Hoe Cakes

You know, I could just talk forever about these hoe cakes

I almost don't even know where to start. There's so many things I have to say about them

We make them every day at the restaurant, and they're so easy to make

It's flour, self-rising cornmeal mix. Make sure you use a mix because it's a blend of flour and meal

We've got a little sugar. A couple of good fresh eggs. A little water

A little oil. And a little buttermilk. So let me tell you the story about how hoe cakes got their name

hundreds of years ago. The field hens would come in from the farm and they would have a fire outside

and they would cook their hoe cakes on the clean blade of a hoe Unbelievable I think that so ingenious Now when you mixing these up some people like real fat hoe cakes some people like a thinner hoe cake I happen to like them

kind of middle ways. So you'll have to just play around with your batter and decide which

thickness you like. But let's try this one right now. I've got my pan getting hot. And believe it

or not, I cook these in clarified margarine. Y'all write that down now. That's margarine

not butter. You won't hear me say that very often, but I like to use margarine because

it doesn't burn as badly as butter. And I'm going to just ladle enough of that clarified

margarine. So we're going to make sure our pan is good and hot and just right

All right, it looks like our pan's about to get ready. Let's see. You'll want to make

sure that your pan is good and hot And see you got to have enough seasoning in your pan for those hoecakes to fry in or otherwise you would have more of a pancake

So I'm going to add just a little bit more margarine. All right, so we'll do another scoop

All right, let's see what this first one looks like

These bring back a lot of memories to people. I had a young lady in the restaurant one day, and there were tears glistening in her eyes

And she said, Paula, I just want to thank you so much for this meal today

She said I could close my eyes at one point and see my grandmother in her kitchen

and all of the family sitting at the table eating these hoe cakes that I thought I would never taste again

So I was so glad that I was able to bring them back to her just for a little while with a very simple meal Jamie and Bobby favorite way to eat these hoe cakes is right out of the pan just covered in homemade pimento cheese

So you see there's no limit to a hoe cake. All right, I think these are about ready to come up

I think these little guys are ready to be tasted while they're piping hot

And I'll tell you like my daddy used to tell me, do as I say, do not as I do

You might want to skip this step. I like to eat one with syrup

Oh, I never ever get tired of them