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Summary and Objective
By baking cornbread using modern methods, then discussing colonial preparation methods and Native American hand grinding of corn, students will understand that food preparation today is much less time consuming due to the availability of food processing and packaged mixes.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Before doing the activity, the teacher will gather: materials needed to prepare the modern box variety of cornbread; the ingredients for Johnny Cake (another name for cornbread) in the recipe on page 22 of "The Pocumtuc Housewife" from the digital collection of the American Centuries website. The teacher will print out enlarged copies of the cake mix directions and the Johnny Cake recipe from the cookbook. The teacher will gather cookware appropriate for each version, incuding a mixing bowl, an iron skillet or pan, wooden spoon, pint measures, scale to weigh dry ingredients ("a pint's a pound, the world round"), teaspoon, wooden mortar and pestle if available, and ingredients.
Step 2.
Discuss the "Baking" and "Thanksgiving Pies" photographs from the digital collection. Talk with students about how the pictures show the necessary items on hand to prepare a recipe.
Step 3.
Children will read (or listen as you read) the directions and ingredients on the cornbread mix package. They will discuss these and will prepare the mix in groups of 8-10. Keep a time sheet from start to finish, recording the amount of time spent gathering ingredients, mixing, and baking.
Step 4.
The next day, have children look at the baking objects from the digital collection and the recipe for Johnny Cake in "The Pocumtuc Housewife". They can also have printed versions for further reference.
Have children discuss the objects and recipe with a partner, and later with the entire class. The teacher will identify the ingredients, including the information that "saleratus" is similar to baking soda. Children will imagine the process entailed in making the Johnny Cake recipe without the modern conveniences. Talk about how the ingredients would be obtained: buttermilk is the milk left over from churning butter; corn was grown and taken to the mill for grinding; flour was obtained at a mill; saleratus, sugar and salt needed to be purchased or bartered. Discuss the mill stone shown at left.
Step 5.
Have all ingredients on a table. Children will come up, 3 or 4 at a time. They will measure and weigh the ingredients. They will discuss preparing the bake oven (see pages 18-19 of "The Pocumtuc Housewife"), or heating wood or coal stoves in later years. They will keep a time sheet, estimating the amount of time needed for each step.
Step 6.
Children will compare and contrast the time sheets and the process of making cornbread in earlier times and today.
Step 7.
To help children get an idea of grinding by hand as Native Americans did, have them grind some parched corn using a wooden mortar and pestle (or similar improvised setup, if needed); you can also use cracked corn or field corn, used for animal feed. Talk about the mortar and pestle images. Explain that Native Americans would have used the stone mortar and pestle (or a similar sized wooden one) to grind corn and that the colonists actually would have used the smaller wooden one shown here for items needed in small amounts, such as spices.
Step 8.
As a followup, children will illustrate the different processes.
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