speaking of corn bread

[zimmerstutzen]

Unlike some Northerners, I have always liked corn bread. Sweet Yankee style "corn cake" as some call it, the firm somewhat dry spoon bread made some places in Virginia, and with peppers, or muffins with craisins, raisins, or apple chunks. I even make corn bread with apple butter or apple sauce in it to stay extra moist. But when I was in Junior and senior high school, the school cafeteria served a corn bread that was soft and moist without any grittiness. It was not real sweet and tasted like old fashioned 1950's sweet corn, not these sugary new hybrids. It was a classic medium to dark yellow with an orange/brown looking baked top that was also soft and moist as could be. I loved that stuff and my class mates often just threw it away.

No matter what box, mix or recipe I follow, I can never get close to the corn bread served in the school cafeteria.

a few times a year, I get hungry for corn bread pancakes and mix some up. If you add enough apple butter to corn bread, it comes out medium brown and tastes a lot like spice cake. I like a Mexican Shepherd's pie. inch and a half of chili in a casserole dish, then pour corn bread batter over top sprinkle with some grated cheddar and bake in the oven. It has the salty savory sweet thing going on.

 

[fleener]

When we make corn bread a very good and quick mix is to use the Jiffy mix and we simply add half a box of the Jiffy yellow cake mix to it. Gives you a nice sweet corn bread that people love.

Fleener

 

[Kansas Jake]

My guess the cornbread you had in school had a fair amount of wheat flour in it. I like corn bread with mostly corn meal. My wife likes the stuff that is more moist and chewy. Most of the recipes that result in what she likes have more white wheat flour in it.

 

[tenngun]

I made Townsend’s pure corn bread I think he took it from Sara Glass. While tastie it was heavy and dry. It makes Betty journey cakes then loaf bread.

 

[omarick1948]

The best cornbread,that I like is "Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread". Put a cast iron skillet in a hot 400 degree oven with 1/2 stick butter in it and let it heat for 10 minutes while making the corn meal bread batter. Make the batter of your choice. After mixing, pour the batter into that hot skillet and bake about 20 minutes.

The finished corn bread is crisp on the bottom and firm in texture. I don't care for soft "cake like" corn breads.

Rick

 

[Loyalist Dave]

We did some experiments of what one could make when supply of imported goods was tough, such as molasses. We theorized that perhaps if one had corn one had not only corn meal but also hominy, and then if one had hominy one also could have hominy flour or aka massa flour, but probably didn't know how to make a corn tortilla if one is an English colonist on the East Coast of North America. :wink: Massa can be quite sticky, and we tried making a "corn bread" with a mixture of massa and corn meal, plus water and salt. Came up with a "journey cake" or "Johnny cake" type item that wasn't too bad, and if you were pretty hungry, might be quite welcome. This was before we found that if you make a hasty-pudding from corn meal, and let it really hydrate, it may be used just by itself to make a hoe-cake or some such. We also found that just massa flour made into a dough with water, and maybe an egg, can be browned up on a hot surface given a little sweet oil to avoid sticking. Of course folks will recognize this is, with a filler of cheese or meat or beans or what have you, the El Salvadoran pupusa, of which we were unfamiliar at the time of the experiment.

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

Grandmother's Jonny cake (1776)

"One quart Indian meal, teaspoon salt scaled well with boiling water. Bake half an inch thick. When done cut into squares for the table. Very nice split through the middle and dipped in melted butter."

 

[coloradoclyde]

Corn bread

Take one quart of sweet milk, corn meal enough to thicken, three eggs, half a cup of butter, two tablespoonsful of brown sugar, one teaspoonful of soda, and two of cream of tartar; Bake in a moderate oven.



I also have a recipe for "Berry corn cake" if anyone is interested.

 

[George C]

I just eat plain old crackling corn bread. The wife does a good job making it.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

if not made with 100% white corn meal, sour or buttermilk and a bacon greased iron deep skillet you're in h ell as far AIC.

 

[Ames]

Grow and grind my own corn, add the buttermilk and bacon grease. Jalapenos if you wish. The cast iron skillet 425 of course. Serve with honeycomb from my hives.
Cant keep it in stock.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Grow and grind my own corn,

What kind of corn do you grow?

 

[Ames]

Dent corn. My favorite is Bloody Butcher. A deep red corn that grows large ears on very strong 11' stalks. 001 by Ames, on Flickr
Those jars hold about 3 gallons each.The other corn up there is Hopi Blue. Also, when making corn bread or corn sticks from scratch I use duck eggs, not chicken.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Dude, you are hard core.
:bow:

LD

 

[Ames]

Yah! 1/2 lb. of seed gets you 5 years worth of corn if you don't mill it. After you grind it I'd give it 45 days for best quality.

 

[satx78247]

Do you measure your corn production by the bushel or by the half-gallon fruit jar??
(CHUCKLE)

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

Nice...I just happen to have a bunch of bloody butcher corn hanging up.. :thumbsup:

 

[Ames]

When I harvest by the bushel it goes to the ducks that lay my eggs. How much corn can one man eat, anyway?
Those are the ducks that end up in hunters sausage so I don't mind fattening them up a bit.

 

[tenngun]

Yup, I’m a vegetarian I just process my veggies through an anomaly first.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Ames, I love duck eggs. grew up on them. Got a pre=order in for 12 Khaki Campbell ducks to be delivered in April. Mrs. isn't too crazy about them, but tolerates my palate. She won't let me use the milk from our cows though. As primitive growing your own dent corn sounds, how do you mill your corn? Mortar and pestle? My burr mill was destroyed when the house burned. Haven't replaced it yet.