Mondays With Corn Pone

Okay, I know I’m early with a cooking article this week, but this is for cornbread, because our very own KoB voiced his objections to sugar (Never!!) and milk (Ickk!! Use buttermilk!!), which were vehement. And I have to agree with KoB that sugar is not the right seasoning/flavor for cornbread. It should be just slightly toward salty, but not noticeably so.

So I’m providing several people who are doing their own versions of cornbread, corn pone or whatever you want to call it. I can use the Jiffy mixes, yes, but I, too, prefer something that does not have an odd sugary note to it. If you want that sugary accent, cook from scratch and use honey.

I also want to leave a warning about storing brown rice, as opposed to white rice. Brown rice has not had the oils removed from it and they will go rancid. White rice is simply brown rice without the oils still covering the grains. It’s better to store white rice instead, if you are buying in bulk; use airtight containers and put a storage date on a label on the container.

This stovetop skillet cornbread comes from Ken Click.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjU5kOvqfo

This version is probably very similar to what my great grandmas might have had to do, when dealing with cantankerous wood-burning stoves and restless natives not too far out the door. Note that since Ken is doing this on the stovetop and using smaller amounts of ingredients, it’s not 2.5 to 3 inches thick like the oven-baked stuff. But it’s quick and easy and small enough to store in the fridge. Or just polish off the entire thing with some butter and make some more.

I’d also view this as a good, healthy snack for hungry rugrats and other kitchen-invading critters. I would also pre-soak a few cups of dry beans, chop up some good lean ham and some onions, carrots and celery, and prepare to sit down to a fine hearty meal, including the cornbread, cut up veggies and for dessert, a real chocolate ice cream with 5 simple ingredients.

Next. we have Charlie Andrews, a New Orleans native and a cook. He shows us how to make real-world skillet cornbread from the start to the part where he pounds the table while doing his taste test. Well, not really pounding it, but you get the drift. Obviously, he made a fine batch of cornbread, just add some butter to spread on it and enjoy it. It’s a good, healthy snack, too, and this winter, you may find your two-leggers looking for such things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSzFsETAVaQ

And finally, Phil Robertson (of Duck Dynasty) gives us a demo on his Mama’s 10-minute hot oil cornbread recipe. He says his Mama cooked cornbread this way her whole life and it finally got her – at age 96! We should all live so long!

As it is, Phil’s Mama made hushpuppies, because that is, as he says, what fried cornbread is. It’s also referred to as cornpone. Note that he emphasizes four ingredients only for the batter. And I do want a plateful of those hush puppies. Yes, I do.

Yeah, you can put butter with the hush puppies, too. You might just live as long as Phil’s Mama did! If I recall correctly, my Aunt Eunice said they had the hush puppies with butter and either honey or jam. Good either way, in my view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIwKNZciiH4

Now, you can always use the mixes from the store if you’re in a hurry, or prefer that way, but I’d say that, with corn meal being a major ingredient in those basic home-cooking products, which took the place of wheat-based breads, it would stretch a family’s budget a lot and provide a way for everyone to feel full. That can come in handy with the way prices are rising skyward right now.

Households used to make their own butter, too, if they had enough money to afford a cow, and the leftover from churning cream to produce butter was buttermilk. If you’re willing to do the hunt for it, you can find a tabletop hand-cranked churn to make your own butter. There are several companies that sell them. It might give your two-leggers something to do on a cold day, especially with all those idjit rumors about “another lockdown” going around. And, yeah, this is when (and how) you teach your junior birdmen that self-sufficiency is more important than ever.  Butter can be frozen for future use, too, if you’re buying it in quantities. And if your rugrats want popcorn, ditch the microwave junk and buy the bulk popcorn products, corn oil for popping, and a hand-cranked corn popper. It’s worth it to get this hands-on stuff going right now.

The more we use self-sufficiency as a means of getting things done, the less the government “owns” us. The fact that Biteme can’t control his own GI tract’s sphincters and engaged in a prolonged F.A.R.T.T. when he was talking to Camilla Parker-Bowles (Prince Charles’s wife) last week tells you what was really installed in the White House: an old gasbag mumblegums who has become a puppet managed by Others. Pathetic and sad at the same time.

That’s all I have to say about that subject. But it is the reason I’m expecting another one of those panic strikes ordered by the Oval Office.  And it is the reason I will continue to post articles like this one for your use.

Category: Cooking, Economy