Southern to the Core and Hot Water Cornbread

[eurekastar]

A lady in my church gave me a mess of black eyed peas today! So I went promptly to the store and bought a small fryer and some corn meal and cooked up a southern style supper for me, my son, and two other boys he brought home. Needless to say, there is nothing left! LOL!

But I also made something my Mom made a couple of times a week when I was growing up -- HOT WATER CORN BREAD. I'm just wondering if anyone else grew up with it. It's easy to make.

2 cups white corn meal
diced onion to taste
salt to taste
red pepper to taste (I just a couple of dashes)
hot water

Mix the first four ingredients until well blended. Then mix in enough hot water to create a dough. Form into patties and fry in hot lard on medium high heat.

 

[eurekastar]

Tonight's Menu

Tonight's menu consisted of

Fried Chicken
Rice with brown gravy (made from the chicken drippings)
black eyed peas
cantaloupe
hot water corn bread
sweet tea!!!

 

[marks_here]

O M G

Does that all look good!!!

 

[super-sweeper]

As Ron Shirley says, that's as country as corn flakes!!!!

 


Looks like Chef Charles could be getting some competition, what could be serve vacuumland that will top this??

 

[kenkart]

OHHHH Yeah!

Now THATS good eating!!

 

[electrolux137]

~
~

I was just talking about hot water cornbread to one of my aunts in South Carolina.

My Grandma Casey, my father's mother, used to make soup that she called ZOUP. It was absolutely delicious and always tasted exactly the same. I haven't had ZOUP in 50 years but I can still taste is in my "culinary memory."

It was made of chicken and a variety of vegetables including corn, okra, tomatoes, lima beans and onions.

My mom tried for years to duplicate ZOUP but she never quite got it. Then it became an obsession of my younger brother to recreate it and he's also been trying for years. "Close but no cigar."

My aunt told me the "secret" was that Grandma Casey only used fresh vegetables from their garden and chicken that went right from the back yard into the soup pot (well, almost ... there was the grisly part in-between). She said "No store bought canned vegetables taste like the ones out of a garden." And ditto vs. fresh chicken vs. one that's been frozen stiff and sitting in the grocers' frozen meat case. She only seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Anyway, she also used to make THE BEST hot water corn bread! It was crispy and crunchy on the outside and creamy and moist on the inside. We made many a meal of ZOUP and hot-water cornbread when we'd visit Grandma Casey.

 

[marks_here]

Let's hear it from Grandma Casey!!!! It sounds REAL good!!!

 

[eurekastar]

Charles, I remember as a little boy visiting my Dad's great aunt and uncle (so they were my great great aunt and uncle!). Uncle Willard and Aunt Mae lived on a farm in Bell County, Texas (central Texas). My brothers and I went with Uncle Willard to select a couple of chickens out of the coop that would be cooked for lunch. Then we had to witness the horror! I'd never seen a chicken butchered before, but they do run around with their heads cut off! Then we went to the barn to milk the cow (by hand). The raw milk was also served at lunch. I didn't eat a thing!

I grew up on a ranch, but we never butchered our own cows! So watching those chickens being butchered was a little over the top. It wouldn't bother me today, but I think I was six when I witness the horror! I think I must have been thinking of Foghorn Leghorn. LOL!

 

[electrolux137]

~
~

Yeah, I also remember the first time I saw chickens meet their maker -- at the hands of my father. They do dance around the yard headless. Pretty horrifying sight for a 6-year-old who, as you, had never witnessed it before.

 

[Gr8DaneDad]

Lightweights... by 6, I was sent out back to do the deed, to chickens, geese, ducks and rabbits. I was a teenager before I even knew that 'townies' got meat from a butcher or grocery, same for eggs, milk, butter, milk and cream. If it didn't grow at home, we didn't eat it. Going 'out' to eat usually meant eating at either my grandparents or one of my aunts homes.


Maybe next summer I'll plant a garden again. I do raise a steer every other year and a hog or two and fill the freezers with grass fed beef and pork.



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[brad845]

Charles, sometimes you take things for granted .. My grandma always made a beef soup with ketchup and some type of spices and we would have it with cornbread, she would put cabbage, ketchup, ground beef, taters, celery, carrots, and onions .. I never really liked it until I got older, I had it once before she passed away, and it was amazing .. And now no one can make it like grandma did.

 

[brad845]

Bill, that hot water cornbread is just like our recipe here in KY for tater cakes. Add a egg and mashed taters and you have cakes! You could use flour instead of cornmeal of course but it gives them a better flavor in my opinion

 

[brad845]

Oh and we use yellow cornmeal .. Three Rivers or you're not doing it right!

 

[brad845]

Nvm you'll never find the equivalent there for Three Rivers .. You should probably just move more east .. we have in house brand "Food City" here that produces Three rivers