Anadama bread

noun

A traditional yeast bread of New England, made with wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour.

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Meanings

nounAnadama bread (uncountable)
  1. uncountablecookingA traditional yeast bread of New England, made with wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour.

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

    2000, Cynthia Thayer, A Certain Slant of Light - A Novel, page 141
    2 more examples

    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."

    1956, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Inc., Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, page 109

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

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

Origin

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.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Anadama bread. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Anadama%20bread

MLA

“Anadama bread.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Anadama%20bread. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Anadama bread,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Anadama%20bread.

Source: Anadama bread on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.