“Huckdummy” (also “huck dummy”) or “huckydummy” (also “hucky-dummy” or “hucky dummy”) is a cowboy’s name for baking-powder biscuits with raisins. “Hucky-dummy” has been cited in print since at least 1927.
The origin of the name is not known.
Dictionary of American Regional English
Volume II D-H
Frederic G. Cassidy, Chief Editor
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
1991
Pg. 1142:
hucky dummy n
A biscuit with raisins; see quots.
1929 in 1932 Hench Coll., “Hucky dummy” [is] made of sourdough and raisins.
1968 Adams Western Words 156, Huckydummy—A cowboy’s name for baking-powder biscuits with raisins.
Google Books
Cow Country
By Will James
New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons
1927
Pg. 156:
Frank had been inside of the house, showing the new cook how to make “hucky-dummy” and “son- of-a-gun-in-the-sack,” and it’d never come to Dan’s mind to call him to witness what he’d just seen.
Google Books
Sand
By Will James
New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons
1929
Pg. 202:
“Now, don’t forget,” he says, changing the subject, while he stuffed some “huckydummy” and a jar of home-made tomato preserves in the “aparejo.”
Google Books
Home Ranch
By Will James
New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons
1935
Pg. 188:
After taking on a couple of hunks of “huckydummy” (baking powder raisin bread) and as many cups of black coffee, the nighthawk rolled a cigarette and talked to the cook a while.
Frontier Gentleman
Series Log
by B. J. George
(..)
#16 May 18. 1958 “Advice to the Lovelorn”
“I learned two things in Cheyenne. One, that hucky-dummy is baking powder bread with raisins.”
Old West Words and Phrases
Russ T Chambers:
Quote from: litl rooster on March 16, 2005, 04:27:58 am
Russ T you are correct with Squezzin’ Lizzie…...... Never heard Hucky Dummy
(...)
Delmonico:
One of many types of rice puddin’.
Google Books
The Great American Camping Cookbook
By Scott Cookman
New York, NY: Broadway Books
2007
Pg. 91:
... “huck dummy” (frypan bread with raisins), ...
mental_floss
September 28, 2012 - 12:46pm
27 Cowboy Slang Terms for Things You Eat and Drink
by Adrienne Crezo
(...)
10. Huckdummy: Biscuits with raisins
Food Republic
Word Of The Day: Huckdummy
Oct 29, 2012 12:31 pm
(...)
Huckdummy is cowboy slang for biscuits and raisins, popular prairie fare. Sure beans are still in the diet, but in the history Food Republic wrote, even Jesse James wouldn’t have become a legend without this important dish. Texas, show us how it’s done.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
This site is edited by Barry Popik. These are the Cookies and Privacy Policies.