Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation oh, how i hate it, when the cornbread sticks in the pan.

Amen Brother!

Grits? That's kind of like bad cream of wheat isn't it?

black bear lard,but kinda gives it a twang

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Next youse guys will be saying that real cornbread doesn't have sugar. And iced tea does. Up here we have corn and wheat and potatoes. What in the world is grits? Are they like hashbrowns? Life is good.

Grits: Girls raised in the South.

i always like cream of wheat and grits in the cold wintertime, both with milk. admittantly, i was shocked to see flour in a cornmeal recipe.

Hej Elwood!

You can't post that without following up with a flour-free recipe!

Let's see it!

John

That is just what I need for the wife. "Gluten free"

Flour-free recipe? OK, but you must realize that as far as I know, no one ever "measures" anything. We use self-rising corn meal..already has baking soda and baking powder in it...so you put some self-rising meal in a bowl..add an egg (optional) and some buttermilk. You want it more on the thin side than on the thick side. While you're mixing this up you have a cast iron skillet in the oven pre-heating...leave the skilled in the oven until it preheats to 425 degrees. Forgot..in the skilled you have a couple of tablespoons of oil..bacon grease is the "hands down" best but if you don't have any..use canola or the such. When the oven and skillet are pre-heated remove the skillet from the oven, and pour the oil into the batter...stir it in good, then sprinkle about a teaspoon of meal in the bottom of the hot skillet, pour the batter back in the skillet and in the oven until golden on top and bottom. We like our corn bread to be thin...not a thick "cake like" loaf. An absolute wonderful option is to cut a couple of slices of bacon in half and start the pieces frying in the skillet. When they are done on one side, turn them over and pour the batter on top of that..then right into the preheated oven. As I said, the egg is optional..try it both with and without and see which you like the best. It does make a little difference in taste. If you make it and it's too thick..add a bit of buttermilk..too thin...add more meal. You want it about like pancake batter. The oil and meal in the skillet will ensure that it doesn't stick. And sometimes, when we're feeling a little foreign..we might add some sliced jalapenos to the batter. No corn...or onions...or any of that odd stuff.

Now...about those grits. We like um...especially with hard ham, redeye gravy, eggs and biscuts...yeah..talk about them if you want but they fit in real good with that menu. If you don't like them...it's because you don't know how to eat them...or what to eat them with. We ain't like the Italians and make cakes out of them that have to be fried again...

Elwood

That's it on the cornbread! The key is pre-heating the skillet and adding the grease of choice to the pre-heat process.

To expand on the grits---go for the stone ground and never ever use instant.

Hard ham can also be considered country ham right?

Thanks Elwood!

I hate to bother you again, but here in Sweden I seem to be the only one who likes (or knows about!) cornbread. I got hooked on it when I lived in the US...

We do not have self-rising corn meal here (I have to buy Italian coarse-ground polenta but it seems close enough to American corn meal ). Any suggestions on how much baking powder & baking soda to add to plain cornmeal? I am thinking about half a teaspoon each -- is this likely in the ballpark? Suggestions from anybody else welcomed too!

John (who also has a pitcher of sweet tea in the 'fridge -- likely the only one of those in Sweden as well!

Sorry...yes, hard ham is the same thing as country ham. And you are correct on the stone ground grits...the very best.

Elwood

jpb:

I believe your estimates are a good place to start...probably need to add a little salt also. Actually, you can make cornbread with "plain" meal and not add any baking soda or baking powder. We do two ways...(1) "hot water" cornbread and (2) baked plain bread.

For hot-water cornbread you put some plain meal in a bowl and add boiling water. Enough to make it the consistancy you want...about like mashed potatos. Spoon "pones" of it into a skillet with about 1/4" oil..mash them flat as they fry and brown on each side. Really good.

The baked plain bread is made by again adding boiling water and making a thicker batter and forming into pones and baking in the oven on a greased skillet.

Those are two alternatives to regular cornbread...actually,my favorite is hotwater corn bread....have to have the water very, very hot for it to work right.

Certainly, you can make cornbread many different ways. Some folks like regular milk rather than buttermilk..some like it with an egg..some don't. And then there is the no-milk but hot water options for plain cornbread mentioned above.

I went to South Dakota on a pheasant hunting trip a few years ago...each night we'd make a big skillet of cornbread and the local guy would come in the next morning and eat the left over bread with jelly....thought it was wonderful. Of course we had biscuts.

I don't know what to tell ya about the course ground polenta...should be OK...but probably not ground as fine as our regular meal. You should be able to get a market to order corn meal for ya..I'd think.

And one final note...we always use white cornmeal...not yellow cornmeal. The white has a milder flavor...yellow is sometimes used to batter catfish but not for cornbread.

Hope this helps....country folk have enjoyed cornbread of one kind or another for a long time.

Elwood

Many thanks for taking so much time to help me, Elwood -- and others! I have saved this entire thread because it has so much good advice!

I really do appreciate it.

Man, this thread is making me hungry!

John

jpb---If the Polenta is not cooked then just zap it with a food processor. That should take you to a less course Polenta.

Funny, I was planning on cooking polenta tonight and just on my way out to buy corn meal, wishing I could get some coarse ground. It's available in larger cities particularly with large Italian populations but not here in the country.

Thanks, byc. The polenta is uncooked and is in box labeled "coarse" but I cannot see how coarse that is until I buy it and open it! Maybe it will be OK.

I have been told that polenta and corn meal are the same thing except the former has an Italian accent...

John

Or Croatian

jpb:

Found this actual recipe on the TV today...might help with the question about how much baking soda and baking powder to add. It recommends to roast the cornmeal before hand..never tried that, so don't know. Have used butter at times..it's OK. Rest seems pretty straight forward. I might add a bit more buttermilk that this recipe calls for but its certainly a good place to start.

Hope it helps..

Elwood

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups cornmeal
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into pieces
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

Instructions
1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat 10-inch ovensafe skillet on middle rack for 10 minutes. Bake cornmeal on rimmed baking sheet set on lower-middle rack until fragrant and color begins to deepen, about 5 minutes. Transfer hot cornmeal to large bowl and whisk in buttermilk; set aside.

2. Add oil to hot skillet and continue to bake until oil is just smoking, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from oven and add butter, carefully swirling pan until butter is melted. Pour all but 1 tablespoon oil mixture into cornmeal mixture, leaving remaining fat in pan. Whisk baking powder, baking soda, salt, and eggs into cornmeal mixture.

3. Pour cornmeal mixture into hot skillet and bake until top begins to crack and sides are golden brown, 12 to 16 minutes. Let cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack. Serve.

Thanks Elwood

I am intrigued by roasting the cornmeal first. I am a newbie at cornmeal, but have been looking at recipes on the internet and I have not seen this in any recipe yet. I think I will have to try it just out of curiosity!

Thanks to all -- interesting thread!

John

Easiest way for me is to use a 9" square baking pan and line it with parchment paper. Leave paper big enough, pour in batter, trim the excess paper, bake and throw paper into a composter, easy. I use to season cast iron pans but never used it enough and had to keep re-seasoning. Oil can go rancid. My $0.02