Corn Bread

The second best dish in Texas

Cornbread!

I learned how to make cornbread when I was a child and I know my mother's recipe by heart:

My Mother's Recipe for Corn Bread

Melt enough bacon fat in the iron skillet to keep the cornbread from sticking and to flavor the crust. Place the skillet in the 425 degree F. oven to heat the whole skillet while mixing the batter.

In a bowl stir together the dry ingredients:

a cup of flour

a cup of yellow corn meal

2 to 4 Tablespoons of sugar to taste

4 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of salt

Make a well in the center of the mixed dry ingredients and add:

two eggs

a cup of milk or buttermilk

1/4 cup of oil or bacon fat (for best flavor)

a can of creamed corn if desired

some chopped green chiles if desired

Stir until mixed well. Pour into the pre-heated skillet. You should hear a sizzle! Bake the cornbread for 20 to 25 minutes until brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The Choctaw (Native American Tribe) invented a heartier variation on regular cornbread called Cracklin Bread. Sometimes my mother would make this kind and sometimes we just had regular cornbread which we ate almost every night of the week.

Cornbread goes well with chili and it goes especially well with a big bowl of Pinto Beans with some home fries on the side. I grew up on the poor side and we ate beans and cornbread often. Now I miss it terribly because nutritionists will tell you that this good filling home cooked food is bad for you. I have a theory that they're wrong. When I ate most of my meals home cooked in my Texas youth I had no problem with my weight. Now that I try to eat "healthy" foods, I've found quite a few pounds over the years that stubbornly won't come off. Maybe I should go back to eating like I did way back then.

If you want to make the "Indian" Cracklin' Bread, just use the recipe to the right for regular cornbread and add some well done pork skins before baking. You can use commercial pork rinds, but they tend to be softer than home fried skins.

Adding fresh corn is also an option and will really lend authenticity to this recipe. Just get some fresh corn on the cob and scrape off the kernels until you have a cupful or so and add them to the mix. The recipe is very versatile and can be made the day before even. But it is best when fresh out of the oven and mixed with juicy beans and/or slathered with real butter (never eat fresh corn bread with margarine!) and eaten hot!

My grandpa used to eat left over cornbread mixed with a glass of buttermilk for dessert! He loved the stuff. Hey! He was never overweight! That does it, I'm going back to eating cornbread, chili and beans again.

#texas