Cornbread

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One sad fact of life is that each of us is going to live a little longer than someone close to us. Another is that sometimes we will, for one reason or another think about the dearly departed, and eventually we'll realize that even though many years have passed, we still miss them.

One of the things I miss about my maternal grandmother is her cooking. When I was very young, I spent a lot of time in her house, visiting frequently and sometimes even living there. As a result, I also ate a lot of her food.

There were things that Grandma made, that no one else ever made taste as good. The only exceptions being that she taught her daughters how to cook as well, and for as long as they had large families to cook for, they could and did duplicate her results.

As their children dispersed, however, they became less inclined to expend the effort to cook that way, and judging by their answers, when I ask about recipes, they have likely forgotten some critical ingredients or steps.

My Honey used to do it too - in fact, she aggravated Grandma nearly to death, during more than one visit, with measuring devices as she tried to codify the recipes. She succeeded a lot, but as with my Mom and Aunt, employment outside the home, along with the dispersion of our children, worked to discourage cooking that way.

One of the items I have craved for years since her passing, was Grandma's cornbread. I remember watching Grandma as she prepared her cornbread batter. She'd include eggs, evaporated milk, water bacon drippings and self-rising cornmeal. Note, I did not say, cornmeal mix or cornbread mix. Just plain, old, self-rising cornmeal. When the batter suited her, she would melt more bacon drippings in a large (12-inch) cast-iron frying pan, and then pour the batter in. She parked the pan in a hot oven, and at some point retrieved the product: a cake of the best cornbread I ever had in my life.

I never learned the proportions of the recipe, though, nor the heat, nor time in the oven required to bake the batter. I am reduced to researching other sources in trying to re-create the tastes I crave, and this is complicated by the fact that, in recent years, plain, self-rising cornmeal has been difficult to find on store shelves. All they had was "corn meal mix" or "cornbread mix."

Recently, while shopping for something else, I came across some Martha White™ self-rising cornmeal. I bought it and took it home with the intention of searching for a recipe online. When I got there, though, I noticed that there was already a recipe on the bag. I tried it and it was pretty good.

Not Grandma's cornbread though. First, the bag recipe made too much. Not as much as Grandma made, but still too much for the two of us to eat. Second, it was too crumbly. It didn't hold together very well. Thirdly, it used vegetable oil for shortening. That changed the flavor subtly, and not for the better. So I did what I do: I monkeyed with the recipe. Here's what I came up with:

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Suggested Equipment:

• Cast-iron fry pan, small, seasoned , or six-place muffin tin.
  
• Mixing bowl, about 2 quarts
  
• Large fork or wire whisk for blending the batter.
  
• Common kitchen tools and measures
  

Ingredients:

Item		Amount
Corn meal	Self-rising	1	cup
Milk	Whole (4% butterfat)	6	floz
Egg	Large	1	ea
Fat	Pork, lard or rendered from bacon	4	Tbs

Directions:

1. Measure 2 tbs of the bacon drippings into the frying pan, or if using a muffin tin, put 1 tsp in each cup. This step is necessary in order to insure the formation of a proper crust.

2. Put the pan or tin in your cold oven, and begin pre-heating the oven to 450°F. Be careful handling the pan or tin, though! Hot grease and frying pans hurt!

3. When the oven reaches the target temperature, combine cornmeal, milk egg, and 2 tbs of bacon drippings in a mixing bowl, and stir rapidly with a fork or whisk until batter is smooth.

4. If using a fry pan, pour the batter into the hot pan, making sure the batter is of uniform depth (about an inch) in the pan. If using a muffin tin, divide the batter evenly between all six cups.

5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top of the cornbread is light brown.

6. Remove the pan or tin from the oven and serve hot, or allow the bread to cool.

This recipe makes about six (official) servings (I generally eat 2 to three!), but is easily multiplied.

I like to eat the cornbread just plain and buttered, or as a side dish with 15-bean soup. Serve it in slices, or however you like your cornbread.

If you use the fry pan, getting the batter into the oven is faster, but if you use the muffin tin instead, the cornbread is already portioned when it leaves the oven, and - as a bonus - there's more of the delicious crust!