The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon Read Free Book Online Page A

Mafé over Cooked Millet or Cornmeal Mush
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    Candied Sweet Potatoes or Fried Plantains
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    Two Grandmas’ Creamed Corn Cornbread
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    Jessica Harris’s Herbed Cornbread
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    Sesame-Coconut Cornmeal Biscuits for Kwanzaa
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    Fresh Fruit in Season

    J UST W HAT , E XACTLY , I S THE D IFFERENCE B ETWEEN S OUTHERN AND N ORTHERN C ORNBREADS ?
    As we prepare to leave the South, passionate about proper cornbread ingredients and technique to the point of near-fanaticism and head to the North, also cornbread-loving but far more open to variations on a theme, it’s worth looking more closely at the as-a-rules of basic Southern and Northern techniques and ingredients.
    Just remember … every rule has an exception, as you’ll see.
    T HE R ULE : C ORNMEAL AND/OR FLOUR . Southern cornbreads often use all cornmeal or mostly cornmeal with just a tiny amount of flour (sometimes as little as a tablespoon), white cornmeal more often than yellow. Northern cornbreads generally use half flour, half cornmeal, and occasionally use an even larger percentage of flour to cornmeal; say, 1½ parts flour to ½ part cornmeal. Yellow cornmeal is used more often than white. E XCEPTIONS TO THE RULE : In the South, most African American cornbreads, as well as some from Virginia, usually contain equal parts flour and cornmeal. And in the North, almost all Rhode Island jonnycakes use all cornmeal, preferably whitecap flint cornmeal.
    T HE R ULE : L IQUID . Southern batters are almost always moistened with buttermilk, though in spoonbreads and a few other cornbreads, the meal is first presoaked with boiling water. Northern cornbreads usually call for “sweet milk” (i.e., regular, non-buttermilk milk). E XCEPTIONS TO THE RULE : Occasional regional variations both Northern and Southern break the rule; some recipes from both parts combine sweet milk and buttermilk; some forgo milk altogether or partly and use water.
    T HE R ULE : S UGAR . Southern batters usually have no sugar (or other sweetener), often emphatically none. But occasionally just a little is added, “just enough to make it as sweet as sweet corn,” as a gent who ran a sawmill and fixed cars in the Ozark backwoods once told a friend of mine. Northern cornbreads, though, are usually quite sweet; ¼ cup to ¾ cup sugar or even more is not uncommon. Other sweeteners, including honey or maple syrup, may also be used. No other difference brings down as muchinvective (from the Southern side) as this particular item. E XCEPTIONS TO THE RULE : African American Southern cornbreads as well as some Virginia cornbreads are often quite sweet, and almost all Rhode Island jonnycakes are not sweetened (and many Ocean State residents are prepared to heap as much scornful invective on their fellow cornbread-sweetening New Englanders as Southerners do).
    T HE R ULE : F AT . Traditionally, bacon drippings and/or butter were the fat of choice in Southern cornbreads, as well as in the all-important skillet-heating. Today oil and/or butter are usually used, but, for some, only reluctantly: At one time the smokiness given by bacon fat was an essential prized part of the region’s cornbread. Traditionally, Northern cornbreads call for butter, though lard was sometimes used in the old days. Today oil and butter are the usual choice. E XCEPTIONS TO THE RULE : In Rhode Island, some fry their jonnycakes in bacon fat. And, in my kitchen (which for thirty-five years was located in the South, but for four has been in the North), I always use Better (see the Pantry, page 346 ).
    T HE R ULE : E GGS . Southern cornbreads most often have one egg, occasionally two, rarely three. Some Southern cornbreads—usually those intended for crumbling into stews or used in dressing, and in those recipes dating from subsistence times—have no eggs. Contemporary Northern cornbread always, always has at least one egg, and often two or three. E XCEPTIONS TO THE RULE : The South ’s spoonbreads: usually soufflé-like dishes, to which many eggs