BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.

Subject: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:13 PM

For those who think I'm only interesting in buying guitars and browbeating people into playing six string F chords.....Not so. I think hot cornbread can give a Martin D-45 a run for it's money any day of the week!

Here's my dilemma. I've been getting these little boxes with cornbread mix, for the last year or so......you just add water (and jalapenos etc.) bung it in the oven, and it's done. Decent too. But I can't find them anymore. Apparently they're big with Carribbean folk, and maybe I was the only gringo who bought them at my local store. So I figure it's time I learned to make the REAL THING. Does anyone have any great REASONABLY SIMPLE recipes?

I still use Mudcat recipes for Steak and Kidney pies!

Cheers and thanks

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:25 PM

Western Style Jalapeño Cornbread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 cup cornmeal 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar -- optional 2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 large eggs -- beaten 1 cup buttermilk 1/3 cup onions -- minced 1 cup creamed corn -- 8 ounce can 2 tablespoons green peppers -- minced 2 tablespoons jalapeño peppers -- chopped 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. In a separate bowl add the beaten eggs and all the remaining ingredients, blending well. Add the two mixtures together and stir only until moistened. Use a heavy cast iron skillet if available; if not, use a 9-inch square baking dish. Grease the skillet or dish, pour in the mixture and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and serve immediately.

Jalapeño-and-Fresh Corn Cornbread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1/2 cup hot water 1/4 cup sun-dried tomato bits 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup nonfat buttermilk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 egg whites -- lightly beaten 1 egg -- lightly beaten 1 cup fresh corn cut from cob -- (2 ears) 1/2 cup sliced green onions 3 tablespoons minced jalapeño pepper 1 clove garlic -- minced Vegetable cooking spray

Combine hot water and tomato bits in a bowl; cover and let stand 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Combine flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk and next 3 ingredients; stir well. Add tomato bits, corn, and next 3 ingredients to buttermilk mixture; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

Spoon batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375 deg for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 [2-1/4-inch] square).

Cowboy Cornbread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil -- divided 1 cup yellow cornmeal 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk 4 ounces chopped green chiles -- (1 can) undrained 1 egg -- beaten 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn -- thawed 10 red bell pepper strips

Coat an 8-inch cast iron skillet with 1 teaspoon oil. Place in a 400 degrees oven for 10 minutes.

Combine the cornmeal and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine remaining oil, buttermilk, chiles, and egg in a bowl; stir well. Add to cornmeal mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in corn.

Spoon into preheated skillet. Arrange pepper strips on top of batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Yield: 10 servings.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOTES : This chile-flavored cornbread is a great way to sneak in vegetables. Serve it with chili, soup, or stew or use it for hamburger buns. And be sure to tell your kids it's a favorite with ropers, bulldoggers, vaqueros, and cowboys of every stripe.

Adobe Cornbread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal 1 teaspoon chili powder 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt 8 3/4 ounces no-salt-added whole kernel corn -- (1 can) drained 4 ounces chopped green chile peppers -- (1 can) drained 1 egg -- lightly beaten 1 egg white -- lightly beaten

Pour oil in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet, tilting to coat sides of skillet. Place in a 400 deg oven for 5 minutes; set aside.

Combine flour and next 5 ingredients in a bowl; stir well. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine yogurt and next 4 ingredients; add to dry ingredients, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Add hot oil to batter; stir until well combined. Pour batter into skillet.

Bake at 400 deg for 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 wedge).

Buttermilk Cornbread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 egg 1 1/3 cups buttermilk 3 tablespoons butter -- melted

Stir together dry ingredients. Separately, beat together egg, milk, and butter. Pour liquid ingredients into dry; stir only to moisten. Pour immediately into buttered 8" square pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

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NOTES : Delicious variation to serve with barbecue: add 2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeño pepper (seeded, of course) to batter before baking.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:27 PM

i'm a minnesota norwegian, so perhaps you won't trust my cornbread recipe. it has honey in it, and i don't think that's properly "southern". however! it's the best cornbread i've ever encountered. what do you mean by simple? there are more than three ingredients, but no steps to speak of. measure - mix - bake.

1/4 cup honey
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup white flour
3 tbs. melted butter (okay, melting the butter is a step, but you can do it in the pan you bake in, so it hardly counts...)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt

bake it at 425 degrees in a 9 inch cast iron pan for approximately 20 minutes. oh yeah.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:29 PM

Jeezus! Anybody know where I can find the little boxes of 'ready-mix'?

But thank you anyway Spaw.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:30 PM

Yep--Jiffy Brand. How many do you want??? You would have to add your own peppers......and send the address to mail to!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:31 PM

aha! my recipe is very closely related to the last on catspaw's list. i admit: his is simpler.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:31 PM

Aw now c'mon Rick......None of those are that hard and if you take the last one, which is a basic cornbread recipe, you can throw in anything you want.

But, even if you don't use them, you're welcome.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:32 PM

Thanks Emily...Norwegian sounds fine. I think I need to just get a few of the ingredients together, and I'll get into the spirit.

What's the difference between baking soda and baking powder?

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:33 PM

Lots, Rick. Soda is just soda. Baking powder has soda and some other stuff. Send me your addy PM and I'll send you a case of Jiffy mixes.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:33 PM

I prefer Jiffy myself Sorch!!! Damn stuff is dead simple and very reliable.....Makes good corn pancakes too!

emily, I think it's an almost identical recipe....there are only so many ways to make cornbread!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Amergin
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:34 PM

not much of a recipe...but what my mom does...(and me whenever I make it) is sprinkle sugar atop the corn bread...adds a nice touch to it....

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:34 PM

baking powder = baking soda + cornstarch + sodium aluminum sulfate + calcium sulfate + monocalcium phosphate. i think it tastes nasty.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:46 PM

Just buy SELF-RISING CORN MEAL and follow the recipe on the back. (It helps to have an iron skillet, and throw in a little baking soda.)

I used to make this for supper at least twice a week when the kids were home. It's a delicious fast, hot bread. One night my daughter had a little friend spending the night with her. This little girl's mom was born in London, grew up in Canada. She watched me a very long time, and when I took the corn bread out of the oven, she said, "WHAT is that?"

(Spaw, you still owe me some spoon bread.)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:47 PM

Chuckle, yea, like I said, Emily, "other stuff"......(Hi emily rain......haven't seen you around for a while!)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mad4Mud
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 06:58 PM

Marie Callendar's makes a good cornbread mix too. It's more cake-like than the Jiffy brand but just as simple to make.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mad4Mud
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 07:00 PM

Oh yeah! P.S. about the baking powder versus baking soda. You will know the difference if you get them mixed up in a recipe!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 07:06 PM

Where HAVE you been emily? Inquiring minds and all of that.........

I like a lot of the mixes. Some are light, some are more cake like as Mad said. I remember buying a couple of sacks of somebody's "Beer Cornbread Mix" that was the heaviest and densest stuff I ever saw. A 3x3 square weighed about 31 pounds or so........It looked great in the pan and the test was excellent but about two pieces and that was it!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: WyoWoman
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 07:20 PM

Being a Southern gal by birth and training, I can barely stand this talk of cornbread mixes. It's a little like drinking holy water or entering the temple with your head uncovered.

I make a real gnarly, textured cornbread using stoneground corn meal and a whole wheat baking flour. My family has had actual arguments over whether or not adding sugar to cornbread is anathema (I do, but prefer honey or sometimes sorghum) and for breakfast the morning after you've had your beans and cornbread, just slice and butter the leftover cornbread (bake enough so you have leftovers), put it in the toaster oven for a minute, then pour sorghum over it when it's toasted. If you eat meat, it's delicious with a slice of fried ham or bacon.

Mmmy-nummy, ww

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 07:37 PM

First, slice up some onions...

(sorry)

I've made cornbread using the recipe on the side of the cornmeal container. (And I'm not crazy about cornbread that tastes like sweet corn muffins, so I'm apt to lower the amount of sugar I put in.)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 07:39 PM

Can't stand the store-bought stuff -- too much flour and not enough cornmeal.

Don't have the time right now, Rick, to write it down, but good ol' Betty Crocker (mine is the 1960-something edition) has 3 basic recipes and I use one of them with a written in notation (that i made 30 some odd years ago when I started baking cornbread).

Real simple. Basic cornbread. Tastes great. (I prefer it fresh out of the oven on an overcast and slushy March day with the hot cornbread slathered in butter and dripping with honey.)

Gotta go feed the cats and put dinner away.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 08:18 PM

Jeri --- wrong recipe! Use the SOUTHERN Cornbread recipe. Like WW says --- NO SUGAR! (That's cake.)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 08:20 PM

And that Jiffy Mix stuff is OK for muffins...but that's not REAL cornbread.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 08:26 PM

Wal, I just know I don't like Jiffy---I don't put any sugar in mine.......but Rick wants EZ----nothing more EZ than Jiffy..........poor Rick, just look what he started. There is not much that is more sacred than cornbread, is there?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 08:33 PM

Basic Yaller Corncake
3/4 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, well-beaten (use fork, none of those frenchy things)
2 tbsp shortening, melted*
Mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk, egg and shortening; bake in shallow buttered pan for abt. 20 minutes at 425 degrees F.
*butter, chicken fat, drippings

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 08:35 PM

Really, the ingredients are simple (cornmeal, egg, milk, oil), the technique is individual. For me, a hot oven (425 F), iron skillet with melted grease, sprinkle a little meal in it before you pour the mixture in, and for a half recipe I have to turn the temp down a bit. A smidgin of baking soda makes it fluffy. I use WHITE SELF-RISING Cornmeal. And NEVER cut it with a knife. Cornbread should be turned out on a plate and then broken, as in "Let Us Break Bread Together..."

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Hollowfox
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 09:32 PM

Ah, the memories. Once (mumble) years ago at the National Storytelling Festival (in Tennessee), there was a grand discussion over breakfast as to the huge variety of baked goods called "cornbread". The restaurant was serving little round discs (think the shape of crumpets, or what are called "English muffins" in the USA, but made with cornmeal, and a smaller diameter). A local gentleman remembered the first time he had cornbread as part of a meal in the navy; he thought it was cake and set it aside for his dessert.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: John Gray
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 09:36 PM

What is all-purpose flour, plain or self raising or ? What is buttermilk?

JG/FME

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 10:15 PM

Mary,

Why shouldn't cornbread be cut with a knife?

Rick, here's a simple cornbread recipe, as you ask. It was given me by a friend from the Florida panhandle, and it was her grandfather's recipe. It doesn't call for white flour, so is a good recipe for folks who can't eat refined wheat flour. He used shortening, she uses olive oil. (It's an equal exchange, shortening was melted in the pan before adding to mix).

Preheat oven to 400, and put your 8" skillet in to preheat at the same time.

1 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt (don't skimp on this, she says)
1 Tablespoon sugar (she sometimes omits this)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (soy milk works also)
2 teaspoons of olive oil

Grease preheated skillet with olive oil. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, careful not to overmix. Pour into hot skillet (it should sizzle on contact) and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

It is a very good recipe.

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 11:12 PM

John, All purpose flour is white wheat flour milled without the outer bran kernel included. Self rising flour has salt and baking powder included after milling. Same for plain or self rising (wheat)flour. It's just plain white, fine milled wheat flour.

Buttermilk is actually what is left after making butter out of whole sweet cream but in the US you can buy "buttermilk" in the dairy section of the market. Or, you can buy "buttermilk powder" to which you add water to make "buttermilk".

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 01:09 AM

What else can a cow give buttermilk?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 01:14 AM

Spaw, you didn't really ask "What else can a cow give?" did you...............oh dear. Must get Paw on the case.......

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 05:28 AM

Zillions of recipes One day I'll get a blue clicky right first time.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: John Gray
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 09:29 AM

I've got plenty of plain flour but I'll have to look for buttermilk in the supermarket tomorrow. I've never seen it before, maybe we have a different name for it. Is it's consistency water-like or custard-like?

JG/FME

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 10:41 AM

John,

I don't think the buttermilk sold in stores today is really quite the same as the oldfashioned buttermilk left over from making butter. Now it's like a cultured product, thicker than regular milk. You can substitute regular milk for buttermilk by using 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and adding regular milk to make to 1 cup of buttermilk. Let it sit for a few (5) minutes for the chemistry to work.

My Dad used to make a cultured drink called viili (I think that's the spelling--I believe it's originally from Finland). It is the consistency of runny yogurt but more tart, and I don't care for it by itself, but it works well in the place of buttermilk or sour cream in cooking. We always made it with nonfat dry milk. You can buy the starter through the mail.

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 11:14 AM

Thanks folks. I'm printing this out....and then I'll get to work. Glad to know that "Jiffy" was the brand name of the little pre-mixed stuff, but I think I'll try a few of these.....specially now that I've got baking powder and baking soda straightened out.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 12:09 PM

John, buttermilk is somewhat thicker than milk and will come packaged the same way as milk does in cartons of some sort.

Thanks for the set-up for an old joke that I hardly ever get to use! I mean, what else can a cow give you...but her milk?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Ma-K
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 12:49 PM

Got to have leftovers. One of my Dads favorites was corn bread and sweet milk. Sweet milk was what he called milk that had'nt soured. Just crumble up the corn bread in a glass or bowl and pour on the milk. Good stuff....Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 02:30 PM

In my humble opinion, adding sugar to cornbread is a sin. If you want cake, bake a cake.

My recipe for cornbread, and it's very simple.

1 Cup cornmeal (yellow or white)

3 T flour

2/3 t salt

2/3 t soda

1.5 Cup buttermilk

1 egg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put 2 T oil in a castiron skillet (8 or 9 inch)and heat until smoking. Meanwhile mix ingredients. When oil is smoking in the skillet, pour the hot oil into the mixed ingredients and stir. Pour mixed ingredients back into the skillet and place the skillet into the preheated oven In about 20 minutes you will have a good sillet full of cornbread.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: WyoWoman
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 02:44 PM

Mary -- My dad used to eat cornbread and sweet milk, too. He'd salt and pepper it! I have to admit, I tried it and liked it. Whenever he had some, I'd have some, but my favorite thing to do with leftover cornbread is the toasting and serving with sorghum thing. But you simply MUST cook enough for leftovers.

Every time we'd sit down to our usual Friday night supper of cornbread, beans and sliced sweet onions, my Dad would say, "There's no reason for people to go hungry in this world when such riches can be had for peanuts. ..." And he was right. Beans and cornbread don't cost much at all and they're wonderful food that nourishes in all ways.

Anyone know any songs extolling the virtues of beans and cornbread?

(By the way, I also think a hot oven and iron skillet are the key to great cornbread. Makes that nice crusty crunch on the outside, yellow ambrosia on the inside. I cannot imagine cornbread with olive oil, but ... I'm not yet such a crusty ol' toot that I won't give it a try. It's a darned site better for us than shortening. Though perhaps not nearly as tasty ... HA ... I'm so silly. Here I am talking about substituting olive oil for the shortening for health reasons, but I can tell you without question that as soon as that cornbread is out of the oven, it's gonna get clobbered with butter. What a health-hypocrit I am.)

ww

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 02:52 PM

Yep. I can remember eating cornbread with sweetmilk too, as a youngster. Very tasty. And it's pretty hard to beat a meal of Butterbeans (Limas) or Pintos with Cornbread and chopped onions. A bit of hot sauce goes well with it too! Your father was a wise man, Wyowoman!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 03:27 PM

DougR, your recipe is the most traditional sounding--we used to brown sausage patties in the skillet, then dump the batter on and bake--we had no name for it, but in later years, I have heard some call it "Toads in the Hole"--not a very apetizing name--

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Ma-K
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 03:48 PM

Wyo Women.....I tried the old flat bread from Mother Earth. Boy Scouts ate it ALL yesterday...Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 04:11 PM

What hath Rick wrought? Guys like you give men a bad name! You could starve to death in a pantry! My motto is, "If you can read, you can cook." Now, you sure can cook on the guitar, but, you will find that the receipes are different! I'd be willing to send you some Jiffy Mix, but,by the time you pay customs fees, you might not think it worth it.Oh, hell, just learn to cook, you will feel much better about yourself.ROTFLMAO!!! Dont eat too much of the stuff, it causes Palegra you know. Thanks man, this is the first time I've laughed in quite a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 04:40 PM

My Hubby likes cornbread and sweetmilk too. But is has to be in a glass! Much harder to clean up that way!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 05:42 PM

Kendall, I do MOST of the cookin' around here, but I make it all up. I can occasionally follow recipes...but when Mudcatters describe things they sound positively delicious! "Specially the Yanks! Just the word "Skillet" does me in! Now if I could only figure out what "Pone" is!

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 06:32 PM

ahem...Rick...by "Yanks," surely you mean "people from the US" and not d***yankees! *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mad4Mud
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 07:27 PM

Rick, from what I remember corn pone is cornbread baked in the shape of an egg or oval. I believe it was made this way when baked over an open fire and no pan was available. I'm sure some true Southern can give you the full history of it (my family are all Yankees!).

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 08:00 PM

I'm afraid all I know about corn pone is the song from Lil Abner, "Jubilation T. Cornpone."

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 08:12 PM

It's also a knick name for hillbilly

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 08:22 PM

Cornpone-
Corn bread made without milk or eggs and fried or baked.
2 cups cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted shortening
1/3 teaspoon sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
Mix cornmeal, salt, shortening and sugar.
Add just enough water to be able to shape into pone.
Shape into one large or two small pones.
Place on greased hot skillet in oven at 425 degrees F.; about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Recipe from The Georgia Cookbook by Phil Regan.
Or: fry in hot iron skillet with plenty of shortening. This is the true white trash way, beloved of southern mill workers (now largely displaced) and other true cognocenti.

Cornbread using stone-ground white cornmeal

2 cups stone-ground white corn meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted shortening or cooking oil, etc.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put 2 tablespoons shortening in cast iron skillet, and place in oven until hot. Combine dry ingredients.
Combine milk and egg and add to dry ingredients. Stir until smooth.
Pour batter into pre-heated skillet. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden. (This varies with altitude and humidity). The faint-hearted may test with a toothpick.
Make corn sticks in hot cast iron corn sticks pan, putting 1/2 teaspoon of shortening in eash division.
The above recipe contains no sugar, but the more civilized (harumpf!) add sugar to taste (determine your level by trial and error).
In western Canada, the only white, stone-ground cornmeal we can get is a brand called Indian Head, from Maryland. Southerners have choices. There are a few small mills still in operation (or have they all been taken over by the large companies now?).
Bon appetit!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 09:33 PM

MTed: That's a new one on me, but I must admit my country boy appetite tells me it is good!

I still can't fanthom why anyone would put sugar in cornbread though. That's like putting beans in chili! :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 09:35 PM

From corn bread, you may wish to graduate to:

HUSH PUPPIES

1 cup stone-ground white corn meal
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup minced onion, peppers, etc. (optional)
Fat for deep frying
SAFE METHOD:
Preheat deep fat fryer to 375 degrees F. Combine dry ingredients. Beat together egg and milk, add to dry ingredients, stir until smooth. Blend in onion, etc.
Drop by teaspoonfuls into deep fat, keeping batter stirred. Fry until golden brown, lift out with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

ADVENTUROUS METHOD:
1 1/2 cup white corn meal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, well-beaten
3/4 cup milk
Small onion minced, peppers, etc. (optional)
Fat for deep frying. Put generous amount of fat into skillet and bring to heat.

Mix (sift) corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix egg, milk and onion (generally used with fish), etc., in a bowl. Combine with dry ingredients and drop with a spoon into hot fat in a cast iron skillet.
When hush puppies are crisp and golden (about one minute), lift from fat with slotted spoon and drain on paper toweling.

The clumsy or careless can start a fire in the pan easily; have a screen to put over the pan to douse the flames. Burning grease may catch the cabin on fire; this is why you see so many naked chimney stacks in the South.

All fats from cooking are poured into a can or small pail on the back of the range top, to be used in future cooking adventures. Bacon drippings are especially prized. The amount of fat wanted is scooped out and put in the skillet, etc. and heated. The pail may stay in use there for generations, or until the house burns down. Do not add grease in which fish have been fried unless you particularly like the smell and taste of rotted fish or wish to get room and board in the nearest hospital.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 09:50 PM

I had a PM request for a possble source of the cultured "stringy milk" product called viili; I did some digging and found the address for the place my father used to order it from. (Deckman, are you paying attention?) It's Finnish, and a search brings up lots of web sites I can't read. But I found reference to G.E.M. Cultures, and remembered that from the boxes around his house, and the brochure I've buried in my recipes somewhere. This comes from a site called "Outlaw Cook."

As far as I can tell, G.E.M. Cultures doesn't have a Web site. Call them or, better, send them a stamped, self-addressed envelope and request a copy of their very interesting free catalog. Betty Stechmeyer and Gordon McBride, G.E.M. Cultures, 30301 Sherwood Road, Fort Bragg CA 95437 [707] 964-2922.

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 10:55 PM

"Beans in Chili" eh Doug? I understand those are fightin' words West of the Pecos (or something)

Sugar in the cornbread too?

Are there any other TABOOS that may be regional?

Heather's dad, a Glaswegian through and through, almost went ballistic when he saw that my idea of a Salmon sandwich was to mix it with maionaise, relish and paprika.
"Achhhh Noooo" he cried "Ye'll ruin the taste of the salmon"!!

Mary...I meant "Yanks" in the best possible conotation...although truth to tell I LOVE Southern cooking. I did a lengthy gig in New Orleans a few years ago and came VERY close to forgoing Canada and living there for good. It came down to Food and politics, and I settled on putting up with the crappy Canadian food.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 11:15 PM

Yep, Rick. Real chili doesn't have beans in it. That's a fact! One can have beans on the side, of course. Beans in chili means you are eating chili beans.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 11:56 PM

Actually folks..and Rick too....A helluva' lot of this thread is VERY regional. In many cases it relates to certain ethnic backgrounds as well. As an example, those who eat the classic Navy Bean Soup will tend to sweetened cornbread becasue the soup itself is slightly sweet, generally made with hambone from a sugar cured ham. I never really ate pinto beans til I went to college in Kentucky and found that pintos were a staple on many tables of poor southerners. A close friend and roommate whosw folks were tenant farmers always had pintos on their table and the cornbread, a staple too, was often fried, sometimes baked, but always sugarless. Pintos tend to be made with fatback or salt pork and the taste fits....as does a sprinkle of hot pepper vinegar in the beans.

When you hit the southwest, the cornbread tends to go into the chile/jalapeno direction to match the Chili and over in Louisiana the peppers change from jalapeno to Tabascos.

Now I know there are obvious variants, but that's a general rundown......and I know it doesn't ALWAYS hold true, but it's true enough. As far as using cornbread for desserts or other times, my family was long on the molasses and sorghum. We never seemed to have honey as a kid and I always thought it was something people had who couldn't get sorghum!!!

Fun thread........Shall we talk about ways to make and eat mush versus grits? LOL........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:02 AM

The sugar is not regional but a matter of preference. My wife, from Georgia, always adds sugar. She has three sisters. One uses no sugar, another said it depended on what was served (no sugar with fish), the third insisted hush puppies were the only was to use corn meal (the parents preference). I was from the West, and only used a little corn meal to pan fry trout. Biscuits were served with the trout.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:10 AM

I'm sure that's true too Dicho, as I said, it's not a rule, just a broad generalization. Most cornbread I've eaten in the rural south has been with pintos and sugarless, generally fried too.

Kinda' like serving grits with eggs in the south and potatoes with eggs in the north. Not completely true, but some get pretty serious about it. Sandy Paton has a story about a restaurant around Savannah I think where they wouldn't serve him any eggs because the grits weren't ready!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:29 AM

Catspaw, that reminds me of a meal I took in a locals restaurant in Hawaii. Poi came with the meal. My wife tasted it and her expression froze. A woman at the next table was watching the haoles and grinned and said, "I always mix it with sugar and then I can eat it." She was part Hawaiian and a native. Even when you are raised with some things, they may not be to your liking.
I agree with the comments about chili. We make ours with cubes of beef, and serve pinto beans cooked with ham shoulder meat on the side. No refried mush (poi consistency) either. It is very easy to overcook pintos, whereas black and some other beans hold consistency much longer.
I found pintos a-plenty in Texas but nowhere else in the south, and I don't know that I would call Texas southern in the true sense. Lots of Texans came from the old South, but according to southerners for a reason that is not politically correct to mention.
One of my wife's sisters regularly sends grits because she thinks we are deprived in the great white north. One of these days we will have to clean out that cupboard. We probably have a good crop of weevils by now. Actually grits are pretty good with eggs if served really hot and covered with butter and salt or ham gravy.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:06 PM

Yup, lots of pinto beans in Texas. Except on New Years Day when they eat blackeye peas for good luck. Not sure about that one (I don't care for them, and grew up around Seattle, so I pass on that one). I like pintos okay, when someone else fixed them, but I grew up with red kidney beans and small white beans. I cook kidney beans most of the time.

My mom used to make a pot of baked (small white) beans on the same day she baked bread, to get the most use of the oven, I suppose. She sent me her recipe, and it was something like 9 cups of beans. A HUGE number of beans, and I called her and asked. She said that was correct, so I put all of the ingedients into a huge soup pot. It wasn't enough room as they expanded, so I moved it over into another pot also. And the sauce wasn't enough, so I made more and added it, by then sure of what the problem was. I called again and it turned out she forgot over time (she hadn't made them in years) that it was COOKED measure, not dry measure.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:39 PM

many years ago, while traveling in southern Missouri, near New Madrid, a friend & I got a demonstration of the 'line'...

One morning we ate at a restaurant that did not offer grits...the next day, 30 miles further south, they ASKED you if you wanted grits....the 3rd day, 15 miles further south, the grits appeared on your plate automatically!

(similar things happen with BBQ sandwiches and coleslaw in various areas of the country)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:13 PM

I can vouch for Sandy's story. We lived in Beaumont, Texas at one time and Louisiana is a close neighbor. Many cusoms of the south are observed in Beaumont. One of them is serving grits with breakfast. Many was the time I would order breakfast at a restaurant and say, "no grits please." I don't ever recall being served breakfast without grits being included on the plate. I think the chefs there just couldn't accept the fact that some folks don't care for grits.

Rick, I hope you won't mind if I borrow your thread to ask a food question.

My mother used to make small pattys (like hamburgr pattys)from left-over mashed potatoes and fry them. She shaped them first, dipped them in cornmeal and fried them, but I'm sure she must have added something else too. Anybody familiar with these? Have a recipe?

Spaw, you're certainly right about the region thing, but it's also a matter of individual preference. My brother wouldn't dream of making chili without beans. Your explanation as to why sugar might be used in cornbread makes sense to me too. I'm familiar with the fried cornbread you describe too, and wish I knew how to do it. My wife use to fry cornbread, and all I remember is she used cornmeal and water, but again, there must have been more to it than that. I'm getting hungry.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:41 PM

Doug, I've made the fried left-over mashed potato patties. I just make a patty of the mashed potatoes, dip it in a little egg and milk, then flour (kinda like fried chicken). Salt and pepper too. They are REALLY HOT after frying, so be careful!

Ever had fried green tomatoes? Cornmeal and brown sugar...mmmmmm

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:44 PM

I take the left-over mashed potatoes & mix them with a moinced, sauteed onion & some garlic, an egg, some milk, a little bit of flour & about 3/4 tsp. baking powder. Make into small pancakes & fry in 1/2 oil & 1/2 butter, serve w/sour cream---YUM.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:48 PM

Stilly River, forget the black-eyed peas...try purple hull peas. And (like grits covered with salt and butter) cover the peas with chow-chow (a green tomato and onion relish).

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:06 PM

Doug, it is our favorite thing to do with leftover taters. I add an egg(s) and then flour to thicken and throw them in. Adding some sauerkraut makes for an interesting patty too!

Mary....I LOVE fried green tomatoes!!! Lots of brown sugar in the mix for me!! Some friends of ours were over one night and we had several dozen (literally) and NONE of them ever made the table!!! Right onto a plate and back in line. The "cook" got one slice per batch! They are completely addicting, like candy. Geeziz, I'm hungry!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:14 PM

Spaw, sounds like when we have a fish fry in a big kettle outside. The hush puppies never make it to the house.

Ever notice how frying fish and making chili is a way to get the guys to cook?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:16 PM

Yeah Mary.......But did you notice how many men around here are the primary cook in the house? Karen cooks well, but she generally gets to cook only about once every two weeks.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:19 PM

We seem to go through cycles, where I'm wanting to do most of the cooking for awhile, and then my husband sort of takes it over for a bit, etc. It's interesting because we tend to cook different sorts of things.

Currently we're in a "he does the cooking" phase, and that suits me very well!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Duckboots
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:40 PM

What a good load of recipes. Rick takes this stuff very seriously, and I suspect we're in for a different batch of cornbread-related meals for the next few weeks.

By the way Kendall, Rick does indeed do most of the cooking, and for the most part it's delicious. His problem is he can't remember how to repeat ANYTHING. He refuses to write down ingredients and amounts. And even if he did, he'd lose the piece of paper.

Duckboots (Heather Fielding)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:25 PM

I can repeat Heather....sorta. I cook by smell and taste and rarely write down anything. The problem comes more in baking though because quantities DO matter! I've had some very interesting disasters baking without following at least the basics of the recipe.

Karen looks at a recipe as a plan.... I see a recipe as a possibility.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:59 PM

I see it as a guideline to be interpreted; I can replicate most things pretty well, but generally stick to cooking rather than baking...as you say, baking is a more exact science, with a greater potential for things to deflate, come out like rocks, or simply explode when one tries to "individualise" them!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Burke
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:03 PM

Just a comment on the baking powder/baking soda issue.

This is what makes non-yeast baked goods rise. It's a chemical reaction that creates little pockets of CO2 in your bread or whatever.

Baking powder is complete in itself to start the chemical reaction when the moisture is added. Self rising flour has this Baking powder already added.

Baking soda by itself won't bubble. You need an acid to activate it. This is usually buttermilk sometimes lemon juice or vinegar.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:12 PM

Wow! Thanks for the tips on frying leftover mashed taters! I'm gonna try 'em all one time or another.

I learned to cook when it became too much of a chore for my late wife. I'm glad I did, and must say that I do enjoy it. I follow a recipe pretty close though. Any of you good lookin' women out there looking for a reasonably good cook who will promise not to talk politics at the table?

Duckboots, if Rick ever gets that smoker ...

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:18 PM

Never had fried green tomatoes. How do you cook them (fried obviously but ...)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:21 PM

I have too many recipes that call for baking soda and no vinegar or other acid to activate it to think this remark is accurate. Look at all of the soda breads out there (banana bread, for example). I know what Burke means in principle, and I have encountered recipes with vinegar, but I can't remember which they are.

My ex describes my cooking as the "vibration method"--adding ingredients until it feels right. On baked goods, I usually follow the recipe the first time, so I understand the characteristics of the item, then after that make any changes. If they're well-received, I make a point of jotting the changes in the margin of the cookbook. Saves trying to remember later what I changed.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:25 PM

Doug...it's a bit of a mess, but who cares? And if you're on a diet or watching cholesterol, forget it! But.........I slice them down a "bit" thin.....not too thin though. Also make sure you have real green ones and that the insides haven't started to color at all.

I mix up flour, cornmeal, and brown sugar and then have a pan of beaten eggs. Dredge them through the egg and then the mix and throw them in the fat. I really prefer frying them in bacon grease....adds something. Then pop the suckers into your mouth. They are best eaten as soon as you cook them. They get limp after awhile.........hmmmm, now that does sound familir...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:36 PM

Doug, fried green tomatoes ---

Pick them from the garden still green, but not hard. Slice 'em the thickness you like. If they're not too hard they will be juicy enough to dredge in brown sugar, then cornmeal. Fry in a little hot oil, as hot as possible without sticking. The cornmeal and brown sugar forms a crust and can stick in the skillet, kinda like when you fry fish and the grease gets messy and has to be changed. (sounds like a song there.) They are best eaten hot, like Spaw says, never make it to the table. You'll figure out the degree of ripeness for your tomatoes after you try a few.

And now...my favorite...homemade ice cream. I've made just about any and every flavor possible. When we were poor students in Alabama, that was our weekend entertainment. All the ingredients were free (and mostly legal). Just be careful when using home-frozen peaches, the syrup is too sugary and lowers the freezing point so much the mixture won't freeze.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:41 PM

Well don't just tease us there Woman!!!! Tell us about it! I figure I'll fry these metters and you get that ice cream ready and somebody else can call the pharmacy for some Pravachol and Prilosec.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:46 PM

They sound great! Must try them.

Mary: "Mostly legal?" What the heck does that mean? You got illegal milk in Kentucky or something?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:50 PM

It's not what you're thinking, Spaw! (no Bourbon) We had "access" to milk, eggs and ice from the university. Then we raided our cabinets for various flavorings, coconut, peppermint, chocolate, banana, peach, cherry. Figs may have been used. We found that crushed ice in an electric freezer was about the best. (and then pack it in salt water/ice for several hours) Forget all that nonsense about hand-cranked freezers. I think that was just something my parents said to keep the kids busy. Come to think of it, we seldom waited several hours either.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:03 PM

Yeah, we had a hand cranker and it really stank!!! When I was a kid my grandparents bought a very early electric that worked great. I never get the recipe on this right though.....Mary, give me yours for a good basic vanilla huh? I always loved the texture of homemade.....taste too.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:10 PM

Let me see if I can find it. It used Eagle Brand Milk, maybe four eggs, lots of vanilla (my dad swore that was the secret to his recipe), and milk to "the line." This is a no-bake recipe, but we didn't know about salmonella then... It's best to cool the mixture in the frig first, and like I said, crushed ice with lots of salt worked best. About 20 minutes! Banana was usually the favorite.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:17 PM

Slight thread creep, or perhaps "ooze" - salmonella in eggs is a relatively recent development. It's not that we didn't know about it, it's that salmonella just wasn't in eggs. I believe you can get pasteurized raw eggs now.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Burke
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:25 PM

I think maybe the bananas provide the acid. Here's more.

"baking" Encyclopædia Britannica Online. [Accessed 21 January 2002].

Baking soda

Layer cakes, cookies (sweet biscuits), biscuits, and many other bakery products are leavened by carbon dioxide from added sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Added without offsetting amounts of an acidic substance, sodium bicarbonate tends to make dough alkaline, causing flavour deterioration and discoloration and slowing carbon dioxide release. Addition of an acid-reacting substance promotes vigorous gas evolution and maintains dough acidity within a favourable range.

Carbon dioxide produced from sodium bicarbonate is initially in dissolved or combined form. The rate of gas release affects the size of the bubbles produced in the dough, consequently influencing the grain, volume, and texture of the finished product. Much research has been devoted to the development of leavening acids capable of maintaining the rate of gas release within the desired range. Acids such as acetic, from vinegar, or lactic, from sour milk, usually act too quickly; satisfactory compounds include cream of tartar (potassium acid tartrate), sodium aluminum sulfate (alum), sodium acid pyrophosphate, and various forms of calcium phosphate.

"leavening agent" Encyclopædia Britannica Online. [Accessed 21 January 2002]. :
Chemical leavening agents also produce expansion by the release of carbon dioxide. Modern baking powders are combinations of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and dry acids or acid salts, usually with starch added for stability in storage. Single-acting baking powders, containing tartaric acid or cream of tartar, release carbon dioxide at room temperature, and mixtures in which they are used must be baked immediately to avoid loss of most of the gas. Slow-acting baking powders, containing phosphates, release part of their gas at room temperature and part when heated. Double-acting baking powder, the most widely used type, contains sodium aluminum sulfate and calcium acid phosphate and releases a small amount of gas when mixed and the balance when heated.

Baking soda is added to doughs and batters in which acid is provided by other ingredients, such as honey, sour cream, molasses, or cocoa. If used without acid ingredients, baking soda may produce yellowing and undesirable odours and flavours in the finished product. Mixtures leavened with baking soda require quick handling to avoid release of most of the gas before baking.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:26 PM

I can't find the recipe just now, but I'll send it after I do more house-cleaning. It may have been 2 cans of Eagle Brand (that's a sweetened, condensed milk), maybe only 2 eggs, and I forgot the sugar...guess I better look for the recipe. We tried it with whipped cream, and various cooked recipes, but this seemed to be the best tasting. IF there is any left over, you can freeze it. The texture is then real hard, but still very tasty, especially the banana.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:30 PM

I just managed to unpack a box with an ice cream machine in it yesterday. Y'all are a BAD influence on my cholesterol level!

(And I really believe Ben & Jerry's needs to come out with a Turtle Cheesecake flavor of ice cream!)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:31 PM

Burke, we forgot to tell Rick that he can make "soured" milk to substitute for buttermilk by adding a little vinegar to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Burke
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:37 PM

Mary, Stilly River Sage did mentioned it early on.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:43 PM

I see it now, I got sidetracked on the stringy milk! My friend who does a lot of baking with buttermilk swears by the dry, evaporated kind.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:07 PM

Where I'm from, you dont eat Hushpuppies, you put them on your feet!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:15 PM

Oh, baby, I never had hush-puppies before this past summer, when a friend of ours from Arkansas made us some seriously good dry-rubbed barbecue, accompanied by his mother's hush-puppy recipe.....YUM.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 09:11 PM

I had never had hushpuppies until I got married and my wife took me to her parents in Georgia for their first look at me. I made a nuisance of myself by asking for them at almost every meal.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 09:46 PM

My ex is Puerto Rican, and his mother every so often makes and freezes various of her specialties, including something (I'll put it phonetically) called alcapurias. They are very good, very complex, and involve a flour from a ground root that one finds on Caribbean islands. I used to refer to them as "Puerto Rican hush puppies" and was rebuked for such blasphemy.

Hush puppies to me always seemed a way to use up left-over batter, and even the best of them are awfully greasy. But when you were discussing the mashed potato patties it reminded me of the heavenly salmon croquettes my mother used to make. Now those are wonderful. But try as I might, I could never make them come out the consistency of hers. They were mashed salmon with a mild white sauce or gravy just to stick them together, and a cracker crumb crust. The are pan friend in shallow oil, and are ambrosia. Probably something only found in the Northwest amongs salmon eaters.

Burke, the information on the levening was interesting, thanks for posting it. I have a very good recipe for baking powder biscuits that uses baking powder and extra cream of tartar. Now I can see why. And I use water, not milk in them. That's a secret a Kentucky friend gave me, after much pestering for his recipe, because he made the best biscuits I ever ate. Now my children are learning to cook, and I find that the trick is to teach them to make the things they like to eat, then branch out from there. So my son (age 9) has been making the biscuits for a couple of years. My daughter (13) makes muffins, pancakes, and is starting on things like macaroni and cheese. We watch cooking shows every so often, and on one some time back, the guy said "don't fool with the pastry blenders" and he used his hands to blend the flour and shortening. You know, that is the most fun! So now Dylan knows to wash his hands very well and then he loves mixing the shortening for his biscuits. I do too, and when I give it some thought, that's another thing my Kentucky friend did with his biscuits.

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DancingMom
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 09:49 PM

CORNBREAD!!! I'm sorry I arrived late in this discussion. One of my favorite subjects.

OK. Melt some butter (1/4 to 1/2 stick) in a cast iron skillet in a hot (450 degrees) oven. Mix together 2 cups self-rising cornmeal, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of sugar or molasses, and 1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk. If you don't have self-rising, add 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Put it in the HOT skillet and stick it in the oven till it's nice and brown. Easy. You can omit the sweetener and the egg if you wish, or add the other stuff like jalapenos or cheese.

One of my memories of my father was how he'd sit down at night for his bedtime snack, a glass full of crumbled up cornbread and milk, eaten with a spoon. Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 10:23 PM

No, no, Stilly, I'll bet lots of us have salmon pattys from time to time! That's not just a NW meal. I like 'em. The ones I make are made from canned, not fresh salmon though.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 10:25 PM

Ah Stilly, y'all probably had a whole lot better salmon (and still do) but Salmon Patties are a staple around here. My grandmother used to have them for Saturday supper maybe once a month and they still taste as fine to me today as they did 45 years ago. Along the same lines, Marylad Crab Cakes are one of our favorites too.........ya' know I do hate these threads....Make me want to eat all the time!!!

BUT....You bring up another favorite too! Cold Water Biscuits. I first encountered them when I was in VISTA in Kentucky and one of the community folks named Lucy Fox made these just spectacular biscuits. She was active at the Community Center so I had reason to stop by and see her regularly. I tried to arrange this at suppertime and for about 3 months, all I remember eating was Lucy's biscuits and sorghum. Her meals were fine, but oh them biscuits.............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 11:40 PM

My daughter was probably seven or eight when she started making biscuits. And it didn't take her long to realize that recipes with secret ingredients are something special, so she started experimenting, and was bringing good biscuits to the table but they were a little dark. Turned out she was putting a little cocoa into them! I made her stop that, but at the same time, had to chuckle at her resourcefulness. You couldn't taste the cocoa, and judging from Burke's post above, the powder probably acted like cream of tartar and made them rise better!

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:31 PM

Rick,
Just noticed this thread.
To sum up the cornbread-related contributions:

Think of a decision tree.
You start with the two basic cornbread dichotomies:
white meal or yellow meal
sweet or nonsweet
This gives you the four basic cornbread "camps."

I was raised on sweet yellow. My wife was raised on nonsweet white. She converted me.

But that's only for starters.
Each of the four basic camps is further divided according to the preferred brand of cornmeal.
There's the Indian Head camp, the King Arthur Camp, the Martha White camp, etc.

But wait, it gets more complicated.
Flour or no flour?
Butter, bacon grease, lard, other?
Baking pan or skillet?
Round or square?
Cast iron or other?
Etc., Etc., Etc.

None of these decisions is considered trivial by cornbread fanatics (i.e., most people who eat cornbread regularly).
Discussions of cornbread can become positively theological and often heated.
It is not unusual for cornbread lovers to insist that only their ingredients cooked in their container can produce true cornbread. All other methods produce, at best, a noticeably inferior product.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:13 PM

No one has mentioned greens in this discussion--I will suggest that a nice companion to that cornbread would be steamed mustard greens, sauteed in a bit of olive oil, along with a few sliced garlic cloves and some black beans-squeeze a bit of lemon over it about a minute or so before you take the pan off the stove--Spinach or Kale are good, too--(make sure you use the exact amounts I have given)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:32 PM

Guest Russ: Nice summation. I do have one castiron skillet that I use exclusively for baking cornbread. I wouldn't think of using it for anything else.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: 53
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:41 PM

rick i think you should stick to pounding people into learning a 6string f and let someone else make the cornbread. BOB

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: paddymac
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:03 PM

What a treasure this thraed has turned out to be. Glad I let it "ripen" before entering. I'm am amazed, however, that it went this far with no mention of the one "ingredient" Rick presumably has ready access to - good ol' maple syrup. I grew up a bit west of Chicago, with roots and kin in Iowa and Wisconsin. We never had cornbread without it being soaked in maple syrup. Good honey comes sorta close, but not quite. Cornbread and beans was standard fare for those times when there was "more month than money." Then, when I came to the South, I was introduced to "cracklin' bread" - basically cornbread with fried chitlin's and some diced sweet onions added to the batter and baked in the bread. The preferred "topping" by most native southerners is either cane syrup or molasses, but I still prefer maple syrup when I can find it; otherwise, tupelo honey. I've never developed a "taste" for chitlins, so I usually substitute chopped smoked bacon, but be careful not to over cook the bacon.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:12 PM

Did I hear M Ted right? Spinach, kale, olive oil? Sounds suspiciously Yankee to me.

Mustard greens, OK, but it should be turnip greens with just a few mustard greens in them. Cook with bacon grease and salt, then pour on the vinegar at the table.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:28 PM

Best if you have some hot pepper vinegar for those turnip greens Mary.....and since you're in Kentucky, I'm sure you do.

And if you have the energy to pick and clean them, nothing goes better than dandelion greens in bacon!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:37 PM

Actually I like kale, but I was always told that they were for Yankees that didn't have turnip greens.

Ever get the greens out of the garden with sandy grit still on them?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:41 PM

Paddymac: Chittlins: are they fried bacon rhinds? I have never heard of including them, or fried bacon in cornbread. Sounds good though.

I love fresh greens. I don't really know how to cook them though, so I rely on canned or frozen. Not nearly as good.

Someone mentioned Black-Eyed Peas earlier in the thread. In my humble opinion, anyone who has ever tasted fresh black-eyes and didn't like them were just a bit skewed in the head. Especially with a hot batch of cornbread.

I'm getting hungry again.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 07:54 PM

This is one Hell of a sociological study ya know folks. I'm starting to get the feeling that EVERYONE wants to EAT Southern whether they are or not!

So what is the origin of cornbread? Are there any OLD English or Irish recipes? Did this come over with the sttlers, or did the natives actually present it to them?

I know one thing...I'm gonna make a bunch of these, so Heather was right.

Doug, where were you from before you went to Arizona?

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:33 PM

Couldn't have come "over" Rick, because corn/maize is native to the New World, and the immigrants didn't have it. Try Indian/Native American.............corn was everywhere there was agriculture.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 09:06 PM

I also find it hilarious that a SIMPLE Cornbread recipe gets 110 responses.........cornbread must touch the heart, as Rick says, grin!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 09:07 PM

Most of the real "Southern" recipes are really european peasant cuisine of one kind or another, often with available ingredients substituted--

And Mary, you overlooked the olive oil, hardly a Yankee staple--the best way to serve the greens and beans is over polenta, which some of you may call corn meal mush--if I feel like it, a couple of anchovies give a nice flavor to the greens--

One thing I'll bring up though, is that the old folks. though they lived on corn meal and beans, tended to complain about it, and went to eating canned foods and packaged of all sorts, when they became available--

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 09:27 PM

This has become a real guide to corn-based breads. I have bookmarked it because of the variations in the recipes that I might try.
There is something in what Rick says. Cajun restaurants have spread to the cowboy country of western Canada (and, I'm sure, pretty well across the area of the States between the coasts). People are much more adventurous than they used to be, they buy cookbooks by the dozen, and they eat out more, ready to try the new recipes brought in by the immigrants. In this inland western Canadian city (once strictly steak and potatoes country), we have good Ethiopian, Moroccan, Middle eastern, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, Mexican, Japanese, Moravian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, east Indian, continental European, etc. etc. in addition to the various U. S. west coast, southern and southwestern menus. Oyster bars, specialty breweries, and wines and beers from everywhere have popped up.
Formerly, only the Chinese set up restaurants in the smaller centers. The old joke used to be that travelers across Canada would starve if the Chinese closed their cafes. I'm sure the same thing is happening in the British Isles.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 10:52 PM

Rick: I moved to Arizona from Texas.

I've really enjoyed this thread, and like M. Ted, I'm sure going to try some of these recipes.

For those of you who enjoy down home cooking I can recommend a magazine that my brother sends me each year: "Taste of Home." It is available for $14.98 for a year's subscription and it has some great recipes. My issue arrived today and it had a recipe for fried leftover mashed potatoes that might be of interest since we have discussed them in this thread: Mix 2/3 cup leftover roast beef with 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes, some chopped onion and a dash of pepper. Shape the mixture into patties, coat with cornmeal and fry them in a bit of oil until brown.

I'm getting hungry again.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: WyoWoman
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:19 PM

Mary-- thanks. I remembered that flat bread recipe as soon as I saw it.

Catspaw -- my favorite treat when I ride my bike a ridiculous distance is to come home and make a batch of yellow corn grits with frozen corn stirred in. I serve it with butter and salt and pepper, figuring that having ridden my bike for several hours, I get to eat about a ton of "free" carbos and grease. This is only partially true, of course, but mmmm-mmmm-mmmm, does that concoction taste yummy.

The other option is green-chile/cheese grits, but they're not a quickie dish. Otherwise, I haven't a lot of use for grits, Southern or not Southern.

ww

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:54 PM

At risk of running this thread so long it takes forever to load, how many readers of this list have made cornbread this week? We did tonight--and my son beamed happily when he saw what I was mixing up. Had it with pot roast. Okay, not a traditional mix, but I was craving cornbread, for some reason, and the kids didn't complain!

I made the recipe I posted above--it seemed more crumbly than usual. I probably needed to let it sit a little and absorb the liquid more before baking it. But next time I'll try one of the other recipes. If the Mudcat ever decides to do a fundraiser cookbook, Max and others won't need to look far for recipes! And we'll all be the ones to buy it. And it reminds me--a friend of mine from Tupelo, Mississippi invited me over for Christmas the year (1980) I was feeling rather stranded in Monroe, Louisiana (only could find country on the radio, no classical, not even rock'n'roll!). He took me out to eat fried catfish, the skinned fish rolled in cornmeal (which stayed put) and panfried. It was wonderful. Greasy, but wonderful. I've tried it a few times, but could never a) get the cornmeal to really stick and b) keep it from soaking up too much grease. I'll stick to dredging trout through salt, pepper, and flour to saute in olive oil or butter, and have to eat the catfish when I'm in Mississippi. . . Unless someone on this list knows how to make the cornmeal stick to the fish, that is. ;-)

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 09:32 AM

Forgot to mention that when I was a kid a person who admitted to making cornbread from a mix was "more to be pitied than censured."

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 10:32 AM

Maggie, I always fry fish in cornmeal, but I'm not sure what makes the coating stick. Maybe the fish has to be cold before you dredge in cornmeal. We always soak the fish in cold salt water in the fridge before frying. Also, the grease has to be hot, and it helps to have a well-seasoned iron skillet (I lost one in a bonfire while burning the crud off) or a non-stick one. Whenever I fried fish (in the past, I try to cook healthy now) I had to change the oil often. Did you know that lighting a candle in the kitchen helps get rid of the fish odor? A friend of mine who fries catfish often, uses the cornmeal coating and a deep fat fryer. She also buys (dare I say the word Jiffy) a hushpuppy mix that has jalepenos in it, and is simply to die for. (I always had to fry hushpuppies in a deep fat fryer because they would flatten out too much in the skillet.)

Yes, I had to make cornbread last weekend after reading this thread! We had a local mill in our county that made Kentucky Kernal cornmeal. Their recipe was the best. Since they went out of business, I'm not sure what recipe to use now. I probably put too much oil in mine last time, but it sure was good. My friend who fries catfish, and breaks bread, etc. says that she adds 1/2 package of yellow Jiffy to her white self-rising recipe. She used to make cornbread in a large skillet, but then started using the little cast iron corn-shaped utensil when she started cooking for fewer people.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: M.Ted
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 11:30 AM

I am not a fried foods person, but I have been told that, in order to keep the catfish (or anything fried) from soaking up a lot of grease, you have to make sure the oil is really hot--many cooking oils start to smoke and even burn before they get to a high enough temperature, and the heat source has got to be just right--it seems like a rather involved process to me--

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 12:47 PM

This is about the only thing I ever fried, so I probably am so un-expert that I haven't got the hang of it. I'll stick to buying it and letting someone else fry it!

This has been a great thread. I'll sit down with Notepad and cut and paste these recipes into a text file and print them all this evening.

Let's see, I remember seeing another thread for chocolate cake. . .

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 01:43 PM

Anybody ever make cornbread sticks or muffins rather than pan cornbread? I have the molds to make the sticks (they were my mother's)but I've not tried using them.

Grits were mentioned earlier in the thread. My brother puts a tablespoon of grits in his cornbread mix and believes it improves the flavor. I don't know how one could improve the taste of good cornbread.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:05 PM

Got the cast iron jobs that look like ears of corn Doug? Properly seasoned, there is nothing to beat cast iron cookware! Use 'em!!!

AND STILLY/MAGGIE........Here are a couple of older threads you might like!!!

Heart Healthy

Just Desserts (check out my Buttermilk Pie

Mudcat Fundraiser Cookbook ...never did it though.......

Fundraiser Part 2

Yeah....We LOVE to talk about food!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 03:31 PM

Yep, they look like little ears of corn, Spaw. I'll try them.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:08 PM

Doug, that is what I was referring to that my friend uses. I think she sprays it with PAM (non-stick vegetable coating spray). Of course, like Spaw says, the cast iron tray of little corn-shaped sticks is seasoned (baked in a slow oven with oil for a very long time, or repeatedly until it has a nice coating). Her cornbread is delicious whether she uses the skillet or makes the sticks. Also, another friend who makes the Jiffy cornbread muffins (that's 'cause it ain't really cornbread) puts them in little muffin papers and sprays the papers with PAM.

Dare we talk about fried chicken? It took me nearly twenty years to figure out how to make it.

And about the only grits I eat is a garlic-cheese grits casserole that has been popular since Kraft came out with the garlic-cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Ma-K
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:30 PM

Oh dear. I think I just gained another five pounds reading this thread......Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 05:02 PM

CORN MEAL DUMPLINGS

Surprised no one has mentioned these yet(or did I miss it in this long thread?).
1 cup corn meal (white best; finer)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted butter

Mix together corn meal (or sift), flour, baking powder and salt. Beat eggs and milk together, then stir in the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter.
Drop batter from a spoon into a pot of heated stock. Cover tightly and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes.
My wife's sister just throws these together without a recipe, which I can't do. Also I have trouble if the stock, soup. etc. isn't at least simmering with some bubbles rising. I found this one in the American Heritage Cookbook.
Polenta also deserves mention.
And then there are tortillas. We especially like tortillas made with blue corn meal. Blue corn chips are available generally, but the blue tortillas are little known outside the southwest.
And hominy! (can usually be found in cans). As a base for posole it is indispensable.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: TNDARLN
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 09:43 PM

Y'all done made me hungry!!!

But Paddymac, cracklins and chitlins are not the same!!! Cracklins- which are wonderful in cornbread- are from the fat of the hog. Chitlins are from the innards!! And that's all I wanna say about that! T

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DancingMom
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 06:57 PM

the cornmeal hangs on to the catfish if you dip it in a little beaten egg and milk first.

Salmon patties! Black-eyed peas! Cornbread and sorghum! Homemade biscuits! Pure heaven. And there's another thread currently going, called, "the Fatness of It All"! Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: LittlePagan
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 08:04 PM

I'm new to the Mudcat and if this thread is any indication of what's to come, I am glad to have found my way here.

Stilly River- We use left over mashed potatoes to bind together our salmon patties. If there are any left-over. My husband makes the best mashed potatoes. Not a brag, simply a statement of fact.

For those of you who enjoy the history and regional aspects of cooking, I suggest _Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine_ by Joseph E. Dabney, published by Cumberland House (1998). It won the Jame Beard/Kitchen Aid Cook Book of the Year award. It's excellent reading if you never try a receipe, and the receipes are good.

We had cornbread last night. Yellow cornmeal, a little sugar, mother-in-laws iron skillet(round).

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 08:54 PM

Welcome, Little Pagan. You might want to check out the thread on Country Ham too. It was a December thread.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 09:50 AM

I agree. "Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine" is one of the best cookbooks I've ever read. Great authentic recipes too.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: paddymac
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 10:20 AM

TNDARLN - thanks for rounding out my continuing education on the fine art of southern cookin'. The only way I've ever had cracklins that I could manage to get down was in corn bread (delicious), and chitlins hold no great appeal for me either. Maybe they're sorta like haggis - everybody oughta try it at least once.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 10:28 AM

Chitlins are whut ya eat at a hog killin'. (Helps to have a little Makers with 'em)

And that's all I'm gonna say 'bout that!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:27 PM

My grandpa use to say at hog killin' time on his farm that they used everything but the squeal. I wish I had the recipe for his pork sausages. The ladies in the family sewed muslin sacks to stuff the sausage in weeks before the day, and Grandpa hung the sausage, along with the hams when they had been brined in salt long enough, to rafters in the smokehouse to season. Probably not many young people today have the opportunity to witness a "hog killin'," Mary. At least not the way they were done sixty years ago or so. It was a sunup to midnight job, as I recall.

Which has nothing to do at all with cornbread of course.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 12:29 AM

Just bringin' this back to say "thanks again" you wonderful folks! I've made four batches using:

Catspaw's first recipe

Emily's "Norwegian"

Dicho's

Silly River sage's

They're all a tad different....and so far so good. I'm workin' my way down the list.

So here's a silly question (and probably something I should know by now. How do I save this thread, so I don't have to bring it back from the dead, when I go an other cornbread rampage?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 12:32 AM

See where it says TRACE? Click on it and the thread will always be on your personal page.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: M.Ted
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 10:50 AM

Pull down "edit" menu and hit "Select All" make sure it has highlighted all the text, then select "Copy" from the same menu--then open a new document in your word processor program, paste it in, and save(or edit out the chat)--Seems to me I saved a Rick Fielding Beef Stew recipe just this same way, not too long ago!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Jeri
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 10:55 AM

Or click on "File" then "Save as."
Put the file somewhere on your computer where you can find it. ("Desktop" is the one safe bet for me.)
When you want to read it, just double click on the file's name or icon. You don't have to be on line to read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 10:58 AM

Stew's my forte Ted...remember I'm an improviser! Gettin' those baking soda, baking powder measurements right is like counting hemi-demi-semi quavers to me!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 12:46 PM

I've been speaking with another list member about pulling out some of these recipes into files to use. When I get my part finished I'll send it on to her, and will say so on this thread. Then I can email the file to anyone interested. It's been a busy few days, though (trying to get to closing on a house purchase), and I've had interruptions. But soon!

Better start a new thread for stew. Then we can find it. Perhaps I should do that now.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 03:11 PM

Over here.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From:
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 01:18 PM

Wow, a bunch of good people including true Southern cooks talkin' at length 'bout corn bread. This would NEVER happen at a MINNESOTA-based site! LOVE it... love it.

Now I'm a long-time MN resident (50+ yrs) originally from London, England. The only time I was in the South was back in the early 60's for military training. But I love Southerners and I'm bonkers for their cookin'. I feel like I've come home.... I can't explain it. Thanks, all!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 01:34 PM

TerryBear, I thought this would get about twenty replies. My mistake! I've gone through about 10 recipes now (I screwed couple up...but now I measure carefully!)

I'm giving cornbread a bit of a rest now!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 10:21 PM

I can't remember if this was the thread, and I don't want to read through all of the posts to find out, but tonight I tried fried left-over mashed potatoes. That was discussed in some thread I know. Anyway, what I produced looked terrible, but it tasted great. I added a bit of salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes, added an egg, and a little milk, formed pattys and fried them in a bit of butter.

Rick, I would never have imagined this thread would reach this length. I always opined that had the South won the Civil War, the only good thing that would have come out of it was the U. S. Army would have served cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of bread dressing. Anybody that has been in the U. S. Army and has had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners might understand what I am talking about.

Anyway, it is a great thread, I think, even if it has nothing to do with music.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 10:53 PM

You mean there is dressing other than cornbread dressing? *BG*

Being away from my Mama at Thanksgiving for many years, I learned the hard way not to leave out the oil, or the egg, or the sage, or the onion, or enough broth...

Also, back to cornbread...Rick, I'm trying to get the original recipe that used to be on the package of Kentucky Kernal Cornmeal. The guy who owned the mill is one of those who can tell when his wife uses a different brand of baking powder in her biscuits...it really is a foolproof recipe.

Doug, I fry in cooking oil...I think it gets hotter than butter.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 11:13 PM

Doug, you were approaching one of the classic French Recipes, Pommes de terre duchesse! It usually starts with one pound peeled boiled potatoes rubbed through a sieve. Put the puree in a saucepan, dry off for a few moments, on the heat, turning with a wooden spoon; add 3 tablespoons butter, season with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg (or how you like potatoes seasoned), bind with one egg and mix. Chefs often use it for garnish around a main dish, etc. But if you make into croquettes (patties) and brown lightly, they are damn good. The chefs use yellow potatoes.

Subject: Lyr Add: FIELDING LOVES CORN BREAD (parody)
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 11:29 PM

With apologies to Rick, and of course Moe Jaffe & Dwight Latham

Fielding loves Corn bread, to 'I'm My Own Grandpa'


Fielding loves Corn Bread,
Rick Just loves corn bread
It sounds funny I know
but It really is so
Rick Just loves corn bread.

Way back in the dawn of time, when he was but a tot
The Hebrews all got mana from the plains of sand and rock
Moses said tell Fielding when he finishes his set
He ought to try this mana bread, the best he'll ever get.



Abraham played backup so he said he'd pass it on
Offered it with Waters from the land of Babylon
Rick could not refuse the drink, but this is what he said
I'll play upon my zither cause "I'd rather have corn bread"

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 12:10 AM

Thanks for those tips, Mary and Dicho. Next time I'll try it your way.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,grannie r
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:50 AM

CORNBREAD 3/4 cup cornmeal (I prefer yellow) 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp salt 4 tsp baking powder 2 eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup milk Mix all of the dry ingredients, add milk and eggs and mix well, add oil and mix. I like to bake in 10 inch cast iron skillet, but you can use a cake pan or such. Grease pan well or spray with a non-stick spray. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,grannie r
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:50 AM

CORNBREAD 3/4 cup cornmeal (I prefer yellow) 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp salt 4 tsp baking powder 2 eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup milk Mix all of the dry ingredients, add milk and eggs and mix well, add oil and mix. I like to bake in 10 inch cast iron skillet, but you can use a cake pan or such. Grease pan well or spray with a non-stick spray. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 07:27 PM

"You Keep Coming Back Like a Song!"

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 09:23 PM

My Gawd I'm IMMORTALIZED!

Thank you Sigurd!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 10:20 PM

Yum, yum, yum, yum....

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 10:28 PM

Ooooo, I loved this thread! and it doesn't look so long, now, does it, with these new fragmented threads. I've been wondering when someone would revive it.

I have a pot of turkey stock simmering in the kitchen (I froze the carcus after Thanksgiving for such as day as this, when the weather turns cold and the wind from the north) and I'm going to be making a pot of soup and some crusty Italian bread for dinner tomorrow night.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 11:03 PM

We (Bad start) My wife took enough Christmas turkey for three leftover meals, along with the leftover stuffing, giblet gravy, sweet potato and cranberies and set that aside (Only six plus small child for Christmas this year). We finished the last of the three last night.
The rest of the turkey went into soup makings (frozen). Enough for three cold nights this month (just two of us).
A shame how much turkey goes to waste. A neighbor threw out all the dark meat, they only eat the white. We have heard others do the same. During the year, turkey breast is packaged and sold. The legs are often sold frozen at a bargain price. Both of us prefer the dark meat so we get them several times during the year (Western Canada). Several ways that they can be used to make the basis for a good meal. As SRS says, add any good bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 11:25 PM

Just a stray thought. Used to get blue corn tortillas in New Mexico. Has anyone made cornbread with blue cornmeal flour?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 11:28 PM

I've been poking around in the bread recipe books. I found an herb bread recipe that will make any soup stand up and take notice. But the Italian one sounds so basic, it simply will fit in so many occasions.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,200%Dave
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 04:38 PM

Ya'll notice that this recipe is about as far removed from corn bread as you can get. I normally smoke any turkey that comes on the place. This is what I do with the bones and scraps of meat.

               Smoked Turkey Soup Provencal
Ingredients:
1 lb smoked turkey
32 oz. Smoked turkey broth
15-oz can white beans
14 oz can diced tomatoes with garlic, basil and oregano
½ tsp herbes de Provence, crushed (Spice Island brand)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ C onion, chopped
2 tbs. Olive Oil
4 cups (1 bunch) coarsely chopped fresh spinach or escarole
1 C lentils
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Boil a smoked turkey carcass in 6 C. water. Pick meat from the bones. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the turkey meat. Stir in beans, broth, tomatoes, and herbes de Provence. Reduce heat to low, add lentils and simmer uncovered, 5 minutes. Stir in spinach. Continue simmering uncovered 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese.This is quick easy recipe that tastes like you spent the day in the kitchenMakes 4-6 servings Cooks Notes :
If you have trouble finding herbes de Provence in your local market, make your own by blending ½ tsp. Dried rosemary, ½ tsp. Oregano, ¼ tsp. Sage, and ¼ tsp marjoram.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 04:45 PM

I'm freakin' overwhelmed!

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,200%Dave
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 05:12 PM

I guess I might as well include my recipe for smoked turkey while I'm at it.

Ingredients:
1 turkey 12-25lbs
The less expensive frozen turkeys that are injected with broth work best.

Instructions:
I prefer using a 22.5" Weber Grill, Kingsford Charcoal and hunks of your favorite smokin' wood. I like hickory, pecan, red laurel (bay), apple, pear, or mesquite soaked in water for several hours. Oak can be a bit strong. If you use it, do so sparingly.

Make a simple aluminum foil tray to catch the turkey drippins'.
Place the foil tray in the center of the charcoal rack.
Place 15 burning charcoal briquettes on each side of the foil tray. Add hunks of smokin' wood on top of the burning charcoal briquettes. Open the vents on the grill full blast.
Place the turkey breast side up in the top rack.
Stick the grill lid back on, add more charcoal and wood every ½ hour.

My experience is that after 3–31/2 hours the turkey will be done. My wife always insists on using a meat thermometer. If you do forget what ever you've heard about the right temperature and pull the turkey off the heat between 160 – 170 degrees.

Done properly the outside of the turkey will be as black as a charcoal briquette while the inside will be moist and juicy.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 05:24 PM

I would remind you that resurrecting this thread might put Lyrical Lady back in the hospital as the first time it damn near killed her!

I use a smoker and like Dave a nice selection of woods make all the difference. I prefer the smoker to smoking on a grill, just does a better overall job.

Dave, your 'Bread recipe sounds good except for the Herbs de Provence which I simply can't stand!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 08:04 PM

Rick, I hope you paid attention to that recipe. It sounds like a good one. Sorry I can't try it though. I'm on a low carb diet and it just wouldn't fit it. Good to find another "Smoke Food" enthusiast on the Cat though. It's refreshingly non-political.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 08:56 PM

the fried green tomatoes reminded me of eggplant done in a similar way.
slice, dip in egg, cover with flour (or now i will try corn meal!)
and fry yum yum...
i also have those pans--called corn gem pans...
in the shape of cactus, and fish, as well as ears of corn.
best to pre-heat so the cakes cook quickly and
also form a crusty putside and come out of the pans better.
another corn-based meal is polenta--course corn meal
you can ;get it in little tubes now--looks lie sausage.
also made a pot of corn chowder the other day...
added frozen corn....
and a friend i know makes ther best corn relish--
with red pepper, vinegar, onions...like chow chow i think
another pan that is like the corn gem pan--
sort of--
is the Danish Aebelskiver...like little donut holes
cast iron pan with little sperical depressions...
you turn them and take them out with a hat pin...

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 12:08 AM

I smoke turkeys, chicken, fish (salmon) regularly, but I use a Little Chief smoker. Though in theory you can leave something it it for so long and use so many pans of chips that it's very dark and finally cooked, my prefered technique is to smoke the poultry for two or three pans of chips then bake it the rest of the way in the oven. I'm more satisfied that it's really cooked (and we don't have to wait so long to eat it!). Salmon, that's much more involved. From when I buy the fish to when we eat it, a couple of days can pass. Making and using brine, then rinsing and letting it set up in the fridge (gets that shiny coating on it) and finally smoking. I usually bake it for a little while after I bring it in. I have some in the freezer now from my Christmas batch. I did two fish, one I did really strong, the other was milder. They both were great.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 01:53 AM

SRS: I use a Brinkman smoker with three cooking grates that allow me to do a turkey, brisket, pork roast, chicken whatever at the same time. I've smoked salmon but haven't had a lot of experience with it. I smoke cheese too. Got to watch that closely though or it will melt on you. I smoked a meatloaf last week and it was delish.

I, like you, generally finish the cooking in the oven (usually the last half-hour).

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 09:48 AM

I have aBrinkman too Doug, but I admit I have never smoked a meat loaf! Frankly I never thought about smoking a meat loaf. Might be worth a try........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 12:21 PM

Interesting. But I think I'd try kabobs before committing my good pyrex to the smoker. You'd have to smoke a whole meatloaf in a pan, and just the top would get the smoke. Doesn't the greasy smoke (meatloaf often has greast that runs over) make your pan, metal or glass, pretty gnarly before it finishes cooking? Have you tried some of those ground meat kabobs? They'd cook pretty quickly, but you could in theory use the meat as prepared for meatloaf. It would still make a lot of grease--might need some sort of foil under it. It sounds good, smoked meatloaf.

SRS, thinking out loud. . .

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: MMario
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 12:30 PM

there are a lot of meatloaf recipes that do not use a loaf pan - have seen several that actually specify cooking the "loaf" on a rack -

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 12:32 PM

MMario, you'll have to produce one of those recipes to convince me!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: mg
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 04:10 PM

I read through the last 3 pages of this thread looking for a spoonbread recipe. I am also on a low carb plan but I bet this would almost be allowed. Spoonbread is so darn good. Hasn't anyone kput up a recipe or did I miss it?

mg

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: MMario
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 04:17 PM

I don't recall anyone posting a spoonbread recipe...but it will be pretty carby!

here's one I found...

               3 cups scaldedmilk
               1 cup white cornmeal
               2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter, cut into pieces
               1 tablespoon sugar
               2 teaspoons salt
               1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
               1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
               4 large egg yolks
               2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
               4 large egg whites at room temperature
               Pinch cream of tartar

In a heavy saucepan combine the scalded milk, cornmeal, butter, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne. Bring the liquid to a simmer over moderately low heat, and simmer the mixture, stirring vigorously, for 5 minutes. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and let it cool for 5 minutes.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the baking powder until the mixture is light and lemon colored and stir the mixture into the cornmeal mixture.
In a large bowl with the electric mixer beat the egg whites          with the cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until they hold          stiff peaks, stir 1/4 of them into the cornmeal mixture, and          fold in the remaining whites gently, but thoroughly. Pour             the batter into a well-buttered 1-quart souffle dish and bake it in a preheated moderate oven (350 degrees) for 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Serve immediately.

found another recipe that had the same ingredfients but the eggs were beaten directly into the (cooled) cornmeal mush.

then a lot of recipes add grated chedder

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 04:51 PM

I guess we should have started a smoke food thread but I just didn't think about it.

Smoked meatloaf is delicious. I ordered a meatloaf basket weave holder from Brinkman. It looks like a loaf pan but is made of woven chrome plated steel wire so that it is pourous to allow smoke to all portions of the meatloaf. I also converted the smoker from burning charcoal to a electric one. Brinkman sells a converter kit that allows you to do that. My smoker 42" high and 16" in diameter. It is fitted with a very good thermoter so that you can see the oven temperature at all times. Here is my meatloaf recipe:

1 T oil preferably canola or corn
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 green or red bell pepper chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t fresh ground black pepper
1 t Kosher salt
1.2 t ground cumin
1-1/4 lb. ground beef
3/4 lb. ground pork
1-1/2 dry bread crumbs
3 T sour cream
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1 t Tabasco or to taste

Prepare the smoker and bring to 200-220 degrees.

In a heavy skillet, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, pepper, salt, and cumin, and saute until the veggies are softened. Spoon the vegetable mixture into a large bowl. Add the remaining meatloaf ingredients and mix well with your hands. Mound the meat into a smoker loaf basket and smoke until done (or finish in kitchen oven).

The Jamisons in their book titled, "Smoke and Spice," sugget the following if you don't have a basket as described above.

"Mound the meat into a smoke-proof loaf pan. Transfer the loaf to the smoker and cook for 45 minutes, or until the meat has shrunk away from the sides of the pan. Gently east the meat loaf out of the pan and place directly onto the grate of the smoker. Continue cooking the meat loaf for an additional 1.5 hours, dabbing it every 30 minutes with the mop in a wood-burnin pit, or as appropriate for your style smoker. When 30 minutes of cooking time remain, apply barbecue (or Catsup or Chili Sauce or whatever) to the top of the meat."

I don't usually mop the meat I am smoking, but do sometime.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 05:58 PM

Mary Garvey......The spoonbread at Berea's Boone Tavern Hotel is well renowned and although several recipes appear here and there for it, this one was the one used by Richard Hougen while he was the Innkeeper there for many years. I can tell you that I know this one is his for a fact as he used both yellow meal and creamed corn. I've eaten there since, but the spoonbread, although good, does not have the sam "flair" as his did. Berea College operates Boone Tavern and it is 90% student run.

Boone Tavern Spoon Bread
      Yield: 6 servings
      
Stir 2 cups milk, 1 cup canned cream corn with 1 cup water ground
(yellow) cornmeal over med. heat to make a mush. Add 3 well beaten
eggs, removing from heat at once. Beat well and add 1 TB baking
powder, 1 tsp. salt, 2 TB butter (melted). Beat 3 minutes; pour into
greased 2-qt. casserole.

Bake 30 To 35 minutes at 350 degrees or till lightly browned. Serve warm.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: mg
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 09:11 PM

thanks..I am going to make me some..maybe even tonight..I have only made it before without creamed corn so I think I'll use the non cc recipe...got lots of cheese to use up...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 09:24 PM

Spaw promised me some spoonbread, sniff, sniff...

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: DougR
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 01:48 AM

Mary: I had spoonbread at Boone's Tavern many years ago, and can back Spaw up on that claim. It is excellent. By now you might have made and consumed it though.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: JennyO
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 08:39 AM

Gotta go. This thread makes me hungry!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: bassen
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 09:49 AM

Lead Belly sang:

I don't want no (wah)
Corn bread and molasses (wah) 3x
It hurts my pride, it hurts my pride.
(Take this Hammer)


On the other hand he also sang:

Corn bread rough and corn bread tough,
Thank God-a-mighty got corn bread enough
(Corn Bread Rough)



That last line sums up this whole thread pretty much, doncha think?

bassen

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 10:18 AM

Well, Bassen, we seem to get into these food jags every so often. Usually when the house is cold and we all feel like heating the kitchen with the smell of comfort food. If you think this is enough already, then perhaps you need to visit a different thread!

I had never heard of spoon bread before. In reading Spaw's recipe, it sounds like a kind of (gritty?) custard. Is that the consistency? Or does the cornmeal soften into it completely? How would you serve this? What with? Leo's recipe sounds like a souffle. I can see that they're related by their ingredients, but they certainly yield different results. Again, what would you serve this with?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: bassen
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 11:02 AM

SRS. Whoa, not my meaning atall! On the contrary, I'm enjoying this thread and hope to read much more. Sorry if my posting gave that impression.

A minor Scandinavian addendum to the corn bread saga:

I'm sittin' in the middle of Norway remembering my desperate attempts to make corn bread here in the early 70s with something they called "polentagryn". I finally got my US recipes adjusted to this stuff and amazed all the norskies with how good corn bread is. For years my standard (and demanded) fare at potluck suppers and parties was cornbread and chili. "Bring some of that good American bread" they'd say. Now it seems like everybody here makes chili (or they think they do...) but corn bread is still a rarity.



bassen

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 11:13 AM

Sorry, Bassen, I wasn't sure the tone to read into Leadbelly's words as you posted them.

SRS (an Irish/Norwegian living in the middle of cornbread and chile country)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: mg
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 12:10 PM

you must try spoonbread. It is not gritty. Serve with lots of butter and some salty country ham and o.k...some vegetables...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: mg
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 09:17 PM

OK..first recipe for spoonbread is in the oven. I wonder about the size pan it says to use...looked to small to me so I put it in a large pyrex cake pan..will post results later. I didn't have enough milk but oh well. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 09:30 PM

Catspaw, Will try the Boone spoonbread tomorrow. A little different, should be more moist than the usual.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: mg
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 10:11 PM

oh yum...this was so good on a stormy night. Turned out just perfect. Had it with some Italian style vegetables and a vintage 2002 Diet Coke. A perfect meal for a perfect evening...my plum Mudcat C.D. on the stero and a new Lands End discount catalog waiting for my perusal. Life just doesn't get much better. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 10:41 PM

Mary, I think you're livin' the high life..........and I'm hungry!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,200%Dave
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 01:33 PM

One of our Jamaican friends use to make a desert that he called Jamaican Pone. Unfortunately he died without leaving his recipe. It was a desert pudding like dish made with corn meal, raisins, apple (I think), coconut, and spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice ?). It was cooked in sweet rum sauce and served with a large dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. He made it in either individual servings ("pone dumplins'") or as a casserole like spoon bread. I've searched everywhere looking for a recipe to no avail. My attenpts to duplicate it have been a miserable flop !! Does anyone have a clue where I might find the recipe ?

--200%Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 01:55 PM

Looks like it's time for Max to create a "MenuTrad" to go with the Digitrad database! That pone dish sounds wonderful. What binds it together? Is it a bread, or a custard? Is it held by carmelized sugary ingredients?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: GUEST,200%Dave
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 10:56 AM

Re: Jamaican Pone

The consistency of my friend's recipe was much like a sweet moist spoon bread. The best way that I could describe it would be something between corn meal mush, spoon bread, and custard. My attempts have resulted in dry hard, harder than corn bread, heavy syrupy bread thing that in no way resembles the orginal. I'm wondering if the rascal didn't just make a sweet raisin/apple spoonbread and serve it with a simple syrup made with brown sugar, butter, rum, and vanilla.

It sounds like I'm 'bout ready for another experiment. Hum-m-m-m-m, I think I'll try craisins instead of raisins.

--200%Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: MMario
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 10:59 AM

for the Jamaican Pone - try a 'Hasty Pudding' recipe modified to include the other ingredients...that's what your description sounds like to me...

Subject: RE: BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:44 PM