To "save my fingers" from answering each of the GREAT members of the forum induvidually, who asked for/received Tex's old-school Mississippi-style cornbread recipe, I'm posting it here.
This recipe is at least old enough to have been prepared during the American Civil War era & may well be much older than that. - The recipe follows:
PREHEAT the oven to 450 degrees F. Find a cast iron or other 10-inch skillet or other heavy-duty baking pan that can go into a HOT oven.
While the oven is preheating, SIFT together the following dry ingredients:
One cup of YELLOW corn meal (Stone-ground meal is BEST.) 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour 1/3 teaspoon of table salt one Tablespoon of baking powder
Place 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil into the skillet & when the oven "comes up to 450 degrees", heat the skillet over medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes.
Mix one cup of whole milk with a single raw egg & MIX well. - ADD the milk/egg mixture to the dry ingredients & stir well. Then ADD additional milk to make a "Pourable" batter. - I cannot tell you how much extra milk that you will need as humidity, type of cornmeal & perhaps other factors are somewhat variable. (I use a whisk for that task.)
POUR the batter into the heated skillet to "fry" the bottom & after 2-3 minutes, BAKE the cornbread for 20-25 minutes, until the top is as browned as you wish.. (Ovens vary to some degree, so the time of baking may vary slightly.)
Note: My husband likes his cornbread BLAZING HOT, straight from the oven, well-browned on top & "swimming in butter". By the way, in rural 19th Century Mississippi, hot cornbread was often "split into 2 pieces horizontally, buttered & served with ribbon-cane syrup on top, for dessert.
Tex prefers buttered cornbread with what people from Northeast TX (Tex is from Camp County.) usually call: COUNTRY SUPPER, i.e., every sort of vegetables from the local seasonal gardens or farmer's market, boiled/fried/mashed/raw & served with (sometimes leftover meat of some sort) and fresh HOT cornbread. (He once made me "country supper" after a trip to the local farmer's market & fixed 8 kinds of veggies. And, yes, hot cornbread, too. - I thought that that supper was "quite a feast".)
Btw, this same recipe can also be FRIED (using less milk for a thicker batter) & served as CORN FRITTERS, that to me look rather like thick pancakes. (One of Tex's friends, who is from Athens, TX puts fresh "cut off the cob" corn kernels into about the same recipe.)
sounds good, but traditionally, Southern Corn Bread does NOT have wheat flour in it. At all. They did not HAVE wheat flour back in the day. Here is the recipe I use
1 cup stone ground white cornmeal 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 beaten egg 1 cup Buttermilk 1 tsp lard
mix the egg with the buttermilk and add in the melted lard. Pour into a greased cast iron skillet and bake for about 18 minuets in a 450F oven
The buttermilk provides the acid to react with the baking soda and give rise.
sounds good, but traditionally, Southern Corn Bread does NOT have wheat flour in it. At all. They did not HAVE wheat flour back in the day. Here is the recipe I use
1 cup stone ground white cornmeal 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 beaten egg 1 cup Buttermilk 1 tsp lard
mix the egg with the buttermilk and add in the melted lard. Pour into a greased cast iron skillet and bake for about 18 minuets in a 450F oven
The buttermilk provides the acid to react with the baking soda and give rise.
This is pretty near what both my grandmaws used. One was raised in the cotton patch other was raised in the blackjacks.
When times got real lean, it was hot water cornbread.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Pretty much what I do, except I use a teaspoon of soda. Back when I was a kid, it was clabbered milk that was used. After we quit milking a cow, we used bought buttermilk. miles
My poor mom was not the best of cooks. But what she did cook was good and we didn’t starve. When she was growing up, they just didn’t have the variety of different things. Very small basic garden. Chickens. Wild game was occasional squirrel or rabbit. Deer we’re nonexistent.
Both my boys have degrees in anthropology. They laughingly say that if you wanna eat real depression era cooking, go to Mimi’s house!
They still laugh about her and her Karo syrup!!!
Yesterday was her birthday. She woulda been 92.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
