Appalachian Word of the Week -- CORNPONE

This week's word is sure to make your mouth water. A CORNPONE is how we refer to a pan of cornbread.

Now, in the mountains, we don’t make our cornbread like the Yankees do. They use yellow cornmeal instead of our mill-ground white cornmeal and add sugar to it. It may taste good for dessert, but our cornbread goes with the main meal. Or IS the meal for some of us. Adding sugar to cornbread is like adding sugar to grits. Yuck.

Nothing beats my granny’s cornbread, baked in her iron skillet in her coal-fired cook stove. But, it’s passable to use a modern oven or even cook it on top of the stove. You must, however, use an iron skillet if you want to make it more authentic.

Photo taken at the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, KY

Here’s my granny’s recipe:

Put some bacon grease (or butter, if you don’t keep your bacon grease for cooking) in the bottom of your skillet (black, iron skillet) and put it in the oven (set to 400 if you’re using a modern stove) to heat up while you mix your ingredients.

Put some self-rising flour and a little less meal in a bowl. Add a pinch of salt and an egg. Stir in just enough buttermilk to make a thick batter. Just stir it enough to get the lumps out, don’t over-stir it. (Granny never measured. She used her eye to make sure it looked right.)

Take the heated skillet out of the oven and pour the heated bacon grease (or butter) right into the mixture and mix it in. She also melted a couple of tablespoons of bacon grease or butter and put it right on top after she put the mixture into the skillet. Bake it until it’s golden brown (Start eyeing it after about 25 minutes).

If you need a more detailed recipe, you can try this one:

2 cups of cornmeal

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon of table salt (a pinch)

1 large egg

1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups of buttermilk

2 tablespoons of bacon grease for batter, plus 3 for the skillet

Preheat oven to 400°.

Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of bacon grease to your iron skillet and put in the oven, set to 400.

In a large mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients. Stir.

Add egg. Then add 1 1/4 cups of buttermilk, but if it seems too dry I add another 1/4 cup. Stir sparingly. Batter should be moist, not runny like pancakes. If it looks too wet add just a little more cornmeal.

When the skillet is good and hot, remove it from oven with a good thick pot holder. Add the melted bacon grease/butter to the batter and stir just enough to mix it in. Add batter to the skillet and stick it in the oven.

Bake until the edges turn golden brown (Check after about 25 minutes. Don’t go past 35 minutes or you might burn the bottom. If you’re not sure if it’s done, stick a toothpick in it like you would a cake.

Make sure you use that potholder when you remove it from the oven. Iron skillets get really hot! And they’re heavy.

If you want to fancy up your CORNPONE, there are a few common ingredients you can add.

CORN – Drain a can of corn (or some of your own canned corn) and add it to the mix. Make sure you don’t get too much juice in it or it will be too runny. If you want to add creamed corn, back off on the buttermilk a bit.

CRACKLINS – You may be wondering what a cracklin is. It’s the fried skin of a pig, after the lard is rendered from it. Adds a tasty excitement to your CORNPONE.

A cornpone with cracklins

 CHITLINS – Chitlins (Chitterlings) come from pigs, too. Before you get too grossed out, remember that sausages are made by squeezing the sausage meat into a pig’s intestine. Didn’t know you’d been eating them for years, did you? But, chitlins are cleaned thoroughly and then cooked. Mighty tasty, if you can stomach it.

 ACCOMPANIMENTS WITH YOUR CORNPONE:

My favorite way to eat cornbread as a child was crumbled into a glass of buttermilk. My dad and I loved having it for breakfast or a late-night snack.

Other things that just seem to belong on a plate with a chunk of cornbread are soup beans, tomatoes from the garden, green onions, any kind of soup, and fried chicken.

Of course, no piece of cornbread from your CORNPONE is complete without a slathering of fresh cow’s butter.

I would open it up, piping hot from the oven, and add a bit more butter

Are you hungry yet? Have you ever made a CORNPONE? If not, it’s not too late.