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.
Hush puppy pro tip- fold a small raw oyster into the center, then fry.
Thanks, Ex!
Where’s the bacon grease?
If you want sugar then just listen to the Cleftones singing “Why Do Yo Do Me Like you Do” 1957 on the Gee label. The intro has Herbie Cox singing Sugar, your the apple of my eye. Think you’ll like the tune Ex.
If you want to make this puppy hush, stick some cornbread in his mouth! Just happened to pick up a coupla 5 # sacks of White Lily Buttered Milk Cornbread Mix that the K Roger had on a deal today. Remember when it was called Dixie Lily?
Hunger pains was kicking purdy damn hard last Thursday, whilst a’waiting. Finally broke down, rolled up some catfish fillets in Big Cock Ranch Special Sh^t seasoned cornmeal, hand carved some rusty taters, and fried ’em all up for fish & chilli cheese fries. I hurt myself.
Tanks Ex…Have cane syrup…will travel! Let’s EAT!
Well, ol’ Poe’s gonna have to disagree with our esteemed cannon-cocker on the issue of sweetening your cornbread and hushpuppies, if done properly.
Back in the ’70’s and early ’80’s, there was a ramshackle old place called Rusty’s Fish Camp out west of NAS Pensacola, off Gulf Beach Highway on the shore of Big Lagoon, just down the road from the Poe residence, that was renowned for having the best deep-fried mullet on the Northwest Florida/South Alabama coast.
But with regulars at Rusty’s, their hushpuppies, which they served in heaping baskets, like Mexican restaurants serve tortilla chips, were an equally delicious and unique specialty. They were so good Poe sometimes ate so damned many, washing them down with ice-cold beer, that he couldn’t eat all his mullet when they brought it out, also in heaping baskets.
What made the hushpuppies so exceptional was just a hint of sweetness, a new experience for the Poe’s who were used to their families’ traditional unsweetened cornbread and hushpuppy recipes.
Even with endless cajoling and pleading, even proffered bribes, the proprietors would never share their hushpuppy recipe. But they did start the Poe’s on a cooking tradition of slightly sweetening (usually with honey) their corn meal dishes, a tradition that survives to this day, almost a half century later.
Tad bit of cane syrup and honey mixed in, Poe. Separate cooking vats for the fish, fries & hush puppies helps too. Think one reason, in addition to the cost, that our crowd didn’t sweeten the cornbread was there was generally a pan of dressing , with what little meat was available mixed in, made up from the cornbread.
You wanna really see a flame war on that subject, bring it up at a Church Homecoming/Dinner on the Grounds function. Good Times!
Sorry, PT. Good Southern cornbread doesn’t need any type of sweetener. Period. Any desired (such as molasses, honey, or jam/jelly) can be added after the fact.
Cuisine developed in the Pensacola area may have either French or Spanish influences (or both), as it was at the edge of past colonial influence from both (eastern edge of French, Western edge of Spanish). I thus wouldn’t hold that area’s cuisine out as an archetype for traditional Southern cooking. (The same is true for coastal MS, all of LA, and eastern coastal TX cuisine due to historical French influence.)
And really good hush puppies have a bit of onion added vice any type of sweetener.
Flame War over…Game…Set…and Match! Vindication of my stand! Hondo has spoken. All Hail Hondo…ALL HAIL!!! Spartacus wishes he was Hondo! *grin*
Legend has it that it was Carpetbaggers and Scalawags that FIRST (ht 2 NDHoosier) added sweetener to Southern Cornbread. They’d ruin grits like that too.
All right. Now that the battle is over, and the guns are cooling, any of you gents willing to share your hush puppy recipe?
Rut roh…Shots fired!…INCOMING! Gunners to your POSTS! FIRE MISSION FIRE MISSION FIRE MISSION!!! Little people in the wire…Prepare to repel boarders! All hands stand to for mixing of cornmeal (white or yellow), flour, egg, buttered milk, assorted spices, and possible root vegetables. Any troop requesting an issue of sugar will be immediately assigned root vegetable (onion) chopping duty.
Can of worms and a bogey hole there nobunny. The 100 Year War of the Roses Crusades Ass’tan didn’t last as long as this one will. Literally 1000s of good choices, many regional, that can be used. And naturally, the quantities will vary by the amount you want to make. I personally can’t eat onions anymore, so I use a tad bit of onion powder/salt and have gotten into the habit of sprinkling some of the Big Cock Ranch Special Sh^t Seasoning for a little pop. Even some of the commercial ready made packaged product is not half bad. Some folks will even mix in Hot Sauce or peppers.
You may notice on the inherweb search, that they will emphasize the cast iron skillet (whip out your big 10 inch) (skillet Chip, you prevert). Fresh, clean cooking oil is vital, along with the temperature, size of the pups, and don’t overcook.
Southern Living is a good place to start. Good Luck.
Yeah I figured I’d start the battle again, just for giggles. 😉
Do you have a cornmeal preference (grind, brand, etc.)?
I have a few recipes bookmarked from Southern Living, including crab hush puppies. SL is the only website I trust completely with Southern recipes.
Whew, another rabbit hole. You ARE a little rascal! I like that! Til a little while back, I could go down the road and buy fresh ground corn meal from a Mill (Chappell) that had been around since the 1830s. It was one that Sherman’s Boys missed on their Retreat to The Sea. Their coarse ground yellow (unbleached) was outstanding. Due to the product being unbolted the shelf life wasn’t very long, but that wasn’t a concern. Due to the age of the family running it, and none of their children wanting to carry on the business, plus multitudes of Big Gov regs, it was shut down. Commercially I buy a medium to a coarse grind, yellow or white, in either the Dixie Lily or White Lily brands. There are a coupla old school mills in North Georgia, Nora and Logan Pike Mills I get stuff from every now and again. Should be some places out there in flyover country still using the stone ground process. A little bit more spendy, but flavor wise, and NO chemicals GMO ect makes it worth the difference.
I really need to have a TAH Family Reunion here at Firebase Magnolia and give everybody a chance to put some South in their mouth. They’ll be a small version of that next week when Baby Sister drives me to Tampa to visit my Baby Girl and the Grands. Baked, smoked ham, chicken and dumplin’s, cornbread dressing, the list goes on. BBQ’d beasts and some grilled seafood. I’ll be the one on the couch in a food coma. 😀
Thank you! You’re sweeter than peach pah!
The devil’s in the details and I like details.
If I don’t get to say it before then, I hope you have a great time with your fam!
Awesome collection of recipes, thanks Ex! And a good reminder about self sufficiency.
😭 I miss fresh hushpuppies so… so… much… 😭
It’s to be a big girl time to fry my own.
Wow… I do need a Snickers… or maybe I’ve read and heard too much Bidenese.
Bidenese? *shudder* Time for a double whiskey!! That’ll definitely put you right!!!
I could definitely use a double, to start. I do like Yukon Jack.
Uh, this?
https://www.lcbo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/lcbo/sweet-flavours-15015039/yukon-jack-49726
Luckily, I’ve been forewarned by our neighbour he’ll be doing a midweek run, will ping him back and ask him to pick me up some. The flavour profile is intriguing.
Tonight, I’m having to make-due with some lovingly gifted Glenfiddich. Came from a team-mate who said he’d overheard me say I’d never tried it so it was an obvious Get Well Soon card/gift. Better tasting too. Yup. Him wise magic.
And while I am definitely NOT a Scotch connoisseur, I am finding this is tastily keeping the ache at bay. Glasses are on the table-help yourself, smoking-lamp is on – smokes and zippo to the right. Cheers *clink*
Well, look at that, it is a liqueur. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had it. My eyes always fell on the “whiskey” and “100 proof” parts and disregarded the liqueur part.
You have good friends! I’m sure everyone here would send you a fermented get well soon card.
Sugar? No. Alcohol.
I may be able to find some of the videos made by that dear old lady who did a series on Depression-era cooking, when every cent counted, especially when the bank had failed and closed.
We were so self-sufficient when I was 6, right up through high school and then everything changed to “depend on the store”. And where are we now? Waiting for those container ships to unload off the Port of L.A. when we can make that stuff ourselves.
I think we can recover that self-sufficient attitude, even so.
Independence. ALWAYS liked that word… Seems to engender disquiet in some and a lot of fierce pride in many others ;o)
Thank you, Ex
And yeah, I’d love to see those Depression-era-cooking vid’s if you’re able to track ’em down.
Roger that, Hatchet. She did pass away a while back, but they’re still online. I will track them down.
Grateful for this post, Ex! One armed or not – am absolutely going to try making all of these recipes. The one I end up liking the best, will end up getting served to my Auntie-she’s very traditional! Cheers and thanks again. Oh and Missus Hatchet sends her appreciation and best wishes!!! Cheers to all here.
Thanks, Hatchet, and my best to you and your family!
Serious question. Can you store bulk quantities of cornmeal the way you can bulk quantities of (wheat) flour? Thx
Don’t know why not. Corn meal and flour have a good shelf life in the packaging, but putting them in a sealed container, like a good canister, does keep them fresh. I will look into this part.
I think it’s the leavening ingredients like baking soda and baking powder that might go stale, but baking soda is just sodium bicarbonate: common chemical compound, with a stable shelf life. My box of baking soda is 3 years old now.
Baking powder, on the other hand, has other ingredients in it.
It’s the perishable stuff like milk and chicken and meat that are more likely to spoil if they aren’t kept chilled.