Dictionary Definition
hoecake n : thin usually unleavened johnnycake
made of cornmeal; originally baked on the blade of a hoe over an
open fire (Southern)
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
So called because the cake was often cooked on a hoe.Noun
Quotations
In Jean Fritz's children's book George Washington's Breakfast the protagonist finds out that George Washington may have eaten hoecakes for breakfast.See also
References
- Webster 1913}}
Extensive Definition
Hoecake is a type of cornbread/bread made of cornmeal or
unleavened flour, salt and water, which is very thin in texture,
and fried in cooking oil in a skillet. It became known as
"hoecake" because field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe
held to an open flame. Hoes designed for cotton fields were large
and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through. The
blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle.
Hoecake is notably the namesake of the cakewalk dance form. During the
19th
century, slaveholders would hold dance
competitions for their slaves, offering hoecake as a reward to the
winner. Then known as the chalk line dance, the form became known
as the cakewalk when it
rose to prominence with the advent of ragtime music.
The hoecake is also known as the johnny-cake, the
Shawnee cake, the ash cake, and the no cake.
Fiction
In Jean Fritz's children's book George Washington's Breakfast the protagonist finds out that George Washington did eat hoecakes for breakfast.In Isaac
Asimov's novel Second
Foundation, a peasant family on the planet
Rossem is
preparing hoecake for their meal.