BS: Help! A SIMPLE Cornbread recipe please.

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)