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Author Topic: Stealing railroad tracks for the metal  (Read 22867 times)
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KB2WIG
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« Reply #50 on: July 07, 2011, 09:51:08 PM »

"   Praise the Lard!   "


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k4kyv
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Don
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« Reply #51 on: July 07, 2011, 11:47:59 PM »

Real Southern cornbread is made with good mill ground cornmeal, whole buttermilk (almost impossible to find now), egg, a bit of salt and baking soda.  THERE IS NO SUGAR IN IT AT ALL.     Now, the key thing:  You have to have a cast iron skillet that is seasoned (that's a whole topic on its own) and you put veg. oil in it, just enough to make a layer of oil in the bottom about the thickness of a pencil lead.  Roll the oil around the skillet and put it in the oven at about 350 400 degrees and leave it there for at least 15 minutes.  I used to leave it in while I was mixing the batter.   When you done with the batter, you haul out the skillet.  You need a big oven mitt it is hot as hell and you roll the oil around it again and dump that batter in it kabam it will sizzle and you put the whole thing back in and let it bake.  Been over 20 years since I baked any so I forget how long--20 minutes maybe 30 IIRC, but when it is done, it will be crispy around the skillet and the whole thing will fall out of the skillet onto a plate and you slice it and put a lot of butter on it and with black coffee you are in heaven.  but there ain't no @#$%^ sugar in it!  (feel like I'm back in Mississippi now).   If it weren't so hot out, I'd think about getting out my old skillet and getting back into it again.   Oh yeah, this is where most yankees screw up:  when you done, you just wipe the skillet with a paper towel and put it away.    Northerners all say, eeeew, it is dirty.   What you gonna use it for, Jello?   Nothing gonna survive in there if all you ever do is heat it to 400 degrees.  they go at it with steel wool and soap.   Huh  Then they wonder, "what's this seasoning you talking about?"

The way we  make it is very similar to what Rob described, but no yeggs. No wheat flour or sugar either. Cast iron skillet just as Rob described. The original recipe probably used lard, but we use vegetable oil, which was heated in the skillet and then poured and mixed into the batter leaving the oily residue at bottom of the skillet. But now we use that no-stick spray stuff in the skillet and just mix the oil  directly in with the batter.  For some reason, after we moved  down here, doing it the old fashioned way with the oil makes it tend to stick to the pan  - even a "seasoned" skillet. Rob is correct. You want one skillet dedicated to use only for corn bread.

Batter is made from 1 cup of buttermilk, mixed with 1 cup + a little extra of white stone-ground, whole grain corn meal. Avoid the self-rising stuff. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, and 1/4 tsp of baking powder. Mix it all together and pour into the skillet, and place in pre-heated oven @ 350 degrees.  Let cook for 20-30 minutes, until it turns a light brown.

When  done, take it out of the oven (don't forget the oven mitt), turn the skillet upside down and dump the whole thing into a plate. Cut into six pieces, like you would cut a pizza.  The crust should be a nice, smooth golden brown. Good sliced and buttered.  Also good  for sopping up the juice from turnip greens, collard greens, swiss chard or cabbage. Delicious for breakfast, served like pancakes, smeared with home-made wild blackberry jam.

It's an old southern recipe, but interestingly, we originally started making it while living in Cambridge, MA, using ingredients from a local health food store.  We purchased whole grain white corn and manually ground up our own meal with a hand-grinder. It always came out perfectly.  When we moved down here, using the same recipe, it would always stick to the pan; that's why we started using that Baker's Joy crap in the skillet instead of hot oil. The crust doesn't come out quite so well, but at least the bread doesn't fall to pieces as we try to scrape it loose to get it out of the pan.

We probably still make it 2-3 times per month.
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Don, K4KYV                                       AMI#5
Licensed since 1959 and not happy to be back on AM...    Never got off AM in the first place.

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« Reply #52 on: July 08, 2011, 07:23:29 AM »

I forgot about dumping the oil into the batter but that's right; I remember doing it that way.   Thanks Don.  Back when I was making it regularly I never bothered measuring anything.  I remember that I had to make it regularly.  If for some reason I didn't (I think I took a break from it in the hottest part of summer) it would take a couple of tries to get it right again.   Mom always said biscuits have to be made regularly (every day) for them to be good.  Her mother made them regularly but mom did not.  I am no biscuit expert but I know a good one when I eat it.   That is not very often at all.
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K2PG
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« Reply #53 on: July 08, 2011, 02:02:43 PM »

Any of you have the Southern cookbook that was given away as a promotion by the makers of Pebeco toothpaste?
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