake, journey cakecornbread - bread made primarily of cornmealhoecake - thin usually unleavened johnnycake made of cornmeal; originally baked on the blade of a hoe over an open fire (southern)Shawnee cake - form of johnnycakeNew England - a region of northeastern United States comprising Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont and Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Connecticut