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| And now, all about CD's forthcoming cornbread book (yes, a whole book on
cornbread) and how it grew... |
| Just a simple little book about cornbread... |
| A nice, simple, fun subject --- just one --- after the decade I put into
PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN. I saw my upcoming cornbread book as one that would be
lightweight, playful, pretty easy to do. |
| And I love cornbread: always have, always will, ever since the days of the
first cornbread I ever learned to make, back in 1969... the one that evolved
into Dairy Hollow House
Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread. |
| ...that got
way out of hand |
| Unfortunately, I had the amnesia I always have about what goes into writing a
cookbook. |
| I forgot that no matter the subject, when I get into it, it gets into me. I
fall in love with the particular food or subject. Even if I already loved the
food, as in the case of cornbread, this love changes, deepens, gets
multi-dimensional and respectful. |
| Like all real love, it feels
boundless and all-encompassing and without end; there is nothing it doesn't
touch. In the case of cornbread, this really is so, objectively speaking. |
| A deeply rooted food |
 Cornbread has taken me into corn, a new world food (though it was not new to
those who had lived there for thousands of years). One such subset of people
were the Arawak, a Caribbean tribe who brought maize as a gift to the strangely
colored and costumed new visitors who arrived on their shores
in the late 1400's in the strangest of crafts --- Christopher Columbus and his
crew. This indigenous grain, as it turned out, changed the way the entire world ate. |
| So the study of cornbread leads me, for starters, to the following, each its own
distinct world: Native Americans, British colonists who later developed
into American settlers, Southerners
versus Yankees, slavery, the Civil War, and the Mason Dixon
line. |
| But while all these things were happening in North America with our native
grain, that grain, and breadstuffs made from it, were, as I have said, busily
changing the way the world ate. So my cornbread understanding has involved stops in Africa, Indonesia, Italy,
and India to name a few. It leads me to food
technology, including the ancient practice of treating corn with lime to make
masa. It leads me to gristmills, and to cookbooks published in wartime (when
patriotic Americans were supposed to cut back on wheat flour, the better to
serve the fighting forces). And it leads me to great food, such as
Jonnycakes. It led me, too, to "deja food" ---
what to do with leftover cornbread, should one be lucky enough to have some...
including, just in time for Thanksgiving, an excellent
Savory Cornbread Stuffing. |
| Amazing cornbreads |
Cornbreads can be primal: (tortillas, hoecakes, made with nothing more than
ground corn and water). They can be
elaborated in the most astonishing ways: as soufflé-like spoonbreads, or
 as shortcakes,
sweet or savory, or biscuits, or muffins, pancakes, waffles. As Southwestern-flavored cornbreads with green chiles
and cheddar cheese or toasted cumin seeds. As tamales, or cornbread-topped pies
and cobblers (again, sweet or savory). Then, there are foods that go well
with cornbread (beans, greens, buttermilk, stews...). And tools: ovens and
griddles and skillets and grills and open fires and waffle-makers. ere are
cornbread appetizers. There are cornbread desserts. |
| And last night (as I write these words, in September of 2003), a cornbread tasting --- perhaps my 15th so far since
beginning the book.
To learn more about this whole process, please go to
Of Moose and Men (and Women) and
Bi-Coastal Cornbread as well as
recipe
development.
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| But meanwhile... go on and make yourself some cornbread right away now, hear? |
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