Ash Cakes.... what are they???

[melsdad]

I just read John Curry's book "Rockhouses & Rhododendron" compliments of Rick Evans. Several times the food "ash cakes" were mentioned. I never heard of them before, just wondering what exactly they were. They said they cooked them on flat rocks next to the fire.

[Ironwood]

Ash Cakes are new to me too... Had no idea what they were.  Here's what I came up with from a search.  
http://www.practicalprimitive.com/ashcakes.html

[melsdad]

Wow! that is something, cookin' right on the ashes.

[Bigsmoke]

Don't know about you, but it made me kinda hungry reading the directions.  Gotta try that one of these first days.

[Chairslayer]

Those are a bit different than what Curry makes in his video. The ones in the video are about the size of a walnut I'd guess.  I remember thinking it'd a WHOLE lot of those to satisfy my belly.

[Fletcher]

That looks mighty tempting, but since I got it.........

I am mighty tempted to put a piece of cast iron between the cake and the ash (or coals).

And if I had no iron, I reckon I would look for some flat rocks.

Course then I would have to call them 'flat rock cakes'   :lol:

I think I have already et enuff ash and cinder as a young feller !!!

[melsdad]

I agree with ya' Fletcher. I would look for a rock instead of the ashes. That way you would not have to let your fire die down to nothing to bake em'.

[Ironwood]

Fletcher, I have to admit "Flat Rock Cakes" sounds a little more appetizing than "Ash Cakes".  I guess we really would be surprised at how things got cooked before pots and pans.  Don't you know, the Cooking Pot must have been a marvelous invention.

[snake eyes]

Well I guess I will try the old recipe of putting them on the ash
first.Heck I worked in a foundry for 7 years and have smoked
for 50!!!!I don't see a little ash,from ash cakes  being the cause
of my demise

[Loyalist Dave]

[cough sputter], the website uses cornmeal muffin mix among other flours..., sorry for all you folks wanting to re-create an original dish or item to see how it really tasted..., muffin mix has baking powder, and baking powder or baking soda are leavening agents that are a 19th century item.  

Mixing nuts or berries into them might taste good when done, but don't do that for trail rations if you want them to last more than a few days unless you use lots of salt.  Nut meats and berries will mold quickly without salt.  Wheat flour when milled as they did in the 18th century will also go rancid as they didn't remove the germ, and rye flour will sometimes grow ergot fungus..., which will give the eater a psycho-active reaction..., as ergot is the base source for the process that produces LSD.  

Stick to corn meal.  I like to use Goya brand "corse" cornmeal that I find in the Hispanic foods section of my local market.  John Curry uses cornmeal and water, and I like to use a pinch of salt.   The water holds the meal together, and he toasts them on the white, hot, ashes.

Horace Kephart wrote in1910,

Johnny Cake 1 qt corn meal, 1 tsp of salt, 1 pint warm (but not scalding) water.  Stir together until light.  Bake to a nice brown all around (about forty-five minutes), and let it sweeten fifteen minutes longer in the closed [dutch] oven, removed from the fire.  Yellow meal generally requires more water than white.  Freshly ground meal is much better than old.

  Ash Cake - Same kind of dough [as johnny Cake].  Form it into balls as big as hen's eggs [probably the size of "medium" sized eggs today], roll in dry flour, lay in hot ashes, and cover completely with them.

Except for the flour coating, they are the same as Mr. Curry makes.  Field cooking hadn't changed much from the 18th century to the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina where Kephart learned his field cooking in the 20th century.

LD

[Three Hawks]

I make baking powder biscuits using the recipe from my Mom's copy of The Household Searchlight Cookbook published by Household Magazine which went out of business before WWII. (It's what passes for a family heirloom.)  

Anyway some old geezer who actually cooked for trail drives told my dad that if you run out of baking powder you can use fly ash from your fire volume for volume to replace it.   I've done that and it works fine.  You have to be very easy on your tek-nee-kew while harvesting the fly ash as it wants to collapse into nothingness at the least excuse.

Every once in a while, I'll get a batch of biscuits that nearly need strings tied to 'em to keep 'em from floating off on the breeze.  Split a couple and cover 'em with milk and sausage gravy and you'll have a meal too good for mere royalty.

I have  a buddy from Austrailia who calls biscuits "Dampers,"  weird, huh?  I have trouble biting a damper.  Sounds too close to diaper I guess.

Baking in the hot ashes leaves things very clean once the ash has been dusted and blown off.  Shouldn't be any grit or charcoal on the biscuits either.

Three Hawks