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Virginia Spoon Cornbread
3 well beaten eggs 3 pints milk 2 tablespoons melted fat 1 cup white cornmeal 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Break eggs in bowl, beat 1 minute. Add milk and shortening, then cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Bake in deep pan about 35 minutes in moderate (375 degrees) oven. Punch hole in center before taking from oven to see if done. Serve from the baking pan with plenty of butter. Raisins or nut meats may be added for variety.
An unusually liquid spoonbread: six cups of milk to a single cup of meal, with no scalded mush step. Expect something closer to a cornmeal custard than to cornbread, which is the point.
- The ratio is not an errorThree pints is 6 cups of milk against 1 cup of meal. The batter will look alarmingly thin when it goes into the pan; the meal swells and the eggs set, giving a spoonable pudding with a soft, almost soupy center. Do not thicken it.
- Choose the pan for depthThe batter is roughly 2 quarts before baking, so a 2 1/2 to 3 quart casserole or a deep 9x9 will hold it; anything shallow risks overflowing as the custard rises.
- Oven temperatureThe 375F given is accurate for this book's "moderate" and needs no adjustment. Set the pan on a middle rack; the top should be lightly browned and puffed.
- Cornmeal grindWhite cornmeal is traditional in Virginia. A fine grind is the safer choice here: a coarse meal may stay gritty in a batter that is never precooked.
- Baking powderOlder spoonbreads often relied on eggs alone. The 1 1/2 teaspoons here gives a little lift; add it last and get the pan into the oven promptly rather than letting the batter stand.
- The doneness testPunching the center is the instruction that matters. The edges will firm long before the middle does, and the center should be set but still visibly moist and quivering. Baked until dry throughout it becomes a dense cornmeal cake.
- Timing may run longerThe recipe pairs 35 minutes with a deep pan, but a tall, narrow casserole may want considerably longer, so test rather than trust the clock.
- Yield and serviceServes roughly six to eight as a breakfast side. The recipe directs that it be served from the baking pan; it will not slice, and it will settle as it cools.