Take a lot of water and add to it a lot of coarse Indian meal and about a quarter of a lot of salt. Mix well together, knead into the form of a “pone,” and let the pone stand awhile—not on its edge, but the other way. Rake away a place among the embers, lay it there, and cover it an inch deep with hot ashes. When it is done, remove it; blow off all the ashes but one layer; butter that one and eat.
N.B.—No household should ever be without this talisman. It has been noticed that tramps never return for another ash cake.
From Mark Twain’s A Tramp Abroad, 1880.
Here’s a contemporary blogger’s take on ash cakes; she uses flour, not cornmeal.
Biblioklept 