A round cornmeal cake cut into six wedges on a rough wooden board by a brick hearth, one wedge pulled out and split with a pat of melting butter, beside a small crock of butter and an old knife. — Johnny cake cut in wedges, with butter.

Johnny Cake (1796)

Name: Johnny Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 cups stone-ground white or yellow cornmeal; 1½ cups whole milk; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp molasses; 2 tbsp lard or unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for the baking sheet; ½ cup cold water, or as needed; Butter, to serve

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Amelia Simmons’s johnny cake from American Cookery, 1796: a flat, crusty cake of Indian meal scalded with hot milk, seasoned with salt, molasses and a little fat and worked stiff with cold water.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 22, 2026

Recipe makes: Two 8-inch cakes, 6 servings
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 30 min
Total: 1 hr

The scalded meal stands for 10 minutes to soften before the dough is finished. Let the cakes cool for 5 minutes, then serve them hot.

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Johnny cake cut in wedges, with butter.

The story behind the recipe

Johnny cake is the bread New England made from corn, the grain of the Native peoples who are credited with teaching colonists to cook it: Indian meal, as cornmeal was called, wetted and baked flat. Amelia Simmons put it in print in American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796 as the first known cookbook written by an American, under the title “Johny Cake, or Hoe Cake.” Hers is believed to be the first printed johnny cake made with cornmeal, but the cake is far older than the recipe; the word was in American print by 1739. Her book came out in 1796, and nothing sets her cake on a Boston tea table; this is her recipe, not one from 1773.

Two ways in one paragraph

Simmons gives two methods. The first scalds a pint of milk, puts it to three pints of Indian meal and half a pint of flour, and bakes the cake “before the fire.” The second scalds two thirds of the meal with milk, or with boiling water, then adds salt, molasses and shortening and works the dough up “with cold water pretty stiff,” to be baked the same way. There is no egg and no leavening; scalding the meal is what softens it enough to work into a dough.

Making it today

We follow her second method with milk, and bake the cakes in a hot oven, since few kitchens have a hearth to stand them before. Stone-ground meal is the closest to what a gristmill of the time produced. The cakes come out flat and firm with a browned crust, to be eaten hot with butter.

It is the one American bake among the four in What Was on the American Tea Table Before the Boston Tea Party?, a corn cake beside London recipes such as the Very Good Wigs (1747).

Scald 1 pint of milk and put to 3 pints of indian meal, and half pint of flower—bake before the fire. Or scald with milk two thirds of the indian meal, or wet two thirds with boiling water, add salt, molasses and shortening, work up with cold water pretty stiff, and bake as above.

Amelia SimmonsAmerican Cookery (Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1796), Johny Cake, or Hoe Cake, p. 34

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Ingredients

For Two 8-inch cakes, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for Two 8-inch cakes, 6 servings.

Stone-ground white or yellow cornmeal3 cups
Whole milk1 1/2 cups
Salt1 tsp
Molasses2 tbsp
Lard or unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for the baking sheet2 tbsp
Cold water, or as needed1/2 cup
Butter, to serve

Ingredients as written here

3 cups stone-ground white or yellow cornmeal
1½ cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp lard or unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for the baking sheet
½ cup cold water, or as needed
Butter, to serve

Equipment

Small saucepan
Large mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Baking sheet, greased
Wire rack

Instructions

Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and grease the baking sheet.
Put two thirds of the cornmeal in the large bowl. Bring the milk just to a boil in the saucepan, pour it over the meal and stir well. Leave for 10 minutes to soften.
Stir in the salt, molasses and lard or butter, then the rest of the cornmeal. Work in the cold water a little at a time until you have a stiff dough that holds together when pressed.
Divide the dough in half. With wet hands, pat each half into a round about ½ inch thick on the baking sheet and smooth the edges.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes are firm, deep golden and crusty, with browned edges.
Cool on the rack for 5 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve hot with butter.

Nutrition

350calories per serving

Recipe makes: Two 8-inch cakes, 6 servings
Servings: 6

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients, without the butter to serve.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Shape about 1 lb of dough into each cake, half an inch thick.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

For Simmons’s first method, scald all the meal with the milk and add ½ cup of flour (her half pint to three pints of meal, at our scale). Her title makes johnny cake and hoe cake one thing; for thinner cakes, pat the dough into rounds about ¼ inch thick and cook them on a hot greased griddle for 6 to 8 minutes a side. Leftovers can be split and toasted the next day. Contains milk; gluten-free if the cornmeal is.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.