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Spoon Bread
I CUP CORN MEAL I TEASPOON SALT 2 CUPS BOILING WATER 2 CUPS MILK 2 EGGS, BEATEN LIGHT I TABLESPOON MELTED BUTTER Mix corn meal and salt, stir in boiling water, beat thoroughly and let cool. Mix eggs, milk and butter, and add. This batter will be very thin. Pour into well buttered baking dish and bake 40 minutes at 350°. Eat at once, before bread falls, serving it out of its baking dish with a spoon. I CUP YELLOW CORN MEAL I CUP FLOUR I CUP SUGAR 2 TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER
A classic soft-set spoon bread: cornmeal scalded to a mush, then loosened with milk and egg into a batter thin enough to pour. It bakes into something closer to a savory pudding than a bread.
- Don't skip the coolingThe scalded mush must cool to warm before the eggs go in, or they will curdle into threads. Ten to fifteen minutes with an occasional stir is enough; stirring also keeps a skin from forming on top.
- Cornmeal grindStone-ground meal, white or yellow, gives the best texture here. Very coarse polenta-style grinds will stay gritty in 40 minutes; degerminated supermarket meal works but tastes flatter.
- The batter really is thinIt should pour like heavy cream. Resist adding more meal — the thinness is what produces the custardy bottom and the risen, souffle-like top.
- Oven and dish350F as written, in a buttered 1 1/2- to 2-quart dish. A deeper dish gives a wetter center and may need longer than the stated 40 minutes; a wide shallow one sets faster and browns more.
- Judging donenessThe top should be set and lightly browned with a slight wobble at the center. A tester in the middle comes out with moist crumbs, not liquid batter.
- Why it fallsThe lift comes from steam and beaten egg, not chemical leavening, so it deflates within minutes of leaving the oven. Serve straight from the dish with a large spoon, as directed.
- YieldFour to six as a side dish. It is often served with butter or gravy; leftovers are better fried than treated as bread.