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  • THANK YOU FOR YOUR TREMENDOUS RESPONSE!

    The “NBC SPECIAL” Is No Longer Available

    Hope you will browse our selection of other products from Gray’s Grist Mill.

  • Video of Today Show featuring Gray’s Grist Mill

    View the full video.
    Featured on the Today Show

  • Today Show Selects “Miller’s Choice” Gift Box

    Kathleen Daelemans

    Kathleen Daelemans

    Gray’s Grist Mill has received communication from Kathleen Daelemans. She is one of the country’s “Top Ten Rising Star Chefs”. Chef Kathleen Daelemans’ recipes have been showcased in respected food and wine journals including Bon Appetit, Wine Spectator, Gourmet, Food & Wine, and Eating Well. She is also a frequent media expert on the well-known Today Show.
    Ms. Daelemans thinks,”The Miller’s Choice” Gift Box would be a wonderful selection for a special segment they are putting together to air Dec. 14th at 11:00 AM on the “Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kobe Show”. The Segment “Holiday Gift Idea” will feature last minute gift ideas for Christmas with Free Shipping.
    Our Special Shipping Offer will run Dec. 16th only and will be exclusive to the “NBC Today Show Exclusive Miller’s Choice Special Christmas Box” for $40.00. This is a wonderful opportunity for Gray’s Grist Mill to introduce our products to an audience of new Jonnycake Lovers. Already Kathleen Daelemans loves are products and hopes word will “spread like warm Maple Syrup on a plate of hot Johnnycakes!”
    Thank You

  • Gray’s Grist Mill Welcomes The Red Hats

    The Red Hat’s toured Gray’s Grist Mill in Westport, MA on November 16, 2011. 
    The Red Hats of Little Compton, RI started their day at the Barn Restaurant down the street from the mill where the enjoyed Gray’s Grist Mill Jonnycakes. After a delicious breakfast they arrived at the mill around 11:00am. Several of these hardy ladies walked over to the Mill from the restaurant for the tour. The Miller told of the history of the mill and explained the workings. After the tour and a visit to the gift shop many  of the ladies shared recipes and stories of the jonnycake tradition in their families.

  • Historic Johnny Cake Recipes

    In American Cookery by Amelia Simmons published in 1796, we found these very interesting recipes for making Indian Slapjacks, Johny Cakes of Hoe Cakes, better know to us at Gray’s Grist Milll as Johnnycakes.

    Jony Cake, or Hoe Cake
    Scald 1 pint of milk and put to 3 pints indian meal, and half pint flower – bake before the fire. Or scald with milk two thirds of the indian meal, or wet two thirds with boiling water, add salt, molasses and shortening, work up with cold water pretty stiff and bake as above.

    Indian Slapjack
    One quart of milk, 1 pint of indian meal, 4 eggs, 4 tablespoons of flour, little salt, beat together, baked on gridles, or fry in a dry pan, or baked in a pan which has been rub’d with suet, lard or butter.

    These recipes come directly form the cookbook spelling included. American Cookery, written by Amelia Simmons, was the first known American cookbook that was written by an American for the American market.

     

  • Jonny Cakes & Cranberries with Lynn Crawford


    Last year Lynn Crawford, Canada’s Top Female Chef, visited us at Gray’s Grist Mill to cook with the miller, Thornton Simmons, and create a special brunch recipe which featured the Miller’s Jonnycakes.

    Lynn’s philosophy is that delicious meal requires passion and quality ingredients. To have one without the other would seem unnatural and would go against everything that Lynn Crawford stands for. Having made countless visits to the local farmers’ market, she has built an appreciation for the difference that fresh makes and incorporates these values into her work in the kitchen.

    Maintaining a philosophy that food needs to be celebrated and shared with family and friends, Lynn believes that food is not something that should be kept to oneself but shared amongst many as a means of providing a sense of enjoyment.

    We at Gray’s Grist Mill were proud that she  choose Gray’s Grist Mill White Flint Corn Meal to showcase her delicious  johnny cake and cranberries recipe.

    Gray’s Grist Mill is happy to be able to share this  episode with you on November 17th on the Cooking Channel. Check local listing for time.

  • Some Thoughts on Ingredients

     

    “The image that come to most minds hearing “stone-ground” is a lazily creaking mill wheel… That is Gray’s Grist Mill which produces what is simply the finest cornmeal I have ever eaten. It is made entirely form Rhode Island White Cap flint: clean, fresh, and delicate, with wonderful aroma and flavor. Although sold as Rhode Island Johnny Cake Corn Meal, this designation is more a guarantee of quality than a statement of limitation. It has become my meal of choice for my corn bread baking and recipes using cornmeal. “ Simple Cooking John Thorne

  • Little Compton 8th Grade Mill Tour

    We were happy to have JF Wilbur School of Little Compton Rhode Island 8th grade class visit us at Grays’ Grist Mill on September 9th. While they visited they had the opportunity to watch the miller, Thornton Simmons, grind the Rhode Island flint corn. Mr. Simmons also spoke about the history and gave a tour of the mill.  One of the students asked the miller how old the stones were. They were amazed to find out that the stones were over 200 years old and still grinding. None of our tools today last that long.

    We welcome school visits and any interested groups.

  • Welcome to Gray’s Grist Mill

    Welcome to Gray’s Grist Mill’s new website!

    We are very excited about our new site and hope it will make it easier for you to find our products and more information about Gray’s Grist Mill.

    We have used the spelling “Johnnycake” many time on our website as the name for our authentic freshly ground RI Narragansett Flint Corn Johnnycake Meal but that is not the only why johnnycakes are spelled. We also have referred to it as jonnycakes, journey cakes, Johnny Cakes, jonny cakes, hoe cakes, corn meal pancakes, corn cakes, ash cakes, spider cakes, Shawnee cakes and joniken – the Indian word for cornmeal cakes. Read more about the spelling in “about our corn” section.

    Along with more information about the mill and the history, we hope to include many new and historic recipes using our Johnnycake Meal.

    Today with all the tomatoes flooding my garden, I am thinking about salsa and tortillas. I have been looking for a good recipe to make cornmeal tortillas. I think our cornmeal would work perfect – more from my test kitchen soon!

    I would enjoy hearing from you. Any recipes you might have for our cornmeal or stories about our mill will be shared.

    I am hoping we will make a little bit of our own Johnnycake history.

  • It’s Back: Cornmeal for the Purists

    WESTPORT – So much of the magic in sitting down to savor an artisanal food lies in the knowledge that obtaining it involved some sort of quest. Take cornmeal. Those looking for the type that can transform breakfast into a religious experience know it can’t be found this side of the Rhode Island border. It turns out that it can, though, about 100 feet inside that border, now that Gray’s Grist Mill has opened it doors once more. Technically situated in Westport Mass., but often assumed to be part of neighboring Adamsville, RI, Gray’s sits just beyond tiny village intersection, across from the pond that drove it millstones for the better part of three centuries. Eventually, progress, in the form of engines borrowed from an old Dodge truck and a tractor, intervened and took over the task of powering the mill. But that came long after the mill had established itself as a purveyor of the special cornmeal favored by locals for use in johnnycakes, those more sensible ancestors of contemporary pancakes.

    When the last miller retired in 1998, taking with him his tractor, the mill owner closed Gray’s until a new miller and power source could be found, Owner Ralph Guild found his answer in Thornton Simmons, a laconic local who uses an heirloom variety of organic white cap flint corn grown and dried on a nearby farm, The milling process is open to visitors curious to see the enormous granite millstones in motion; indeed, the owner bills the mill as an “educational demonstration center.” Weekends are the best time to catch Simmons milling, before walking to the adjoining sun-filled little shop to pick up a bag of the fresh meal. Visitors can also shop for cast-iron skillet to fry up their jonnycakes, or browse through books on loc history and regional cooking…

    “Is your cornmeal fresh?” and out-of- towner demanded brusquely when she popped her head into the doorway on recent morning. Simmons nodded slowly, telling her it had been ground a day or two before on the premises. It’s so fresh, in fact, that Simmons says that far-afield customers he’s seen included an Amish couple from Pennsylvania who showed up one day eager to stock up.

    Those who follow that lead will find, upon returning to their kitchens, that they’ve brought home from their journey the promise of all the light and crunchy waffles, pancakes, and corn muffins that can be gobbled down on a crisp morning.

    Camela Zarcone
    Boston Globe November 10, 2002