Cornbread

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.