In another thread here, I referred to yellow corn bread. Carrie Baldwin, our beloved cook and house-keeper in Alabama, made the world's best corn bread, using "some o' this, a li'l o' that" until the batter looked right to her expert eye. Her special trick, however, was to flip the done bread upside-down, put it back in the skillet (cast-iron, of course), and browning the bottom.
My wife "apprenticed" with Carrie and as well as she could, wrote Carrie's recipe down. Here's how it is in my cook book:
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Carrie-Style Corn Bread
2 cups coarsely ground yellow corn meal
1 egg
� cup shortening (bacon drippings) or peanut oil
2 to 2� cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder
0 tsp sugar (imperative!)
cup bacon bits (optional Ken Howell touch)
Heat the oven to 375� to 450� while you mix the batter.
Heat 1 or 2 Tbs of the shortening or oil in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet until it smokes (if it�s peanut oil, it won�t smoke).
Stir the egg, the shortening or oil, the milk, the salt, the baking powder, and the bacon bits into the corn meal until the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into the hot skillet. If the skillet is hot enough, the edges and the bottom of the batter begin to sizzle, crinkle, and turn brown immediately.
Bake about 15 to 20 minutes at 375� to 450� until the top is dark golden brown and speckled. (Bacon bits in the top will add to the speckling.)
Turn the bread onto a plate � slide it back into the skillet � and bake it until the bottom is as brown as the top.
Quarter it, then serve the quarters hot. Carrie always did. Slit a quarter open horizontally with your table knife, lay the top back � and you�ll have to use another knife to butter it. (Or you can, as my grandfather did, quench the hot knife in your iced tea!) The hot knife cuts butter easily but then won�t carry a pat of butter away from the butter dish.
Just buttered, with any main course � or with genuine, pure ribbon-cane syrup* � or with honey � this is eatin�!
*No, not sorghum or blackstrap, and certainly not cut with corn syrup
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