Anadama bread

English

Etymology

Unknown. Anadama bread has been an etymological puzzle for a long time. Dare cites Dialect Notes (1915), and states etymology unknown. John Mariani's Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink also states that the term dates in print from 1915. The often-given etymology, "Anna, damn her!", is certainly apocryphal.

Noun

Anadama bread (uncountable)

1. (cooking) A traditional yeast bread of New England, made with wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour.
   • 1956, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Inc., Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, page 109:

     An amusing story of the origin of Anadama Bread relates—The name Anadama comes from a New England fisherman whose lazy wife always served him corn meal mush and molasses for dinner ... Tired of it, he mixed it with flour and yeast and baked it as bread, saying: "Anna damn her."

   • 1984, Beatrice A. Ojakangas, Great Whole Grain Breads, page XII:

     As a compromise, I purchased cornmeal at the PX and made anadama bread.

   • 2000, Cynthia Thayer, A Certain Slant of Light - A Novel, page 141:

     Made some anadama bread yesterday. It's over on the counter.

Further reading

• Anadama bread on Wikipedia.Wikipedia