Sunday, August 17, 2008
Food, Recipes

Bon appétit, y’all

I could make a meal out of just buttered cornbread...

Photos/courtesy of Virginia Willis

By Virginia Willis

I could make a meal out of just buttered cornbread. Except perhaps for barbecue, cornbread is as close to religion in the South as any particular food gets. At the top of the list of cornbread sins is adding sugar. You’ll notice a complete lack of sugar in this cornbread recipe. Sugar is more often found in what is referred to derisively as “Yankee cornbread.”

Adherents of white versus yellow cornmeal are like Methodists and Baptists: Some think you’re going to hell if you follow one path and not the other. I’m of the white cornmeal sect. The theory is that white corn was less hybridized and closer to the original grain than yellow. Plain white cornmeal can be surprisingly tricky to find, even in Atlanta; most of what lines the grocery store shelves is a mix or self-rising, which already contains the leavener that makes the cornmeal rise. Although yellow and white cornmeal are interchangeable, plain and self-rising cornmeal aren’t.

Warming the skillet and bacon grease or butter in the oven prepares the skillet for baking and melts the fat. Most often, I use butter. I like to let it get just barely nutty brown on the edges. The brown flecks give the cornbread extra color and flavor. SP
Atlanta-based Virginia Willis is an author, chef, producer and food stylist. She will discuss her new cookbook, “Bon appétit, y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking,” at the Dunwoody Alon’s Bakery and Market (4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road NE) on Saturday, Aug. 23, at 1 p.m. Expect complimentary tasting of some of Willis’ dishes such as vidalia onion quiche, buttermilk cornbread and Coca-Cola-glazed baby back ribs. www.virginiawillis.com.

This article has been reprinted with permission from "Bon appétit, y'all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking" by Virginia Willis, 2008. Puublished by Ten Speed Press.


BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD

Makes one 10 ½-inch skillet bread
(p. 211 of “Bon appétit, y’all”)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or bacon grease
• 2 cups white or yellow cornmeal (not cornmeal mix or self-rising cornmeal)
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the butter in a 10 ½-inch cast-iron skillet or ovenproof baking dish, and heat in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In a large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir to combine. Remove the heated skillet from the oven, and pour the melted butter into the batter. Stir to combine. Then pour the batter back into the hot skillet. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.