Lacy/Fried Cornbread

Lacy/Fried Cornbread

It seems fitting that since the passing on of this recipe gave me the idea of writing down family stories and recipes, it should be the first recipe posted. The story that goes with it is also quite meaningful to me.

Miss Rosa, as I frequently called Mother, made fried corn bread so thin and crisp that it was almost like a potato chip, and there is nothing better in this whole wide world. She called it fried cornbread, but my brother’s family calls it lacy cornbread, and I like that name much better. Cornbread goes particularly well with turnip salad, collards or other vegebables and with chicken muddle.

On our last visit to my brother, known to me as Bubba, and his family, Del and I stopped at a well known barbecue place and bought barbecue, chicken muddle (AKA Brunswick stew) and cole slaw as a special treat for him. We were starting to get lunch together when Del asked Bubba if there was anything else he would like. Bubba promptly said that he would love to have some lacy cornbread. Off Del went to buy some corn meal, and I fried it up. We all had a wonderful lunch together, enjoying the tastes of our childhood and sharing stories. We knew that there was probably not much more time, but did not realize that there were to be only a few more days. It is a blessing for me that we were there that day.

Mother, by the way, did not eat fried corn bread because it gave her “shortness of breath.” Whenever she fried it for us, she always made two corn pones for herself and baked them in the oven. I did not learn to make that kind of cornbread, but our Aunt Stella, wife of Daddy's brother Sidney, known to the kids as Big Bubba, once showed me how to make hoe cakes on the blade of a garden hoe in the fireplace. That same day, she also showed me how to bake an egg in the shell in the fireplace coals. We pricked both ends of the egg with a large pin so it would not explode.

Recipe for Lacy Cornbread

1 cup PLAIN white, stone ground corn meal
1 to 1¼ cup water
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper

Mix corn meal with 1 cup of the water and salt and pepper. Let sit for 10 minutes to see how much it thickens up as the meal absorbs the water. You want it to be slightly runnier than pancake batter, so you may need to add up to ¼ cup more water.

Heat a cast iron griddle with a shallow lip or any frying pan and pour in cooking oil to cover the bottom of pan with less than ¼ inch of oil. (I’ve read that you should not heat an empty nonstick pan, however.) Heat the oil until a tiny drop of the batter sizzles when you drop it into the pan. Using a serving spoon or a small ladle, pour dollops of batter into the pan. They will spread and form holes around the edges when they hit the oil. Cook on medium until the edges begin to brown and the little cakes release from the pan. Turn and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

Depending upon the size of your spoon or ladle, you will have 8-12 pieces of lacy corn bread. Del and I eat it plain, but some folks put butter on it.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Important!! If you can’t find PLAIN, WHITE, STONE GROUND corn meal, you can’t make lacy cornbread. It just will not work with self rising meal or that gritty meal in the round box, so don’t even try! Maybe you can get someone to mail you some if it isn’t available where you live. If you get desperate, call me, and I’ll send you some.


Note: When figure out how to upload pictures from my phone, I'll add pictures. The phone is smart, but me, not so much.