A Southerner's Humorous Perspective On Cornbread
What follows is my perspectives on cornbread. The dictionary defines the word "perspective" as: "The appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer". So, this is MY perspective on cornbread, just my opinion. You may disagree.
Cornbread is something that Southerners get pretty passionate about. Me included. My views on cornbread were developed from being born and raised in the Deep South. It saddens me to see all the so called Southern cornbread recipes on the web that contain sugar and eggs. To me that ain't Southern! It should be very simple and easy to make with few ingredients. Hey, it's bread!
For those that like sweet cornbread, go ahead and put sugar in it (shudder), I just wouldn't call it Southern cornbread. As long as I'm on a rant, here's my other pet peeves:
Pet Peeve #1:
How do you spell it: I don't know what Webster says, but it's cornbread, NOT corn bread. Most Southerners spell cornbread as one word, not two.
Pet Peeve #2:
Sugar in Cornbread: (Yes, I know I'm repeating) Southern cornbread is NOT SWEET! It does NOT contain sugar. Southern cornbread is bread to accompany a meal. It is not dessert. It is not cake.
Pet Peeve #3:
Eggs in cornbread: Eggs act as a binder that gives bread a cake-like texture. Cornbread should be crumbly with a crunchy crust. Eggs will completely change the texture.
Pet Peeve #4:
Recipes that use equal parts of corn meal and flour: The flour is in cornbread just to hold it together and give it body. Cornbread should be crumbly. Too much flour makes it (again) cake-like in texture and detracts from the corn meal flavor. A good mixture is about 1/2 cup flour to 1 cup corn meal.
Pet Peeve #5:
Yellow corn meal vs. white corn meal: Yellow corn meal is fine for tamale pie but not in cornbread. I don't know the difference, other than color, but white corn meal seems to have a better texture. Besides, yellow cornbread looks funny. (Again, again, it looks like cake, rather than bread). Nearly all recipes on the internet call for yellow corn meal...and some Southerners prefer it. But where I grew up, yellow cornbread was not considered "Southern". To prove my point, order cornbread the next time you eat in a restaurant. What color is it? Yellow! Now, ask yourself, have you ever found real Southern cornbread in a restaurant?
Pet Peeve #6:
Cornbread shape...muffins, uggggh!: To me, Southern cornbread should be cooked only two ways. Round or pones, both cooked in cast iron.
ROUND: The round shape, of course, comes from the shape of a regular cast iron skillet. This is the most common way to cook cornbread
PONES: Pones are also called corn sticks or corncob cornbread. It is made using a cast iron pan that shapes the batter into sticks resembling corncobs.
No Southerner makes cornbread in a "muffin" shape. That's "restaurant cornbread". (Just my opinion).
I could think of a couple more pet peeves, but since I've probably already offended some, guess I'll stop here. If you happen to be one of the offended, hey...it's only cornbread!
Here's our real Southern Cornbread Recipe.
Ken
webmaster - www.olsouthrecipes.com
