Recipe: Tonia’s Modern Appalachian Cornpone

You can put in baking powder. You can put in crackling’s. You can even add jalapenos and bake it in a muffin tin. But whatever you do, don’t you dare put sugar in my cornbread! Read more of this essay…

Special equipment: A well-seasoned 12-inch cast iron skillet or a 9-by-9 glass baking dish

Ingredients: 3 C. plain cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 TBS lard or Spectrum Natural shortening (palm kernel oil)
2 eggs, preferably farm fresh
About 2 cups milk or buttermilk (buttermilk is better)
1 or 2 TBS butter

Instructions: Place cast iron skillet in the lower-middle rack of oven. Preheat to 475 degrees. Skip the preheating step if using a glass baking dish and turn heat down to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then cut in lard or shortening either with a pastry knife or a large fork. The shortening should form small peas throughout the cornmeal. Add eggs and 1 cup milk and mix. Keep adding milk slowly until the batter is loose and easy to stir, but not soupy. Don’t fuss over this, a little less or more will change the texture of the cornbread some, but it won’t be a disaster either way. Cornbread is very forgiving.

Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and swirl butter around the pan. Pour in the batter. It should hiss and begin cooking right away (Don’t preheat the glass dish, just spray the cold pan with cooking spray, pour in the batter and bake).

Smooth the top of the batter, dot with butter if you like, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (Cook to a deeper brown for a crunchy pone, but it’s a matter of personal taste). Pierce the middle of the pone with a knife. If it comes out clean, it’s ready. If not, bake a little longer.

Serving: Cool, cut into wedges and serve as bread with dinner. It’s especially good with wilt sallet, or any cooked greens and fried potatoes. My personal favorite is to eat cornbread with pot roast. For a dessert, you can serve wedges hot, topped with butter and honey or molasses. For a midnight snack, do what my popaw did: Crumble cold cornbread into a glass of buttermilk and eat with a spoon.

Storing: Cornbread freezes very well if cut into wedges and stored in a plastic freezer bag. Take out as many wedges as you need, wrap loosely in paper towels and reheat in the microwave – no longer than 30 seconds for one wedge, or 1 minute for 2 to 4 wedges. Recipe serves 6 to 8.

Tags: buttermilk, cornbread, cornmeal