The comfort of homemade cornbread

About a month or so ago, Marge bought a spiral sliced ham that we really enjoyed. The ham had a fair-sized bone in it that just shouted out that it was meant for a big pot of beans. So just over a week ago, Marge got her bigger Crock-Pot out and we began to put together some ham and beans. I inspected the beans for rocks and then washed them. Once clean, we added them to the Crock-Pot, along with the bone and several quarts of water and a big onion (I should have added two). We turned it on high until bedtime and then turned it down to low.

I got up at about 2 or 3 a.m. and stirred the beans. When I woke up at about 5 a.m. or so, I could smell the beans. As I was making coffee, I wondered if the beans were tender and how things were coming, so temptation got the best of me. I spooned out a sample. They were not bad at all, and I had a few more just to make sure. After feeding our calves and doing the chores, I came in for breakfast, and guess what I had for breakfast and dinner? But I didn't have cornbread with it. Bummer!

When we lived in Wilmore, Kentucky, where I went to school at Asbury Seminary, I did some carpentry work in Nicholasville. Rather than go to one of the fast food restaurants, most of the time I'd go to a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant close to the courthouse. They served the usual burgers and fries, but their specialty was a really good bowl of ham and beans. What made it stand out was that they fried cornbread like you would pancakes. Best I have ever eaten. Not sure how they did it, but I'd like to know.

The most unusual ham and beans and cornbread I have ever eaten was out at the Cement Lakes. I'd been out fishing and stayed a little too long and got cold. Jack stopped me in the parking lot and wanted me to come into his home on wheels and warm up. It sounded like a good idea. Jack then insisted I have a bowl of his ham and beans, which were cooking on his wood stove. It was good, but I wasn't sure what all he had in it; I didn't ask, either. The old bus was fairly dark and I couldn't see the beans very well. I was glad about that, but they were good.

Cornbread is one of those staples all of us have enjoyed from childhood on. We associate cornbread with ham and beans, yet cornbread is enjoyed with about any meal. One of the most interesting accounts is with John Wayne in the movie "True Grit." In this movie he had a whole pocket of corn dodgers that he seemed to be eating all the time. "Rooster" goes on and explains that his Chinese houseboy cooks up his corn dodgers in "big ladles of coonmeat grease." I wonder if when times got hard they threw in some possum grease as well. Corn dodgers aren't exactly cornbread, but they are made using cornmeal, fat of some kind, salt and some liquid, which was normally water.

Most of the cornbread I've eaten has been baked in the usual square cake pans. Marge tends to use muffin tins, while others use glass casserole dishes. Some use an old cast-iron skillet to bake their cornbread. Very few fry their cornbread like pancakes.

A week or so ago I put a post on Facebook asking how those on my friends list made cornbread and how they cooked and ate it. Many start their cornbread using the Jiffy cornbread mix. Some add butter, while others add some fresh corn or even cream style corn. Most of those who make cornbread start from scratch. Very few use the old yellow corn meal; most use the white cornmeal.

Most of the recipes I've found call for some type of grease, like butter or bacon drippings or even olive oil. You then can use straight cornmeal, or you can add some flour with a three parts cornmeal to one part flour ration. Most add a couple teaspoons of baking soda and about a teaspoon of salt. Some add a little sugar and an egg, but that is up to you. The older recipes usually call for buttermilk rather than milk; either will work. Water will work in a pinch if you don't have milk.

You can get as creative as you want by adding ingredients. Listle used to add cracklings to her cornbread. Amy adds jalapeños and sun-dried tomatoes to hers. Vicki used to make a Mexican cornbread that was out of this world good. I miss her cooking. You can also add some bacon bits or pieces; pieces sound better. Diana said she adds fresh corn to her cornbread; that also sounds good. Marilyn said she adds Stevia to sweeten it up. Some said they like to eat their cornbread with lots of butter on it, and I like it this way as well. Leita said she likes cornbread with peanut butter and maple syrup. Sheryl said she likes butter and jelly on hers.

If you use a cast-iron skillet, most heat their skillet before adding the cornbread mix. They also put a little bacon grease or such in the bottom of the skillet before adding the mix. One tricky part to baking cornbread is knowing when it's done. Marge sticks a toothpick in the cornbread. If you let it cook a little too long, it may get dry. If you take it out too soon, it may be doughy. Either way, it will probably get eaten.

Happy eating.

Until next time.