| Author | Content |
Hemophobic
Kannapolis, NC
October 07, 2008
05:22 AM Post #5642359
| Sharon, as usual, your article about Aunt Bett was thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. I can just smell that fresh gingerbread! |
debilu
Fingerlakes Region, NY
(Zone 6a)
October 07, 2008
06:55 AM Post #5642441
| Sharon, I too love all your stories, and love gingerbread. I make gingerbread cookies for all of my sisters every Christmas, and now will try this recipe and think of you and Aunt Bett. |
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 07, 2008
08:16 AM Post #5642575
| O.K. Sharron. what is a "pone"?
I just bought me some real asian ginger to grow in a pot over the winter.
Now I have your recipe, Ill save a toe for ginger bread. |
youngershirl
Orange Park, FL
(Zone 9a)
October 07, 2008
09:11 AM Post #5642724
| Great story, I can just picture you and your Aunt climbing the hill looking for the wild ginger. Thanks so much for sharing. |
joycet
Franklin, OH
(Zone 6a)
October 07, 2008
02:29 PM Post #5643803
| I'm glad you asked what a pone is...and you live in ALABAMA!!! At least I'm a yankee and probably aren't supposed to know such words!!!!  |
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 07, 2008
02:48 PM Post #5643848
| Well what is it? I grew up in Michigan, went to school in California and wound up in Alabama. I still don't know what a pone is!
P.S. My uncle lived in Ohio. We thought he and my cousins had a southern accent. |
joycet
Franklin, OH
(Zone 6a)
October 07, 2008
03:11 PM Post #5643919
| I've heard that from friends in Wisconsin and Minnesota, too! |
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 07, 2008
03:15 PM Post #5643933
| O.K. here is the definition of pone from thefreedictionary.com:
Quoted:
pone (pn)
n. Chiefly Southern U.S.
See johnnycake. See Regional Notes at johnnycake, light bread.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Virginia Algonquian poan, appoans, cornbread.]
Regional Note: A staple of the early American colonies from New England southward to Virginia was pone, a bread made by Native Americans from flat cakes of cornmeal dough baked in ashes. Pone is one of several Virginia Algonquian words (including hominy and tomahawk) borrowed into the English of the Atlantic seaboard. The word pone, usually in the compound cornpone, is now used mainly in the South, where it means cakes of cornbread baked on a griddle or in hot ashesas the Native Americans originally cooked it.
End Quote.
I still don't get what a gingerbread pone might be. |
zhinusmom
(Trisha) Olympia, WA
(Zone 8a)
October 07, 2008
03:52 PM Post #5644034
| The way it is used here is you take some dough and shape it into a biscuit type shape and place it the iron pan and cook it like you would biscuits...I am a misplaced Okie and sort of know the word...we had cornpone pie... a ground beef mixture with Cornbread (cornpone) batter poured over the top and baked!!! Was really good stuff! |
debilu
Fingerlakes Region, NY
(Zone 6a)
October 07, 2008
04:27 PM Post #5644130
| I was going to ask about a pone too. |
herbalbetty
Middleburgh, NY
October 07, 2008
04:35 PM Post #5644149
| Sharon, as always, your story is a gem. I have wild ginger in the woodland area of my garden. I've only made gingerbread with Asian ginger, but you can bet I'll try your recipe. (With all the cautions understood) Thanks so much for including it! |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 07, 2008
06:18 PM Post #5644435
| Well, now that you all found out what a pone is without me...Hooray!!!!
In the mountains it was a word used much the same as Gloria says. It was small handshaped loaves of any kind of bread, thick batter helped in the shaping. It's how gingerbread men were made, by hand. Aunt Bett and Ninna would put several small loaves in a large iron skillet and could bake several at a time that way.
Sorry to be so late in writing, but had to be out of town most of the day, so it was nice to come back and see all of you, and to find that one of the words provoked some interest. Maybe I should add a little dictionary at the end of each article.
Thank you so much for reading the article and for all of your comments.
Sharon
|
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 07, 2008
08:14 PM Post #5644872
| Thanks, Sharran. I really have never seen the individual loaves in an iron pan - my instructions were to heat the pan with the grease and pour in all of the batter when the grease started smoking - that was for corn bread of course.
Guess I still have more to learn about being 'southern'! |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 07, 2008
08:32 PM Post #5644936
| They do bake together, but with little ridges between each "pone", so that they can be broken apart. My favorite was always the middle piece, because it didn't have any crusty edges from the pan. This recipe will make a batter so stiff it probably won't pour.
I think you doing a great job of being a southerner, Gloria. |
Riverwine
Crossville, AL
October 13, 2008
10:47 AM Post #5665839
| Gloria!
I am a lifelong Southerner, and on those cornbread instructions, look out!! You heat the pan with the oil in it until JUST before smoking, cause that smoking is the oil breaking down! I remember asking my Dad (my cornbread baking instructor) how do you know when its just before? And he just smiled... ! Thanks for the memories, and yes, I have to bake cornbread that exact way now for my country boy husband, every few days.
but my gingerbread looked nothing like this! More like a pan of brownies? Must be a yankee recipe I am using *mutters*. |
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 13, 2008
11:42 AM Post #5666025
| Riverwine: I learned to make cornbread in an archeological field camp in Franklin County, Al.
Our boss was an old Alabamian. the instructions were as above, but yes - - just before smoking is when you add the batter.
He and his wife (who was from Tennessee) always had an argument about whether a small amount of sugar should be added to the batter. She was a proponent of the sugar. He said, No Way!
Quite a ritual and you have to do it just right.
To tell the truth now I just heat the pan, spray with canola oil, and pour in the batter.
No one's watching! |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 13, 2008
02:09 PM Post #5666621
| Nahhhh...no sugar in the mountains, no. Never in cornbread.
Unless you might be a transplant..
When y'all try out this recipe for gingerbread, well, it keeps a long time, so if y'all want me to sample yours to let you know if it is fit to eat, just wrap up a piece and put it in the mail, I'll be glad to help you out.
But don't send me any sweet cornbread. |
gloria125
Greensboro, AL
October 13, 2008
03:55 PM Post #5666982
| They always had a fight over that issue - sugar or no in the cornbread. I think they stayed together though. |
Hemophobic
Kannapolis, NC
October 13, 2008
05:44 PM Post #5667405
| And no cinnamon in peach pie or cobbler! Let the taste of the peaches shine through. |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 13, 2008
07:37 PM Post #5667983
| Absolutely!!
Yuck, whoever heard of that?? |
Hemophobic
Kannapolis, NC
October 14, 2008
07:04 AM Post #5669450
| You'd be surprised how many recipes for peach pie/cobbler I see which call for cinnamon. I think it is not of southern origin. No self-respecting southerner would put it in. I also see it in blueberry recipes and I don't want it in my blueberries either. The only time I add cinnamon to a fruit dish is with apples and I absolutely want it there. Pumpkin pie, yes. |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 14, 2008
09:44 AM Post #5669814
| Cinnamon covers the flavor of everything but apples and pumpkin, so I agree. I don't even like it on French toast!
Well, maybe on a donut! |
thering
Clinton Township, MI
October 21, 2008
04:00 PM Post #5700345
| Just now read this article, great stuff, especially for a Northern city girl like myself! Never gardened before two years ago, least not seriously, but I did get my curiosity for plants from my Mother who grew up in Iowa and spent all her summers on her relatives farms. One thing I have to admit is that I have no knowledge of Southern cooking! I don't really like cornbread, but my kids do, at least the sweet kind, I didn't know there was any other type! But I would never put cinnimon on French toast, only nutmeg! Your an excellent writer, Sharran, please don't stop. I read everything you write even if I'm not interested in the subject just cause you write so well and it's a joy to read! |
Sharran
Calvert City, KY
(Zone 6b)
October 21, 2008
08:38 PM Post #5701534
|
Thering,
my computer is in the shop but I have limited access with my phone, and I simply had to say "thank you".
Comments like yours make me crazy to write more. Oh, I just had to tell you that most true southerners hate sweet cornbread!
Thanks again.
Sharon |
