Cornbread

[NeilMacleod]

last night supper

Ground up popcorn, didnt have any regular corn.
Added two cups boiling water to reconstitute corn.
Once cooled added flour and rest except baking powder, let sit a couple hours to hydrate.
Added baking powder, let sit for 15min, bake 400f 25min.

Nice and fluffy and light.

1.5 cups corn flour
1.5 cups Fife flour
1/2 cup fancy molasses
1/4 cup butter
2 cups boiled water
1/2tbsp cinnamon
salt
baking powder

400f 25 min

 

[crockett]

I wonder what the period recipe was? Did they have white flour? Use eggs? etc. Baking powder or something else?
I suppose if you beat up the white part of an egg it could act as a rising agent.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

This has always been one of my questions.

The original was probably like a thick, dry pancake, or a really thick, corn tortilla.

I say this as I've tried course cornmeal with honey or molasses and water, and coal flour (ground parched corn) with honey or molasses and water, and even Masa flour (Hominy ground fine, finer than hominy grits) and that's pretty much what you end up with. Tried it with just corn and water and a pinch of salt and it tends to be a teeny bit bitter, and the honey or the molasses would help to bind the cornmeal while baking and offset the bitterness. OF course one could simply make hasty pudding, then pour it hot into a dish, and then bake it.

I don't think they mixed it as we do 50/50 with wheat flour..., why not use the wheat flour for real bread until you have to stretch it with the corn, then you're out of wheat flour. They don't seem to have stopped having bread though. So at some point it was all corn.

You'd really need to whip them egg whites to get them to form peaks, and I don't think a wooden bowl will do..., plus you need some salt or better yet cream of tartar. So I don't think they used the eggs for anything at all with cornbread, unless as a binder.

I've tried just Baking Soda as I didn't have any soda ash..., more bitter than the plain recipe, and not enough rise to justify using it (imho). I've wanted to simply use hardwood ash and some vinegar, to see how much rise one gets.

It's not bad with a little molasses as a sweetener..., and the plain recipe without leaven, though not much like the modern version.

LD

 

[NeilMacleod]

Im allergic to wheat, Fife is an original wheat that has not been perverted like the grains of today. Fife does not react with people with Gluten intolerance and allergies, that Ive read. It came to Canada from Scotland in 1860.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Certainly is a novel approach but looks like the end result was good. Have several old recipes, the earliest from 1831 but none of them add honey or sugar...guess it wasn't considered kosher then! :wink: Most call it Batter Bread until the mid to late 19th century.

"Take six Spoonfuls of Flour and three of Corn Meal, with a little Salt--sift them, and make a thin Batter with four Eggs, and a sufficient Quantity of rich Milk; bake it in little Tin Moulds in a quick Oven."

Another of the same era said:

"Pour one Cup of boiling Water over one Cup of Meal, add one Cup of sweet Milk, one Teaspoon of Salt, one beaten Egg, and two Tablespoons of melted Butter, one half Cake of Yeast dissolved in one fourth Cup of warm Water. Let rise one Hour, bake in buttered Muffin Tins in a quick Oven about twenty Minutes."

Everything else of that period is hoe cakes, spoon bread or ash cakes and are basically just corn meal, water and a pinch of salt.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Popcorn?....I bet that was fun to grind... :wink:

 

[NeilMacleod]

The recipe called for milk but I dont use milk, buttermilk powder sometimes but i forgot to use that instead, so just water.
Grinding is always fun

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yeah, here are actually two recipes in one, one with wheat flour, the other without. I guess I should add some lard or bear grease to what I was doing...
:hmm:

"Scald 1 pint of milk and put to 3 pints of Indian meal, and half pint of flower--bake before the fire.

Or scald with milk two thirds of the Indian meal, or wet two thirds with boiling water, add salt, molasses and shortening, work up with cold water pretty stiff, and bake as above. "
American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, 1796

The above are recipes for Johnny Cake or Hoe Cake.

I'm wondering if it started to be called corn bread when yeast was added or quick leavening agent was readily available to distinguish it from its 1796 ancestor?


LD

 

[Brokennock]

Where can o e get fire? Can it be used as a direct replacement for wheat flour in most recipes? I do miss pancakes, and am seeking and alternative pie crust for squirrel pot pie.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Red Fife Wheat (aka Scotch Fife) is a heritage grain thought to have originated in Turkey and then crossing several continents and the Atlantic before arriving in Canada. It is called "red" because of its colour when fully ripe and "Fife" after David Fife, the Ontario farmer who was the first to grow it in North America when he sowed it on his farm in 1842.

Qualities: Red Fife is considered to be Canada's oldest wheat variety and has adapted to a great diversity of growing conditions. It became the baking and milling industry standard for forty years. Red Fife provided farmers with a consistent, high quality crop in harsh prairie climates but was almost driven into extinction by the turn of the twentieth century. Today, Red Fife has been making a comeback in the artisan baking community and is known for its complex taste, non-hybridization, and high gluten content, making it especially well-suited for bread.

Or so the legend goes...

 

[Brokennock]

Higher gluten you say, drat, I had high hopes when the o.p. said it didn't set off his sensitivity to wheat.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Higher gluten you say, drat, I had high hopes when the o.p. said it didn't set off his sensitivity to wheat.

"Contrary to popular belief, Red Fife heritage wheat does not have a lower total gluten content than other newer varieties of bread wheat; this was confirmed by lab testing we commissioned at SunWest Food Laboratories in Saskatoon in 2006. However, and besides Red Fife’s exceptional taste and baking qualities; we have preliminarily determined (prior to expected laboratory testing) that the gliadin protein level is ~35% of this wheat's overall gluten protein content. Wheat gluten’s insoluble proteins are gliadin and glutenin. This compares to ~80% gliadin protein levels found in a popular modern bread wheat variety that we last grew in 2003. Elevated gliadin protein levels are primarily what cause people to have allergic reactions/intolerances to most wheat."

 

[NeilMacleod]

Higher gluten you say, drat, I had high hopes when the o.p. said it didn't set off his sensitivity to wheat.

As I said, Im allergic to wheat, Fife has no ill effect for me, another person I know that has zero tolerance to Gluten also has no problem with Fife. You might want to check into it.


In regards to flour, in the last few years I found how important it is to let the flour hydrate. When making bread I like to leave it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. When you leave the flour it starts a chemical reaction and starts to bind, so kneading is less required and becomes more sticky. Making pancakes with flour, even an hour will make them puff up more.

 

[satx78247]

Try BUCKWHEAT in any recipe that calls for wheat flour.

Btw, my "younger brother of the heart" from Spartanburg, SC still uses an early 19th century/family recipe for cornbread that has NO wheat or commercial leavening agents. = Two cups of cornmeal, 2 beaten eggs, salt & milk, cooked at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.
After the dry/liquid ingredients are mixed, then the mixture is "beaten like H" for 3-5 minutes, poured into a skillet & baked.

Richard usually serves his version of cornbread hot from the oven, with butter & ribbon-cane syrup.


yours, satx

 

[NeilMacleod]

I used to use Buckwheat for everything until I discovered Fife.
Buckwheat, Yeast, Caraway, Salt.
Buckwheat bread, this is were the leave for a couple days in the fridge to Hydrate works well.

 

[tenngun]

The above is good as a hoe cake but it’s dense and dry if you bake it. Tried her recipe several times. Crumbled and dropped in to a stew it’s tasty.

 

[Brokennock]

Thanks for the info Dragonsfire. Maybe I'll check it out, but I'm really trying to eliminate as much grain from my diet as possible. I don't really miss loaf bread ad all. It's stuff like pie crust and such that I miss most,,,,, and pancakes.

 

[Kansas Jake]

You might try sorghum flour (milo) as a replacement for wheat. It would probably be available at health food stores or stores that cater to international clientele. I make some years ago when the state sorghum council was pushing flour to generate interest in alternative uses beside livestock feed.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Anybody tried Spelt? I've made bread with it and it was fine for yeast bread though a little less rise, probably due to less protein so less elasticity.
:idunno:

LD

 

[NeilMacleod]

15 Years ago or so but does not help in the allergic area. Used in the 90's basically.