When cooler weather comes, it’s time for cornbread! Served with a bowl of favorite soup or chili plus a salad, just add a place setting for a delicious meal.
Certainly a food familiar to Native Americans, corn or maize was dried and ground to make corn meal. Early settlers learned the process and eventually developed their own dishes, similar to ones they had eaten in Europe.
Cornbread is now a common dish in the United States, although particularly associated with the South and Southwest. Some areas crumble cornbread in a glass of cold buttermilk and eat it with a spoon. It is also served with chili and barbeque as a tasty side dish. Another mouthwatering way to present it is with butter and honey. Corn muffins are delicious, and recently Mexican culture influenced cornbread by the addition of jalapeños to the batter.
Other regional versions of cornbread include johnnycake, where a thin batter is poured and cooked into a cast iron skillet. Corn pone is a thicker batter cooked this way, or cooked over an open fire, similar to how a frontiersman would make it. And hushpuppies are created using buttermilk and cornmeal, but deep-fried, rather than fried in a pan or skillet.
Cornbread can be used as an ingredient, too. It is crumbled for poultry stuffings, and often served with a Thanksgiving turkey.
My favorite crumbled cornbread recipe is a salad! This festive and easy to fix recipe is tasty, pretty, and serves many. I hope you enjoy it!
CRUMBLED CORNBREAD SALAD
1 – 8″ x 8″ pan cooked cornbread
2 cups mayonnaise
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 jar (4 oz.) chopped pimentos
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 large tomatoes, diced
3/4 cup chopped pecans – optional
Crumble cornbread into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir.
Place in refrigerator to chill for 2 – 3 hours before serving.
Yield: 8-10 servings
http://cornbread.com/history.phtml
http://www.indians.org/articles/corn-bread.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbread
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushpuppy