Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen Read Free Page A

campaign autobiography in which Lincoln described himself using the third person: “In his tenth year he was kicked in the head by a horse and died for a time.” Other stories provide more details. The horse was balky, Lincoln switched it one too many times on the flanks, and it kicked back. According to some neighbors’ reports, he had been talking at the time. Abraham fell to the ground unconscious and when he woke up after more than a fewminutes, he finished his sentence as though nothing had happened.
    As to foods made from that ground meal,Lincoln’s cousin Dennis Hanks described one of Abraham’s more reliable snacks: “Seems to me now I never seen Abe after he was twelve that he didn’t have a book in his hand or in his pocket. He’d put a book inside his shirt an’ fill his pants pockets withcorn dodgers an’ go off to plow or hoe. When noon came he’d set under a tree an’ read an’ eat.”
    Judge John Pritcher, another neighbor, writing in 1888 recalled the dodgers in not-quite-appetizing terms: “I have eaten many corn dodgers made from the meal from that old mill—It would make good chicken feed now—but we were glad to get it then. Abe used to bring me my meal regularly.”
    So, a recipe for corn dodgers seems like a good place to start cooking. This is one of the archetypal images of the boy Lincoln, sitting under a tree absorbed totally in hisreading. Hanks’s description provided some recipe guidance as well. The dodgers needed to be sturdy enough to withstand being tucked into a pants pocket. Granted, pioneer pants were likely loosely fitted homespun, so the dodger wasn’t jammed into the side of a pair of tight-fitting Levi’s. Still, tender corn bread would not do the trick.
    After dozens of test corn dodgers, I discovered two keys to making them: coarsely ground cornmeal—stone ground if you can find it—and patience. A nonstick skillet helps, too. Lincoln’s mother and stepmother would have had a very well-seasoned cast-iron skillet. Although I have one, my modern nonstick skillet worked just fine. Corn dodgers are essentially cornmeal and hot water with the tiniest bit of fat and salt added. I tried making them with regular cornmeal, but they turned out hard and, as Judge Pritcher allowed, just fine for bird food. After working with the coarsely ground meal a couple of times, I developed a feel for the mix that is a cross between a batter and a dough. I was able to form the corn dodgers in the palm of my hand and slip them gently into the pan. Some modern recipes suggest frying the cakes in deep fat. I don’t think the pioneers would have done that. Cooking fat, whetherlard orbutter, was a precious ingredient on a frontier farm. Using more than the bare minimum to cook meats or breads would have been wasteful.
    The names of cornmeal breads that the Lincoln and Todd families ate in the 1820s and 1830s—corn dodgers, cornpone, Johnnycakes, eggcorn bread—are familiar. The recipes I found in agricultural journals and cookbooks of the era, however, are definitely and deliciously different, as you will see in the recipe section at the end of the chapter. However, one ingredient, or dish, almost got the better of me:hominy.
    About the only thing you can say for sure about hominy is that it comes from dried kernels of corn. After that, there are as many meanings for hominy and directions for making it as there are decades between now and the Pilgrims, regions of the country, and cooks in the kitchen. The hominy we buy in stores today is either canned, large white exploded kernels or finely ground hominy grits. Both of these products frequently have had the outer hull and the small hard germ removed. The germ, the part of the corn kernel where growth begins, looks like a small seed the size of a pencil point at the base of the kernel.
    I was somewhat bewildered as I first tried to understand the