email this pageRhode Island renounced its allegiance to the British crown on May 4, 1776, and ever since, residents have celebrated the date as the state's official Independence Day. To mark the occasion, Rhode Island turns into one big all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet featuring traditional New England foods-jonnycakes and muffins, baked beans and clam cakes.
Cranston's Oak Lawn Community Baptist Church hosted the state's first May Breakfast in 1867 to raise money for a new church building. Today dozens of Rhode Island organizations-churches, clubs, granges and volunteer firehouses-sponsor fundraising all-you-can-eat breakfasts between late April and the second weekend in May.
Fellowship is the main draw, says Patricia Robinson, who chairs the 49-year-old May Breakfast at the First Baptist Church in East Greenwich. "It might be the one time each year people get to sit down with their neighbors. The whole community comes, including the politicians."
Then, of course, there's the food. Old-time New England and Rhode Island dishes are served alongside the more familiar eggs, ham, coffee and juice. Most May Breakfast menus feature jonnycakes. These unleavened pancakes are derived from an Indian recipe using flint corn, a variety of hard kernel corn that thrives in the fog and salty air of the Ocean State. Early settlers stuffed the small, hard cakes, then called "journeycakes," into their pockets or saddlebags for sustenance on long trips. Today, the jonnycake and the May Breakfast where it's served signify an enduring Rhode Island tradition.
Story by Carolyn Wyman, a food writer in Philadelphia, Pa.
Cranberry Cornmeal Muffins
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Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
Juice from 1 lemon
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen cranberries, thawed
1/3 cup slivered almonds
Turbinado or granulated sugar
2. Combine egg, butter, buttermilk, lemon rind and juice in a large bowl; whisk well. Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture. Stir just until blended. Fold in cranberries.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle almonds and turbinado on top. Bake 15 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.
Note: If you use mini-muffin tins as in our photo, the yield will be 36 to 48 muffins.
East Bay Style Rhode Island Jonnycakes
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Ingredients
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1¼ to 1½ cups whole or 2% reduced-fat milk
Vegetable oil
2. Lightly grease a nonstick skillet with vegetable oil. Heat over medium-high heat. Surface is hot enough when water drops splashed on the surface dance.
3. Pour about 2 tablespoons batter onto skillet for each pancake. (Stir batter between batches as it tends to separate). Cook until bubbles form on the surface, edges are dry and cooked side is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes; flip and cook reverse side 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Serve hot with butter, berries or maple syrup. Makes 10 to 12 medium-sized cakes.
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