Timeline for What was so "hot" about hot cakes?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 30, 2017 at 4:06 | comment | added | Hugo | No one knows, because there's never any left to buy! | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 23:09 | vote | accept | yuritsuki | ||
| Jun 26, 2017 at 22:20 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @Spagirl - I've encountered "hoe cakes" a few times in my reading (I'm thinking Mark Twain may have used the term, eg) and have always taken them to be roughly as suggested by your video -- a pan-fried cornbread. Never actually tried them, that I can recall. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 20:59 | comment | added | Spagirl | @HotLicks A lot of the older book results for 'like hot cakes' are actually the phrase 'go off like hot cakes' which made me wonder if it was originally a phrase about the desirable stage of something being brief. Also, I came across mention of 'hoe cakes' and wondered if there was a link there. By coincidence this historical recipe youtu.be/ecnSW1t4dLk then came up in my You Tube subs. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 12:29 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @cheerslove - Cold pancakes/hotcakes are pretty miserable to eat. They must be served as quickly as possible. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 7:44 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/879243956055396352 | ||
| Jun 26, 2017 at 6:04 | comment | added | Chris H | @cheerslove at many markets (and other street/seaside stalls) in France you can buy a crêpe (thin pancake) freshly cooked and scalding hot, plain or filled. This is simple to provide, more so than preserving food, and thick pancakes could be served in the same way -- they'd be easier to hold | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 5:37 | comment | added | Jim | @cheerslove - Pancakes should always be served before they cool down- otherwise how do you melt the butter? | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 5:17 | answer | added | user66974 | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 5:06 | comment | added | Arm the good guys in America | You might want to clarify that the date of 'hot cakes' itself dates to the 17th century (per the Oxford English Dictionary) and that the idiom dates to 1839. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 4:10 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | It's called figurative usage, maybe the buns were not still "hot" but they got sold out before the shop closed or the street vendor could reach his final destination. There's also a children's rhyme, "Hot Cross Buns" When something is still hot, or warm, it tells the customer that the product is freshly made, it was a guarantee of freshness. I remember reading about fines being placed on dishonest bakeries, either because some of illegal and/or toxic ingredients or because the products sold were sullied. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 3:43 | comment | added | yuritsuki | I've never heard of pancakes selling before they have a chance to cooldown -- and I can't possibly imagine what scenario they would in the 1800s. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 3:35 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | If something sells like hot cakes, it just means an item is sold extremly quickly. Imagine a batch of loaves, fresh from the oven, that are sold out before they have even had the time to cool down. The same thing for pancakes or buns. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 3:10 | comment | added | Xanne | My guess is that it's more like a muffin or bun that's purchased as street food; possibly even a "hot cross bun". And literally hot. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 3:03 | comment | added | Tonepoet | The title is potentially confusing. I am tempted to give an answer to the effect that pancakes are served while still hot, as opposed to regular cakes which are allowed time to cool, even though I strongly doubt that is what you want to know, and believe you mean "hot" as a figure of speech meaning popular, rather than the literal meaning of being warm. | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 2:55 | comment | added | Hot Licks | I would assume that "hot cakes" could be cooked quickly with a relatively simple stove, and so they were likely a popular item for street-side diners at the time. I can imagine a workman coming out of a factory for lunch and buying hotcakes from a vendor. Probably served plain, with no syrup (and no plate). | |
| Jun 26, 2017 at 2:22 | history | asked | yuritsuki | CC BY-SA 3.0 |