Nutrition Heretic

The rise of wheat sensitivities over the past few years has had many bread lovers searching for substitute grains. This isn’t new though. Wheat was not always an option in a pre-industrialized world… especially for the lower classes, who sometimes relied on other crops like oats, rye, millet, barley or even chestnuts to make various types of breads. The main difference between then and now is that they weren’t trying to make sandwiches, while that seems to be our main obsession with these alternative breads.

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According to food historian, Ken Albala, early settlers to Virginia found wheat difficult to grow there and so adopted the practice of growing corn from native tribes run out of the area. Other than turkey and perhaps cranberries, cornbread is considered the quintessential Thanksgiving food. In more recent times, we’ve decided that it’s also great next to a bowl of Tex Mex chili.

If you live in the south, you may be incensed by my use of maple syrup. Leave it out. The basic recipe is still a good southern one.

If you live in the north, you may consider replacing half the cornmeal with white flour, doubling the maple syrup, adding butter and perhaps even an additional egg. In other words, cornbread up north is generally considered more like cake.

The company I buy my non-GMO cornmeal from is Healthy Traditions. The label on the bag says “cornflour”, but it is indeed cornmeal. If you are from the UK and presumably other commonwealth countries, make sure you’re getting ground corn, not white cornstarch, which I believe is still labeled “cornflour” in your neck of the woods. I learned this the hard way.

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If you eat a lot of cornbread, I recommend using organic masa harina, which has been nixtamalized by soaking in lime. This process liberates the niacin in the grain. People who rely heavily on corn as a staple food without this process being performed develop a disease called ‘pellagra‘, characterized by the 4 Ds:

• diarrhea
• dermatitis
• dementia
• death — although this one can be averted

Masa harina is typically used for making Mexican foods such as corn tortilla shells. It is actually my favorite cornmeal for this recipe as I believe it gives the bread a more “corny” flavor.

By pouring the batter into a hot, greased pan, the bread develops a nice crispy crust. If you don’t care about that or don’t want it, you’re welcome to bake it in a glass casserole dish or even a loaf pan.

Let’s get started.

Cornbread Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp lard or bacon fat
• 2 cups masa harina or cornmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup soured milk, kefir, yogurt, etc
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup, optional

How to Make The Best Cornbread

Place bacon fat or lard in 10″ cast iron skillet, then put the skillet in the oven. Heat oven to 425ºF/220ºC/gas mark 7.

While that’s coming to temperature, mix together masa harina or cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add in egg and soured milk. Stir with a wooden spoon.

Swirl hot fat around iron skillet to ensure the bottom is sufficiently coated. Pour out excess fat into batter. Stir well, then pour the batter into piping hot skillet and return to oven.

Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

You can serve this as-is or use some of it for making cornbread stuffing over on the 50 Ways to Eat Cock website.

Some people like to add kernels of sweet corn, cheese or hot peppers to their cornbread, but we’re more or less purists around here.

What do you like to add to your cornbread? Let me know in the comments below!