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Bread

Corn Bread or Hoecake

A simple cornmeal batter baked into a golden loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Corn Bread or Hoecake

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. In a deep dish, combine the cornmeal and salt.

  2. Pour in enough warm water or warm milk to create a thick batter.

  3. Add the melted lard and mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.

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

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 bulk of the batter and gives the cornbread its structure and grainy texture.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Warm water or warm milk
Hydrates the cornmeal so it forms a thick, spreadable batter.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into a well-greased pan. Cornbread batter is thick and has little gluten to hold it together, so it sticks easily. A well-greased pan lets the crust release cleanly and brown evenly.

“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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