Questions about American Food

[humbersloop]

Clanad's answer about collard greens on another thread set me thinking about this. So, for starters, how do you make corn bread and what do you eat it with? Ditto grits??

[sandyRoe]

Corn bread, made with maize flour?

[sandyRoe]

Grits seem to be a class of porridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits

[China Doll]

I worked with a canadian temp who brought me in corn bread and her chili con carne... t'was nice.

[humbersloop]

Maybe sandy.

Have a look at the ham hocks thread, looks like with collard greens it's the southern version of bacon and cabbage - pigs and brassicas, food for the poor in most places it seems

[plautus]

As far as I understand it, grits is merely porridge made of maize flour, a staple diet of the poor in the Southern states.

[pastafreak]

Maize flour or ground cornflour....NOT the same as cornflour here in the UK.
It is a yeast free bread-but-if my memory serves me correctly-it has other raising agents in it. I learned how to make an oven baked version-but there are also variations that are cooked in a griddle on top of the stove.
I don't think I have the recipe I used to use,unfortunately.

[dr b]

corn bread with chile, red beans and rice. I also use cornbread as the base for my thanksgiving turkey stuffing.

It's made with cornmeal, which may be the same as maize flour.

[dr b]

cornmeal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornmeal

not the same as cornstarch.

[humbersloop]

thanks for that link sandy

so does the cornbread come out like tortilla?

[dr b]

no, see pictures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbread

or here: http://allrecipes.com...ipes/bread/cornbread/

[plautus]

Shaddup and eat yer grits!

[pastafreak]

Sorry...I meant to say skillet-not griddle. Brain fog....

[sandyRoe]

AS Pastafreak mentioned it has a raising agent, but not yeast. Maybe baking powder or soda. With that, it wouldn't be as flat as a pancake, or a tortilla.

[pastafreak]

It has a cake-like consistancy.

[humbersloop]

ah, batter mix and skillet -again, thanks for the link dr b, it answered several other questions too

I've never seen blue cornmeal for sale in the uk - although blue corn tortilla chips are fab

[Clanad]

The two best things about American cornbread is that it's very simple and doesn't take very long to make.

The purists among us don't use bread flour in the recipe... corn meal only.

Corn meal (there's 2 varieties... yellow and white) is... about the consitency of very small rice... maybe a little finer. Here, the major marketer of corn meal is Quaker Co., same company that makes oatmeal.

First recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup half and half (we use buttermilk)
1/4 cup melted butter or shortening
1/4 sugar

Mix all the dry ingredients together and all the wet ingredients. This is important... don't over mix.. just so the dry ingredients are moistened The resulting mix should be lumpy.

Before you begin anything, take a cast iron skillet (10 inch diameter is best) and coat liberally with cooking oil (not olive oil... Canola is best) and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (F). When it's nearly smoking hot, pour your mixture into the skillet and pop it into the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. The top should begin to brown, the edges will pull away from the skillet and a proverbial toothpick will comeout clean when inserted.

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, any heavy cake pan will do

Those that frown on using bread flour use only the cornmeal, but using about 2 cups. It's cooked the same way and served the same way.

My grandmother in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri liked to make it especially around Christmas which was traditional hog slaughtering time. It was the kids job of keeping the fire correctly under the rendering kettle where lard was rendered from fat and canned for storage. The left overs in the bottom were "cracklings"... small pieces of skin which grandmother use in her cornbread. Added a unique flavor...

[237SJ]

Can you make corn bread in a bread machine clanad? I quite like it - I`ve been served it with chicken, veg and gravy in places like Atlanta.

[pastafreak]

@237sj...most likely no.
It's not a risen yeast bread. It behaves more like cake-with a similar consistencey.

[237SJ]

Thanks Pasta. I might get some cornmeal and give the oven method a go sometime. When Clanad says "all purpose flour" does he mean strong white bread flower, normal plain flour or normal self-raising flour? Secondly, can you freeze it?