Pone is a type of baked or fried bread in

American cuisine American cuisine consists of the cooking style and traditional dishes prepared in the United States. It has been significantly influenced by Europeans, indigenous Native Americans, Africans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and many other cultures a ...

, and the

Cuisine of the Southern United States The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread ...

. Pone could be made with corn, or some other main ingredient could be used like sweet potato. This style of bread, eaten cold as a breakfast food, was a staple food of the cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies.

Terminology

The term "pone" most likely entered English from Native American language terms like ''apan'', ''oppone'' or ''supawn'', meaning baked, possibly related to earlier ash cakes baked in hot coals. A "

corn pone Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are st ...

" is usually a small round loaf of cornbread, about the size of a biscuit, traditionally baked in a round

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

skillet. The batter was also called "corn pone" and could be thin and fried on the griddle to make Johnny cakes or thicker to make baked loaves ("pone"), or

dumplings Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fish ...

, called corn dodgers when dropped in stews and hush puppies when deep fried. Hush puppies were called "fried pones" in the 1928 edition of ''Southern Cooking'' by Henrietta Stanley Dull, later changed to "hush puppy" for the 1941 edition. Isabel Ely Lord uses the terms ash bread, johnny cake, spider cornbread and hoe cake as synonyms for corn pone. Her explanation of the history of these different terms follows:

As "ash bread" it was baked in the hot ashes of the fireplace, protected by a cabbage leaf, or leaves; as "hoe cake" it baked on a hoe in the fields, or on a hoe-shaped board (with long handle) in the fireplace. "Pone" is the irregular oval shape the cakes took in these last 2 methods when shaped by the palm of the hand. "Johnny cake" was a Northern name, and the cake was usually baked in the oven.

Variations

There are varieties on the basic corn pone recipe like apple pones, pumpkin pones and sweet potato pone. The batter can be enriched with sweeteners like sugar or molasses to improve the flavor, and spices like cinnamon, cloves, ginger or grated orange peel, but some cooks consider the addition of sugar a deviation from "the original dish". When milk is used in place of water it becomes '' corn cake''. There are hundreds of variations of sweet potato pone in historical cookbooks with rose water, orange blossom water as a dessert, or served as a side dish for pork or wild game. Creole variations typically add black pepper.

References

{{reflist American breads Native American cuisine Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies Historical foods Potato dishes Maize dishes Deep fried foods