Musings
Food Ways
~ by Mark Blackwell
There is a character in a Mark Twain story who states,“ You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ ll tell you what his’ pinions is.” There is some truth to that. Most people don’ t want to jeopardize their jobs or their standing in the community by holding unpopular opinions.
For those of you who might not know, corn pone is a kind of cornbread. It starts with a batter of white corn meal, buttermilk, eggs, salt, baking powder and a little flour. It can be fried in a pan like pancakes or baked in a cast iron skillet. The notable features of the fixins are buttermilk, white corn meal, and no sugar.
I bring this up because this particular recipe is identified as southern cornbread. It’ s what I grew up eating. And for quite a while, I believed that it was the only cornbread there was.
I confess to spending some of my formative years in northern Indiana and that is where I first tasted the sweet or northern variety.
This was my gastronomical awakening to the fact that there was such a thing as regional cuisines. Spending some years up north, however, did not alter my family’ s core menu of foods or how they should be cooked— generally fried, overcooked, and seasoned with bacon grease.
Another thing that sparked this contemplation about food was listening to a feller on the radio telling a story about not
being able to get grits at a restaurant in the south. It was an event of such import that he interpreted it as a sign of the end-times.
Anyone who has traveled south of Louisville and stopped at any kind of eatery knows that as far as grits are concerned there are only two options: plain or cheese. None is not an option! I learned this first-hand on one of my first southern sojourns.
You do not ask about the possibility of substituting hash browns for grits. The one and only time I did was in a little greasy spoon somewhere in the south. The waitress came over and with a voice and accent that you could pour over pancakes, asked,“ What can I get for you, hun?” I ordered a cup of coffee, couple of eggs over medium, with a slab of Virginia
30 Our Brown County • May / June 2024