Friday, May 28, 2010

Cornbread

There was a restaurant, an historic re-creation of sorts, in Colonial Williamsburg, where "Sal" and I dined while we were there. It was there that I had the best cornbread I had ever tasted.

Those of you from the city tend to associate bread with being a byproduct of wheat. Such is your loss. Cornbread is obviously not from wheat, but from the meal made of corn. If you are from the southern United States, you might be aware of how cornbread became popular "back in the day" as a form of quick bread (that which is leavened by an acidic reaction, as opposed to yeast) that was much cheaper than wheat bread, as the main ingredient was very close at hand, and took less time when feeding a hungry family. If you hail from the Midwest or the Great Plains, you hail from a region also known as "the Corn Belt" of the Nation.

No one who was raised smelling cornbread baking in the kitchen will dismiss it. Cornbread is the essential comfort food of middle America. Breakfast, lunch, supper -- it is equally at home on the table anytime of the day. Just reading about it in Wikipedia is enough to bring tears to a man's eye. (Somewhere in the USA, a displaced Southern boy is placing a call home to Mama as you read this.) The very thought of it is enough to bring peace to a rancorous discussion at the blog WDTPRS.

Which is why that part of the conversation is being reproduced here.

+    +    +

I think “nazareth priest” is right. I said so the whole time. And after all that effort, I’m callin’ mama back in Ohio. I have a sudden appetite for cornbread.
Comment by manwithblackhat — 28 May 2010 @ 2:49 pm

I really don’t believe that I was in any way mean-spirited ... I stand behind what I wrote, and the way in which I wrote it.
Except maybe for that crack about cornbread. I’m from the Midwest as well, so self-deprecation seemed like a good idea at the time.

Comment by manwithblackhat — 28 May 2010 @ 5:13 pm

Now you’re going too far. I’m a southerner, and cornbread is our thing. (At least, we think so.) Sorry, you can’t have any.
Comment by Henry Edwards — 28 May 2010 @ 5:25 pm

Obviously we need a separate conversation about cornbread. Probably not here.
Comment by manwithblackhat — 28 May 2010 @ 5:39 pm

Henry E. and manw/blackhat: I LOVE cornbread.
My Mum’s people were from Tennessee…sweet tea and cornbread…
Better put up a separate conversation about cornbread…the English/Northeasterns et al won’t understand ... not at all:< }!

Comment by nazareth priest — 28 May 2010 @ 6:33 pm

This cornbread sure sounds tasty.
Comment by Jack Hughes — 28 May 2010 @ 6:43 pm

cornbread huh? well how about a southern dish with a yankee twist?? ;)
have yer cornbread, beans, onions et al and top it off with a lil maple syrup! Just a smidgeon now! ;) YUM!

Comment by Ancient Soul — 28 May 2010 @ 7:07 pm

+    +    +

MAPLE SYRUP??? That's for hotcakes, dagnabbit, not cornbread!!!

Discuss.
.

3 comments:

Battle Beads said...

yep .. maple syrup! and it was tested on a North Carolina boy that just loved it ;) And there you have the Yankee Twist! LOL

Fr. John Mary, ISJ said...

Love it!
Will eat it.
May my beloved great-grandma Cunningham/Sheely be ever given her merit and praise in purgatory...good ole Irish woman she was.
I loved her very much as a child.
She died when I was only 14 old.
May she rest in peace. Always. With the Good Lord, His Mother, and all the angles and saints.
I love you, Grandma Sheely,...always...forever, I love you, John!

Dymphna said...

Best cornbread outside of my mother's kitchen is at Cracker Barrel.