Cornbread
Mom
took two eggs from the refrigerator and walked over to the counter by the
sink. She cracked open the eggs,
dropping them into her medium sized, grey cooking crock. She scrambled the eggs. Those mixed, she opened the kitchen cupboard
and took out the sugar, baking powder and salt.
The green Tupperware® measuring spoons were dipped into the dry
ingredients one-by-one and added to the mixture. Mom walked to the white metal cupboard, and
took out the corn meal and flour containers.
After setting them on the work-top, she opened the flour, shoved her
clean metal spoon into the bag and dipped out flour into the mixing bowl. The wooden spoon was run around the side of
the bowl, making sure all the flour was thoroughly stirred in. The cornmeal was subjected to the same
treatment as the flour. Only this time,
Mom used twice as much cornmeal as she did flour. She took a bottle of corn oil from the
cupboard and added several spoons of the yellow liquid last. Once the mixture was smooth, Mom poured it
into the oft used rectangle-shaped baking pan and then shoved this family
favorite into the oven. Mom had just
made cornbread for dinner.
From the time of
my first memories, cornbread has been a part of our family menu. At least once a month Mom would cook up a pot
of beans and baked cornbread to go with it.
It
is understood in America that cornbread is a Southern food. And it is also a comfort food. Cornbread is eaten with bean soup, chili
soup, clam chowder and fried chicken and greens. Cornbread batter is also dropped into hot
grease and fried, and called Hush Puppies, to be eaten with fish and fried
potatoes.
My
Grandma used to eat cold, leftover cornbread with a glass of buttermilk. As I’ve gotten older, I experimented with
leftover cornbread. We used to wrap it
in aluminum foil and re-heat it the oven.
With the advent of the microwave the crumbly, golden quick bread was
placed in a plastic sandwich bag and “zapped” for a few seconds. One day I thought, “I bet I could fry this
like ‘mush’.” So I sliced the cornbread
open, spread a small amount of butter on it and dropped it in a hot
skillet. I was well pleased with the
result. I’ve also found that it can be
toasted in a toaster oven.
In
the 1980’s I came to the United Kingdom
for a Discipleship Training School in West Sussex, England. In a conversation I mentioned cornbread. The British looked at me perplexed. “What’s
cornbread?” The same question was posed
to me in the late 1990’s when I was living and working Scotland.
To answer that
question, I had to translate the name of the ingredients from American to
English. Corn meal is referred to as
maize meal. Finding those ingredients in
British grocery stores was yet another challenge. For instance, not every grocery store sells
buttermilk. When I did find the
buttermilk, it was sold in 284 ml cartons—about 10 fluid ounces. Once I had the ingredients I wrote home to
Mom for the recipe. Mom knew the recipe
by heart, and still makes it with to this day without consulting her
cookbook.
I find this
amazing, as Mom’s sight is impaired by macular degeneration. She might need a little help making sure she
which bag is flour and which bag is cornmeal.
And because she is now diabetic, she uses liquid sugar substitute
instead of sugar. But the result is
always the same wonderful result.
I thought
cornbread was exclusively an American food.
I discovered in 2001 that it isn’t.
On John’s first trip to America,
Mom baked cornbread.
“Yummy! Mielie brood!
(pronounced, meal-lee broat.)” John’s
responded. He proceeded to slice open
his piece of bread, spread on the margarine and added SALT-AND-PEPPER!” Mom and looked at each other with that, “Did
you SEE that?” I decided I had to try
cornbread with salt-and-pepper as well.
John was equally shocked to see Mom and I apply apple butter on our
cornbread—especially since John had never heard of, much less eaten, apple
butter. This was our first experience in
adapting into a cross-cultural family.
Mom’s Basic Cornbread Recipe
2 eggs
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cup milk or buttermilk
¾ cup flour
1 ½ cups corn meal
5 Tablespoons cooking oil
Beat the eggs. Add the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into a baking pan which has been greased
and floured. Bake at 350°F for 35 to 40
minutes.
My variation
2 eggs
2 teaspoons sugar or sugar substitute
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
¾ cup of plain low-fat yogurt
¾ cup whole wheat
¾ cup oatmeal
¾ cup cornmeal
5 Tablespoons cooking oil
Beat the eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix
thoroughly. Pour into a baking pan which
has been greased and floured. Bake at
350°F for 40 to 50 minutes. The yogurt
makes the mixture wetter than basic milk.
And because of the oatmeal holding moisture longer than the flour and
cornmeal, it takes longer to bake. Bake
until the bread is dark brown around the top edges and a knife comes out clean
when stuck in the middle. This has a
richer, nuttier flavor than the basic recipe.
I like both.
From a Friend
½ cup butter
½ cup buttermilk (or low fat yogurt)
3 Tablespoon milk
1 large egg
1 ½ cups sifted flour
½ cup sugar or sugar substitute
½ cup corn meal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat the over to 325ºF. Melt the butter. Combine with milk, buttermilk and egg. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add to the buttermilk mixture and stir until just
blended. Do not stir any longer! Pour into buttered 10” x 7” baking dish. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes until golden and firm.
My friend Beth made a note that she baked
the cornbread 35 – 40 minutes before it got too dark. Beth found this recipe in a magazine after
seeing it on a popular television show.
This cornbread is sweet and has a cake-like
texture.
