Pone (food) facts for kids

A slice of Guyanese cassava pone, a type of pone made from cassava.

Pone is a simple, tasty type of baked or fried bread. It's a classic part of American cuisine, especially in the Cuisine of the Southern United States. Pone can be made from different main ingredients, like corn or sweet potato. This kind of bread was often eaten cold for breakfast. It was a very important food in the early days of the cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies.

What is Pone?

The word "pone" probably comes from Native American languages. Words like apan or supawn meant "baked." This suggests that pone might be related to older ash cakes, which were baked right in hot coals.

A "corn pone" is usually a small, round loaf of cornbread. It's often about the size of a biscuit. Traditionally, these were baked in a round cast iron skillet.

The dough used for pone was also called "corn pone." This dough could be used in many ways:

• If the dough was thin and fried on a griddle, it made Johnny cakes.
• If it was thicker and baked, it made the loaves we call "pone."
• When small pieces of dough were dropped into stews, they were called corn dodgers.
• When the dough was deep fried, it made hush puppies.

Some old cookbooks show how names changed over time. For example, "hush puppies" were once called "fried pones" in a 1928 cookbook.

Different Names for Pone

Over time, this simple bread had many different names, depending on how it was cooked.

• Ash bread was baked in the hot ashes of a fireplace. It was often protected by a cabbage leaf.
• Hoe cake was baked on a hoe in the fields. Or it could be baked on a hoe-shaped board in a fireplace.
• Pone often referred to the irregular oval shape the cakes took when shaped by hand.
• Johnny cake was a name used more in the Northern parts of America. These cakes were usually baked in an oven.

Pone Variations

There are many different kinds of pone, beyond just corn pone. You can find recipes for apple pones, pumpkin pones, and sweet potato pones.

To make pone sweeter, cooks sometimes add sugar or molasses. Spices like cinnamon, cloves, ginger, or grated orange peel can also be added for extra flavor. However, some traditional cooks believe that adding sugar changes the "original dish" too much.

When milk is used instead of water in the recipe, the bread is sometimes called corn cake.

Sweet potato pone has many historical recipes. Some versions include rose water or orange blossom water, making them a dessert. Other sweet potato pones are served as a side dish with meats like pork or wild game. In Creole cooking, black pepper is often added to sweet potato pone for a unique taste.