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Dropped Cornbread

A quick fried cornbread made by dropping spoonfuls of cornmeal batter into hot fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Dropped Cornbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the cornmeal, salt, and sugar.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and let it stand for 15 minutes until cool.

  3. Optionally, add a little sweet milk to the boiling water if desired.

Fry

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot fat and fry 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 main body of the cakes and sets into a firm, crisp-edged crumb when fried.
Boiling water
Hydrates the cornmeal so the mixture holds together and becomes workable as a batter.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness and helps the exterior brown well in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot fat and fry until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and turn soggy instead of forming a crisp crust. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, so the interior cooks through before the surface overbrowns.

“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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