Ditto bread

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

Barry writes:
> Also mentioned are "corn coffee, ditto bread, cowpeas..."  Corn coffee?

The use of roasted grains as substitutes for coffee was earlier common in poorer homes in Sweden, and during the two World Wars, when coffee could not be imported, was used quite generally.
The Dictionary of the Swedish Academy has:
"Såsom kaffesurrogater begagnas rostadt korn... (1896)".
(As substitutes for coffee are used roasted barley...)
I have also found a reference from 1810 to the use of roasted "turkiskt korn" as a coffee substitute, but can find no clue to what kind of cereal is meant (it could be a wild form of wheat or barley - they are common in the Orient). "Korn" _could_ earlier be used for "grains" in general, but nowadays is used only for barley. Possible is importation into American English through Swedish immigrants.
Jan Ivarsson, Sweden
jan.ivarsson at transedit.st