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If you love food cooked in cast iron ....
If you love good corn bread (which to me means cast-iron corn bread, with stone-ground yellow meal, without sugar)....
Then you'll love two new cookbooks that are tormenting me sweetly:

� Mara Reid Rogers, Cooking in Cast Iron (HP Books <--- click here)

� Jeremy Jackson, The Cornbread Book (William Morrow, HarperCollins)

I got mine through a book club. You'll probably do as well at Amazon.com.

If you've never had good corn bread, it's time you did. With these two cookbooks, you'll make good corn bread without having to suffer with pale and chintzy imitations and disappointments along your learning route. Lord, I pray Thee, please restore my ability to swallow!

Ken,

Know what you're talking about. Wife's got a cast iron skillet that's been in the family at least eighty years, it's been in two house fires and still cooks better than any high end cookware. Nothing cooks better than well-seasoned cast iron.

She guards that thing like a two-carat diamond.

A fellow up the road that still grinds cornmeal on a stone wheel, water powered of course.

Now, if I can just get folks to learn how to cook grits properly......

Regards from Dixie,
JB

'Tisn't necessary to get corn meal actually ground on a stone wheel to get "stone-ground" corn meal. The term merely means that all the goody in the corn is in the meal -- notably the germ, where all the good stuff is, anyway. I get dry yellow corn in bulk, and the grain-mill attachment for my big KitchenAid Pro does a fine job of grinding "stone-ground" corn meal -- as do both my old Vita Mix and big blender. I wouldn't know how to take the life out of the corn if I wanted to.

I've often wondered about grinding popcorn into meal. Didn't know -- was delighted to learn -- that popcorn makes great light white flour. Big surprise is that you pop it first, then grind it. So I want to try it in my recipe -- already posted here -- for honey-anise-coconut cookies. Any volunteers for tasters?

Didn't know that Ken, all I know is to keep my hands away from the wheel when it's turning. Good way to mash a couple of fingers off.

I've never heard of grinding popcorn, but it does sounds interesting.

When we lived in Alabama thirty-few years ago, I stocked-up on a humongous supply of coarse yellow corn meal that had been ground locally on a stone, at a huge price after a long and so far fruitless search. The old fellow who owned the mill seldom ran it and was about to shut it down for "good" (ha! not IMO!).

So I was dern happy to learn that "stone-ground" simply means "it's all there" and applies equally to what I can grind right here at home. Besides, what I grind just minutes before it goes into the oven is as fresh as if it had just come off the wheel. (I keep the corn in the freezer, so it's "fresh" indefinitely.)

I have a superb piece of garden ground in my back yard. Several years ago, a friend raised corn on it. The best-tasting corn that I've ever eaten came off some of his stalks -- not because his corn was especially good but because it was fresh -- only a very few minutes off the stalk -- when I ate it. I pulled only two or three ears, cut the ends off, zapped 'em 15 minutes in the microwave oven, and gommed 'em right down right away. The flavor didn't have much time to fade before it hit my taste buds. Believe me, you ain't et no corn 'til you've et it fresh!

Just wish I knew how to make my own grits.

... almost as much as I wish I could eat food by mouth.

My wife cooks what we call "fried corn", usually Silver Queen. Split the kernels with a knife, scrape it off the cob, fry fatback in a boiler until it's brown, take the fatback out, put the corn in the boiler and simmer in the grease. If it's a little watery put a little cream of tartar or flour to thicken. Gotta be fresh out of the garden, nothing else tastes as good.

I like my grits cooked in chicken stock, most folks try to add salt after cooking which never seems to work as well. The stock adds just the right amount of saltiness for my tastes.

The folks down in the "Low Country" like fresh shrimp with gravy on their grits (and it ain't bad).

Dr. Howell, you are correct about the fact that most corn meal is not "whole" i.e. the entire kernel is not ground for meal but separated for different uses. Corn gluten is used in the food processing industry for different things. Corn gluten meal is a very powerful fertilizer as well as pre-emergent herbicide. Corn meal is an anti- fungal agent in agriculture as proven by Texas A&M- Stephenville. Ckeck out www.dirtdoctor.com for more details. Bob

My late Mother lined the bottom of the skillet with bacon before adding her corn bread batter. It was a replacement for cracklings, I think. It was a favorite around our house. miles

Great idea!

(Why didn't I think of that? Don't have to try it to know it'd be delicious.)