sonker

n. a type of berry pie or cobbler. Subjects: English, United States, North Carolina, Food & Drink

Editorial Note: This appears to be specific to the area near Mount Airy, N.C. Etymological Note: Perh. fr. Sc./Brit. Eng. songle, singill, single, ‘a handful of grain or gleanings,’ or from Sc. sonker ‘to simmer, to boil slightly.’

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Citations: 1987 James J. Kilpatrick @ Mount Airy, N.C. Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 6) “What makes sonker a sonker after being songle or sonkle?” p. 14: There is nothing very distinctive about the sonker itself—it may be made with either flour or breadcrumbs—except for this: The filling is whatever’s handy at the time. 2004 Richard Creed Winston-Salem Journal (N.C.) (May 29) “Berry Good: Granny’s definition works”: I have often wondered why a deep-dish fruit pie is called a cobbler. My online etymological dictionary suggests it is related to a 14th-century word for wooden bowl, cobeler. What is apparently the same dish is called zonker (or sonker) in Surry County.

Posted 2 Jun 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I was raised in Surry County and my grandmother make sonka from fresh fruit. It was the best dessert I ever had. It consisted of melted butter, milk, fruit and flour. She measured the ingredients by the knowledge in her head, just as her mother and grandmother had. The fruit of course was fresh seasonl fruit. Sometimes in the winter some canned fruit, but never as good as summer.This was in the 1960’s.

by Beth Bell Presswood 07 Sep 08, 0830 GMT