A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (48 page)

CORN MUFFINS

MAKES ABOUT
1½
DOZEN MUFFINS

With the exception of biscuits, corn breads are the universal southern favorite. And the quicker the better; these classic corn muffins are ready to serve in half an hour. Note:
For extra flavor, use bacon drippings as the shortening. In days past, frugal southern cooks would keep a jar or old coffee tin of bacon drippings at the ready—to stir into corn breads; to dress cooked collards, turnip greens, and snap beans; even to wilt lettuce. To this day, wilted lettuce (also known as Smothered Lettuce, Chapter 4) remains popular in much of the South.

1½ cups unsifted stone-ground yellow cornmeal

½ cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

3½ tablespoons melted bacon drippings or lard or, if you prefer, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spritz 18 muffin pan cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside (I use three 6-muffin pans).
  
• 2.
  Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.
  
• 3.
  Whisk the egg, milk, and bacon drippings together in a small bowl or 1-quart measure until creamy, pour into the well in the dry ingredients, and stir only enough to combine. The batter should be lumpy and it’s best if a few floury specks show because they prove that you haven’t overbeaten the batter. Overbeating is the fastest way to toughen a muffin.
  
• 4.
  Spoon the batter into the muffin pan cups, dividing the total amount evenly.
  
• 5.
  Bake in the lower third of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to the touch. Serve hot with plenty of butter.
  

When I’m old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea…and a damn good kitchen to cook in.

—
AVA GARDNER
,
NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE

“Shut your eyes and open your mouth and I’ll give you a surprise,” she said. It was not often that she made crackling bread; she said she never had time…she knew I loved crackling bread.

—
HARPER LEE
,
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

IRON SKILLET CORN BREAD

MAKES AN
8-
INCH ROUND LOAF

Whenever my New York friends fly south for a visit, I serve this corn bread for breakfast—straight from the oven. My good friend Sara Moulton liked it so well that she asked for the recipe, then featured it on her Food Network show
Cooking Live
.
What makes this particular corn bread so special is the contrast of textures: It’s crusty-brown on the outside and soft, in fact almost creamy, inside. The recipe comes from my stepmother’s aunt Annie Pool, a Virginia farm woman and exceptionally gifted cook who was never fazed when several dozen members of the extended family showed up for the annual Thanksgiving feast. Note:
The way to enjoy this corn bread is to split each wedge horizontally while it’s hissing-hot, tuck in a couple of pats of butter, then eat the instant they melt.

2 cups unsifted stone-ground cornmeal (preferably white)

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¹
/
₃
cup firmly packed lard or vegetable shortening (I always use lard because it gives the corn bread better flavor)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups buttermilk

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 425° F.
  
• 2.
  Combine the cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
  
• 3.
  Place the lard in a well-seasoned 8-inch iron skillet with an ovenproof handle and set on the middle oven shelf for 2 to 3 minutes or until the lard melts completely.
  
• 4.
  Meanwhile, add the eggs and buttermilk to the well in the dry ingredients and stir only enough to mix. Pour in the hot melted lard and stir briskly to incorporate.
  
• 5.
  Pour the batter into the hot skillet and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 25 minutes or until nicely browned and a cake tester inserted midway between the center and the edge comes out clean.
  
• 6.
  Rush the skillet from oven to table, cut the corn bread into wedges, and serve with plenty of fresh unsalted butter.
  

CRACKLIN’ BREAD

MAKES AN
8 × 8 × 2-
INCH LOAF

Cracklin’s are the crisp meaty bits left after pork fat has been rendered into lard—a delicious byproduct of the annual autumn hog killings. Fortunately you needn’t butcher your own hogs to obtain cracklin’s today. They can be ordered (see Sources, backmatter) or you can make your own from pork fat trimmings. This simple recipe comes from the Smoky Mountains.

2 cups unsifted stone-ground cornmeal (do not use granular supermarket meal)

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup cracklin’s (see headnote)

1¾ cups sour milk or buttermilk

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 400° F. Coat an 8 × 8 × 2-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Combine the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl; add the cracklin’s, toss well to mix, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
  
• 3.
  Pour the milk into the well in the dry ingredients and stir only enough to form a stiff dough. Scoop into the pan, spreading to the corners.
  
• 4.
  Bake the cracklin’ bread on the middle oven shelf for 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to the touch.
  
• 5.
  Cut into squares and serve hot. No butter needed.
  

KENTUCKY CORN LIGHT BREAD

MAKES ABOUT
8
SERVINGS

“This is the best corn bread I ever put in my mouth,” Lois Watkins of Trigg County, Kentucky, said of this old family recipe some years ago when I flew out to interview her for a
Family Circle
series I was writing on America’s best country cooks. First steamed and then baked, it is incredibly light—more angel food than corn bread. I use a 2-quart steamed pudding mold to cook it, but an 8-inch tube pan works nearly as well. The trick is to grease the mold or pan well, then dust it with cornmeal. Note:
Use only stone-ground cornmeal for this recipe (see Sources, backmatter); the granular supermarket variety won’t work.

2½ cups unsifted stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white)

²
/
₃
cup sifted all-purpose flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups buttermilk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

¼ cup lard or butter, melted

• 1.
  Grease a 2-quart steamed pudding mold or 8-inch tube pan well, then dust with cornmeal and tap out the excess. Set the pudding mold or tube pan aside.
  
• 2.
  Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.
  
• 3.
  Whisk the buttermilk, egg, and melted lard in a small bowl or 1-quart measure until creamy; pour into the well in the dry ingredients and beat hard for about 1 minute.
  
• 4.
  Pour the batter into the prepared mold and snap on the lid (or cover the tube pan snugly with foil). Set the mold on a rack over boiling water in a deep kettle (the bottom of the mold should not touch the water), cover the kettle, and steam the bread 35 minutes. Toward the end of steaming, preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 5.
  Lift the pudding mold from the kettle and remove the lid. Slide the uncovered mold onto the middle oven shelf and bake the bread for about 35 minutes or until it is lightly browned and begins to pull from the sides of the mold.
  
• 6.
  Remove the mold from the oven and cool in the upright mold on a wire rack for 2 to 3 minutes; this helps keep the bread from cracking as you unmold it.
  
• 7.
  Using a thin-blade spatula, carefully loosen the bread around the edge and central tube, then invert on a heated round plate.
  
• 8.
  Cut into wedges and serve hot with plenty of butter.
  

MARIA HARRISON’S BATTER BREAD (SPOON BREAD)

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

Maria (pronounced muh-RYE-ah, the southern way) is the mother of my good friend and colleague Maria Harrison Reuge, formerly a
Gourmet
editor and now the owner, with her French chef husband, Guy, of Mirabelle, a splen
did little restaurant on the North Shore of Long Island. I’ve eaten “high on the hog” there, as they’d say down south. When I was heading for Tidewater Virginia to research a food and travel article for
Bon Appétit
magazine, Maria opened many James River plantation doors for me. She grew up on Coggins Point Farm overlooking the James with her brother Jimmy (now married to Lisa Ruffin of Evelynton Plantation), and this “old southern receipt” is one she remembers her mother making. Batter bread, also called “spoon bread,” is in fact a corn bread soufflé popular throughout the South. There are many different recipes for it, but Maria Harrison’s is hands down the best I’ve eaten. What goes with batter bread? Just about everything: Think of it, if you like, as a potato substitute, although to tell the truth, many Southerners serve potatoes
and
batter bread at the same meal. Note:
If your batter bread is to be light, you must use stone-ground cornmeal (preferably white; see Sources, backmatter) and cook it until very thick. The granular yellow cornmeal sold at supermarkets simply will not work.