# Hoecake--do you know what it is without Googling?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 7, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343 "2013-06-07T00:30:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/21 "2013-06-07T03:45:02Z")
This ain’t the poop-butt league!
OK, hijack over.
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### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/22 "2013-06-07T04:30:48Z")
Yep. I’m a New Yorker and not old, but I had a southern born grandmother who used to make them and serve them with some kind of thick, dark syrup.
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### Author:  [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/23 "2013-06-07T17:30:51Z")
Yeah, I know what it is. it wasn’t something that I grew up with, though, and I don’t know where I learned about it.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/24 "2013-06-07T17:38:54Z")
> [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](#):
>
> Yeah, I know what it is. it wasn’t something that I grew up with, though, and I don’t know where I learned about it.
Do you know that “Snake Hips” guy?
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/25 "2013-06-07T17:40:58Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> A resounding no, from up north.
We’d call them Johhnycakes.
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### Author:  [@BeeDubU2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeDubU2)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/26 "2013-06-07T17:41:54Z")
My grandfather used to make me fatback and corn pone. I think hoe cake and corn pone are interchangeable, but I may be remembering house rules food names.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/27 "2013-06-07T17:42:52Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> We’d call them Johhnycakes.
And there’s a whole nother question, what exactly comprises a Johnnycake. Some people call any kind of cornbread Johnnycake, while others insist it has to be like a Hoecake.
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### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/28 "2013-06-07T19:16:52Z")
I was raised on a farm so of course I know…LOL
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/29 "2013-06-07T19:41:25Z")
I don’t know why I know what it is, but when I saw the OP my thought was “sure, that’s a johnnycake.” Then I thought, how do I know what a “johnnycake” is, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on a menu here in Chicago. And I really don’t know. But, somehow, that’s one of those things I’ve absorbed.
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### Author:  [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/30 "2013-06-07T19:42:50Z")
Without looking - a corn pancake.
Edit: maybe I cheated. I made cornbread last night using Jiffy brand mix and it mentioned Johnny cakes (a single slab of corn bread, which is what I made) and I think it had a recipie for ‘hoecakes or corn pancakes.’
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/31 "2013-06-07T19:46:08Z")
> [@zoid](#):
>
> Yep. Remember reading about them and they were mentioned in what we used to call “Social Studies”
Actually, I wonder if that’s where I first learned of them. Now that I think of it, I know where I’ve seen johnny cakes before in Chicago–at Dixie Kitchen (Hyde Park and Evanston.) But how I connected those to hoecakes, I’m not sure.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/32 "2013-06-07T19:47:29Z")
I had to think for a few seconds, but I remember hearing of them when learning about slavery in elementary school. Kindergarten, I think. Never heard anyone mention having eaten one.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/33 "2013-06-07T19:58:46Z")
Yes, I know what it is, and can’t recall a time when I didn’t. I grew up in rural Louisiana; most folks there were more prone to pone, but would have known. “Corn dodger”, on the other hand, would have baffled most of them.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/34 "2013-06-07T20:03:32Z")
My SIL the cornfreak has made hoecakes on real hoes. There are okay.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/35 "2013-06-07T20:17:48Z")
Without looking it up or reading the thread I’d say it’s a cake in the shape of a life sized woman lying on her back. In the crotch area the the cake is filled with whipped cream or frosting. It is used at bachelor parties where the groom to be gets naked and climbs up on the cake and humps the hell out it. A few party goers look at each other with raised eyebrows while most hoot and hollar and yell, “HUMP! HUMP! HUMP! HUMP!” and there’s one guy in the back who whispers to another guy, “This is kind of gay.”
Now off to read the thread.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/36 "2013-06-07T20:31:21Z")
Well I was way off. But I do know what a johnnycake is.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/37 "2013-06-08T14:50:16Z")
I knew what a johnnycake was in that I’ve seen them around, but I had no idea they were just cornmeal, without any flour. I am very interested now.
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### Author:  [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/38 "2013-06-08T15:09:20Z")
> [@zoid](#):
>
> Yep. Remember reading about them and they were mentioned in what we used to call “Social Studies”
I think it was in Johnny Tremaine or a novel very similar to it. I remember liking a novelization of the Nathan Hale story better than Tremaine as a kid - sad ending and all.
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### Author:  [@ripopgome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ripopgome)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/39 "2013-06-08T20:10:47Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> Winky Dinky Ho Cake
>
> Hos gotta eat, too!
+1, this is what I thought the thread was referring to!
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hoecake-do-you-know-what-it-is-without-googling/660343/40 "2013-06-08T20:53:51Z")
Well, this Yankee thought it was a dance. Was thinking of “cakewalk.”
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