Corn Pone
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Scald cornmeal with boiling water and mix thoroughly.
Add cold water and stir until the mixture is as stiff as possible with a spoon.
Incorporate the well-soaked yeast cake and let the mixture rise until light.
If the mixture is too thin, add more cornmeal and a little salt.
Bake
Bake in a well-greased pan until fully cooked.
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 dough and sets into a firm, crumbly structure when baked.
- Yeast cake
- Produces gas as it ferments, lightening the mixture so it rises before baking.
- Boiling water
- Scalds the cornmeal, softening its starch so it absorbs water and binds into a dough.
The step that matters
Stiffening the mixture before rising. Cold water must be stirred in until the mixture is as stiff as possible. A stiff batter holds the gas the yeast produces, so it rises light rather than collapsing into a thin, dense loaf.
“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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