Granny’s Egg Bread

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photo courtesy of Jackie Garvin

Granny’s kitchen was adequately appointed with a farmhouse sink (before they were known as farmhouse sinks), an electric oven, a safe that stored leftovers and sweets, a Hoosier-type cabinet, a real refrigerator instead of an icebox, and a black-and-white enamel table with six chairs. A single 45-watt light bulb hung from the ceiling above the table, so cooking and dishwashing were done when the sunlight from the large kitchen window sufficiently lit the room. Her kitchen was always hot and busy, and it’s where I learned as much about good, honest living as cooking—maybe more. It was in Granny’s modest Southern kitchen that my introduction to cast-iron cooking took place.

Back then, bread was a part of every meal in the form of biscuits or cornbread, both cooked in a cast-iron skillet. Cornbread was a curious thing. One type, hot water cornbread, was considered everyday cornbread. It was simply cornmeal and salt mixed with hot water and fried. The lack of leavening kept hot water cornbread from rising, so the insides remained creamy while frying produced a delectable crunchy crust. Lace cornbread was, and still remains, my favorite version of hot water cornbread. Teaspoons of batter are dropped into hot grease and the resulting medallions of fried cornbread are thin and crunchy with a fine, lace-like appearance.

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