I was baking a batch of cornbread the other day, and a friend stopped by. The cornbread had just come out of the oven, so I cut a piece, slathered it with butter, and offered it to her. She said, "For a Yankee, you make pretty good cornbread." After I stopped swatting her with my spatula, I said, " First, I am not a Yankee, and yes, that is darned good cornbread." Funny thing is, I never liked cornbread until I found a recipe in Southern Cooking. The cornbread is light, but not cake-like, firm enough to hold in your hand to eat but not tough, and freezes well. Do you like cornbread, and if so, do you like the sweet cake-like type, or the sturdier slightly chewy cornbread? And if you are a Yankee, it's all right to reply!
Ahhhh, a southern food that you like!! Jane, sorry but you will always be a yankee to most southerners. But Carolyn, then you just have potato bread made with corn meal instead of white flour. I do love potato bread,hmmmm. We like the dryer version with less sugar. But it's loaded with carbs that Randy can no longer have and since I cut way back on carbs about 4 years ago to loose weight, I haven't made any in what seems like ages. If I remember correctly, it really goes good with beef stew.
Dooley, we have leftover ham from Easter, and I made a pot of ham and bean soup. Some of the cornbread will go with that, and some will go into cornbread dressing to have with chicken, and some will just sit in the freezer until needed!
I love cornbread,and so does the family. I always serve it when I make beans, or Hoppin' John for New Years luck. I serve it when I make chili too. And sometimes even with the Vegetable Barley soup my family loves. It's very much a staple in the house. I also always make sure there's unsalted butter and honey on hand. The kids especially will eat it with the meal,and then slater another piece with butter, drizzle the slice with honey, and then eat that, sort of as a dessert. My cornbread has evolved over the years. I make it with cornmeal AND flour and a bit of sugar, so it's lighter than the traditional grainy heavy non-sweet cornbread. I make it in an iron skillet in which I melt some butter while it's heating up so that when I pour the cornbread mix in, the butter gathers around the edge of the pan and makes the cornbread edges crispy when it's done. My daughter and I fight over those corner pieces which are have the crispiest edges of all.
Ronni, my cornbread has unbleached flour as well as cornmeal, too. It does make it lighter in weight. My recipe calls for two eggs (I hunt for recipes that use eggs, preferably in goodly amounts!) and milk. I made "water cornbread" once, which is basically a hoecake. It's a great base for pork stew, aka Hunter's Stew. Try the children with cornbread and molasses--yum!
Jane, mine uses eggs as well, and milk. Oh, and molasses!!!! I LOVE molasses, but I haven't converted the kids to it. They're all adults now, some with kids of their own, so I believe my window for bringing them out from the dark side and getting them to like it has likely closed. I will sometimes have buttered toast spread with molasses.....mmmmm, so good! Hoecake? Here in the south, we have cornpone which is basically corn meal, water, and bacon or other grease, fried on both sides in an iron skillet, to create a dense sort of patty that eats really well with stews and and other moist dishes (it's dry and grainy, but very filling) Is that like your hoecake?
A good friend gave us a castiron cornbread plate last year, so we're new to cornbread. Excuse us, we're Norwegian. We've tried a couple of different recipes and have so far managed to agree that we like it freshly baked. We're not quite certain what it goes well with yet, but we will find out in time.
I had to make a pot of beans and ham today after reading these posts. I had ham to put in it, too. We still have some ham left from Easter. We did put some in the freezer to use for soup and ham hash. I cooked the beans in my Nesco Roaster on about 300 degrees so I didn't have to keep a sharp eye on them to keep them from scorching or burning. I did have to add some water a couple of times. dooley
Ronni, hoecake, corn pone, all the same! It is a quick bread for eating in the field (baked on a hoe, therefore the hoe cake) or made up quick for supper. Any way you call it, it works for us! Dooley, ham and beans, cornbread, and perhaps some home-made pickles makes a great supper! Hope you and Brian enjoy your ham and beans. Would you post your recipe for ham hash? We still have quite a bit of ham left, and I'm looking for something different to make with it.
