She can tell if her cornbread is done, and all the rest, by their aromas alone—that, or the angels mumble it straight into her ear. It’s not the clock that tells you when it’s done; the food does. from The Greatest Cook in the World, by Rick Bragg
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My last blog, Mountain Food, told of my new favorite book The Best Cook in the World, by Rick Bragg and the wonders of Mountain Food and the cast iron skillet. In response. a reader wrote:
“Hey! Where’s the skillet cornbread recipe? I’ve got TWO skillets home, just itching to cook…”
I was thunderstruck. How can a living person write a blog about skillets and cornbread and omit a cornbread recipe? I must be, as Rick says, "a half bubble off plumb."
Making cornbread, like all things worth your time, is elegant simplicity. A few ingredients and in 25 minutes you can, as my mother liked to say, “Feed an army.”
A point of distinction - southerners have an affinity for white corn meal over the sweeter yellow corn meal. On top of another recipe my mother boldly emblazoned, “I use white meal.” In Maryland, white meal is hard to find.
Making amends for my omission, my mother’s cornbread recipe is below. However, two essential ingredients are not found in the recipe. Potlikker (or in formal circles, “pot liquor”) and black-eyed peas.
For heathens unfamiliar with potlikker, Rick Bragg explains:
Everyone knows about potlikker; even the girl knew about it, but he told her anyway. “Save the juice in the pot’s bottom, to mix with your cornbread the next day. Hit’s better than soup, ’specially if you’ve got a few scraps of collards left.” It was a poor folks’ version of the Italian wedding soup, and a fine meal in lean times. The old man called it broth. He called every savory liquid that, whether it was from greens, beans, squash, or chicken.
My mother always served her cornbread with potlikker and black-eyed peas. I was taught to slice my cornbread open like a sandwich, spread the black-eyed peas on top, and pour on the potlikker. Rick Bragg disagrees:
Some older people, like my big brother, crumble their cornbread and cover it with beans; it is tradition. To me, this ruins the consistency of the dish, and you don’t really get to savor either the taste of the crunchy cornbread or the texture of the beans. It makes the beans taste mealy. Still, a lot of ancients swear by it; it made a pot of beans go further in hard times.
This older ancient swears by it…
Hey, did you get your skillet!? OK good. Now, fix some cornbread, black-eyed peas, and potlikker.
Taste the past and Taste the Food!
How about you? What is your favorite recipe? Share a story!
Blog Desserts:
The Book: The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg
Point of distinction two: Black-eyed peas are beans.
National Cornbread Festival is April 27-28, 2019 in South Pittsburg, TN. I will be there in 2020.
The Recipe: Cornbread, from my mother (Moo) and translated from the photo above:
In a bowl:
Add 1 egg and beat to “lemony” yellow
Add ¼ cup sugar and beat
Add 1¼ milk and beat
Add 1 cup (white) corn meal and mix.
In a separate bowl: Add 1 cup plain flour
Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda
Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Mix
Combine mixtures.
Add ¼ cup of cooking oil to cast iron skillet and heat in oven till hot. Pour into bowl and stir.
Pour in skillet and cook in oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Or, per Rick Bragg:
When I ask her to be specific about the oven temperature, she snorted at me.
"How in the world do I know how their oven cooks? I ain't never been in their house, and I don't even know who they are.":
