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Bread

Crackling Bread

A cornmeal bread mixed with cracklings and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Crackling Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Scald the cornmeal in a pot.

  2. Stir in the cracklings and mix until combined.

  3. Add cold water to create a thick batter.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the batter into round balls and flatten the tops.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the bread and sets its coarse, crumbly texture.
Cracklings
Add rich fat and savory flavor, and make the bread moister and more tender.
Cold water
Hydrates the cornmeal into a thick batter that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring hot liquid or scalding the cornmeal partly gelatinizes its starch, which softens the grain and helps the bread hold together and stay tender. Skipping this step can leave the texture gritty and dense.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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