Cornbread is the quintessential bread of Appalachia. Although batter recipes vary, the key to making traditional cornbread is to use a pre-heated cast iron pan for baking.
- 2 cups self –rising white cornmeal
- 1 beaten egg
- ¼ cup oil
- 1⅓ cup milk
- Shortening or lard
Grease cast iron pan liberally with bacon fat or lard. Place in cold oven and pre-heat to 450 degrees. Place 2 cups cornmeal in mixing bowl. Combine egg, oil, and milk; then pour into bowl with cornmeal and mix thoroughly. Carefully remove heated pan from oven and add batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until done.
NOTE: Plain cornmeal can also be used by adding 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt.
TIP: Sprinkling hot pan with cornmeal before adding batter will make an even crisper crust.
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
Since we started the Celebrating Appalachia YouTube channel people often ask us if we eat cornbread every day. We don’t, but we come mighty close to it.
When I was a girl Granny made either biscuits or cornbread for our meals. In those days I preferred biscuits, but today I love cornbread just as much.
One of my life long friends lives just down the road. We met when we were young because our parents were friends.
Her parents, Francis and Hazel, were a real influence in my life. They still are.
I’ve never forgotten a story Hazel told me years ago. She said like many families Francis’s was poor when he was growing up and often they only had cornbread and honey to eat. Since times were better for them in their marriage she wanted to make him all the good foods that were available, but often he wanted cornbread and honey.
Pap’s family and Francis’s family have remained close all these years. Each generation continues to be intertwined in the other family’s life—from church to playdates to making music we have stayed close and it’s been a true blessing.
This summer one of Francis and Hazel’s granddaughters has been helping me a couple of days a week. I’ve known Taylor since she was born. I’ve watched her grow up to be the thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate woman she is today.
Taylor made a history teacher. She’ll soon go back to her full time job and boy I’ll miss her extra hands.
For her thesis project Taylor researched her great grandmother Anna Belle Cook, better known as Granny Bell and the impact she had on her large family as well as the community of Brasstown.
I can remember Granny Bell. Francis is a lot like her as are others in the family.
Here’s a bit from Taylor’s project.
Anna Belle Cook (better known as Granny Bell) was born on August 31st in 1905 and passed on November 3rd, 1992. She lived in Northern Georgia before marrying and moving to Western North Carolina. Many recollect that she married early to Samuel Theodore Cook (July 11, 1891 – November, 1961) when she was fifteen years old. She was the daughter of Reverend John Davis and Mary McCallester. Theodore’s first wife was Tinnia Davis (1888-1918). Some say that Theodore had five children with his first wife, although I have found records of four. With Granny Bell, the Cook family added 16 more children, the first being born on her sixteenth birthday in 1921.
One might question the significance of a single woman who had many children in the Appalachian mountains, however, her life left the remembrance of faith, resilience, and a snapshot of the 20th century through the eyes of the countryside. Her memory lasts outside those who were related to her and reveals the importance of women in the lasting beliefs and lifestyles of future generations.
These interviews were completed by Taylor Cook, Granny Bell’s great granddaughter and her second-youngest son’s (Francis Cook) granddaughter. Taylor heard many stories of her great grandma growing up. Stories such as knife fights at church houses and an elderly woman swinging through the rafters of a tobacco barn. All of these stories and the way Granny Bell’s ideals influenced Taylor’s own sense of self, led to her dedicating a college project to collecting the stories that had formed much of her family lore. Although her focus has shifted, Taylor continues to interview residents of Appalachia today.
For the rest of this week I’ll be sharing interviews conducted by Taylor during her project about Granny Bell. I know you’ll enjoy them as much as I have.
You can see Taylor’s current online project here.
Last night’s video: Can We Get It All Done?
Tipper
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Hi Tipper and Acorns. I enjoyed last night’s video. Matt is always playing to the camera and trying to rile you up. I’m glad y’all have such a good relationship. I love this story. I subscribed to her channel and start watching her videos. I love your cornbread. Yellow cornmeal is a whole different thing. Love ya. I see y’all are live right now. I gotta go watch. Love y’all.
I am looking forward to hearing more about Granny Bell. My maternal grandparents had 18 children. No twins and they all lived to adulthood. My mom is smack dab in the middle at #9. I just love to hear her stories of growing up and I know I will enjoy the series this week just as much!
my aunt was named anna belle and she was adamant that it was two words, spelled just that way. i’d never heard of another, but then i’m not from the south. is it a common practice here?
I love that someone is carrying the history on by research family, friends or just well know folks. Miss Tipper I like a sweeter corn bread unlike my daddy, he loved not so sweet cornbread. Love and happiness to everyone and may y’all be blessed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ today, tomorrow and always.
I’m looking forward to reading and learning from Taylor and the stories she has to tell. It will be so interesting, I’m sure. Thank you for sharing with us, Tipper!
I love this. Growing up in a rural town I find the same connections down through the years. I now live in the suburbs of DFW in Texas. I really miss my family in Oklahoma. We do keep up through Facebook and such but it’s not the same as sitting out on the front porch or at the kitchen table talking with people that have known me since I was a baby and have known my family down thrthe generations.
My family has always made cornbread just like yours in a cast iron skillet. I have no idea how old some of the skillets we have are as they have been handed down and as long as you take care of them, they last through generations. Sometimes my mama would use buttermilk if we had it in the recipe, but sweet milk was just fine. You are right that there is a cast iron skillet that remains the cornbread skillet. I only make cornbread in it. Also, everyone here uses the word “made” just as you do. I have heard it my entire life. When one is in preparation, she is “making” or” going to make.” When I was in school, my granddaddy would tell people, I was “making a nurse practitioner.” Once I completed my education and passed boards, I had “made” a nurse practitioner. Making, going to make, and made-just regular speech here.
Hey Miss Tipper…
I so enjoyed this morning’s post. I feel so hopeful and encouraged when I hear of young folks collecting and sharing stories relating to their older kinfolk. Thank you and Taylor for sharing one of her remembrances of her Granny Bell. I’m so happy to hear you had an extra pair of hands helping out this summer. Hope y’all are enjoying yor day. In love and light ~ Lois
Love the Cook Family. ♥️ Looking forward to Taylor’s interviews this week. Have a great week, Tipper!
Gotta have some cornbread especially with beans of any type in my opinion-it’s delicious! I like mine (of course) with sugar cause I’m a sugarholic in recovery…Honey and butter on a warm slice of heavenly cornbread is an attitude changer for sure! I look forward to the stories of Granny Bell and who ain’t interested in hearing of an old woman swinging from barn rafters or a church knife fight? I’d like to see both myself and learn off the ruckus that must’ve started a church brawl. Out of 12 chickens, would you believe I have 6 roosters? 5 are getting eaten and I’m keeping Big Boy. I have a neighbor who will help in this new venture. On a different note, the old boy who won I think 500,000$ on Alone was from Blairsville, GA -I hear yall speak of being near there. That guy lasted 60 some days on Vancouver Island and he was tougher than nails…Golden Rod and Mullein are coming on so fall is near. School starts tomorrow here so that’s that for the kids. I like seeing the buses and kids, though. Yall take care and have a good day.
So wonderful ! Looking forward to it ! Love & prayers for you & all here !!!
The lifespan of Anna Belle Cooke, which is a good chunk of the 20th Century, meant she saw the hills and hollows where she lived being transformed. For better or worse? Your call. That sort of folk history, such as oral histories, not only tells the current and coming generations how things were back then, it also tells them how far we’ve come.
I love good cornbread. I make it like your recipe but I use buttermilk.
Tipper, your cornbread always looks delicious! My eyes may be deceiving me but when you cut into yours it sure looks like yellow cornmeal. When I was growing up in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, Mother always made her cornbread in her mother’s old black cast iron skillet and it was yellow cornmeal that came I think in a round like cardboard container. My mother grew up in a large family of 11 children and there was a mill not too far from them, it might have been white cornmeal they used but I do know mother made cornbread about every day and I could eat it every day. Most people grew up with some type of food that their mother made and they prefer it to any other type. Isn’t that wonderful, God made us all different and we all have distinct taste buds that when tasting a particular food can take us back in an instant to our mother’s table.
So glad that you had Taylor with you for a while. I’m a history buff myself and love, love, family stories. I too have heard stories about knife fights out side of a church and also, my mother’s ability to swing from rafters of an old abandoned house. I’m looking forward to reading about Granny Bell.
Growing up my mom use to make cornbread or biscuits for our family meals. She always used a cast iron skillet. I think I was around ten or eleven when she stopped making it for evening meals. Once the Sunbeam bread store opened she started buying bread, rolls and snack cakes there each week because they were discounted from grocery store prices for being one day old. My brother and I were the only kids left at home since our older three siblings had got married and left home to start families of their own. After she started buying bread and rolls she only made cornbread or biscuits for special meals when all the family was together. As she got older she had a hard time lifting her cast iron skillets so she stopped make cornbread or homemade biscuits altogether. Store bought was good but nowhere near as good as mom’s homemade. After I got married my husband preferred rolls and white bread over cornbread for evening meals and only ate biscuits for breakfast, so I stopped making it homemade too since it was easy to just buy can biscuits to bake. I’m thankful I have great memories of my mom making cornbread and biscuits in my youth because they were special memories of spending time with her in the kitchen and always delicious memories too.
When my dad was growing up in Texas the 1930s/’40s he said his mother cooked two pans of cornbread every day. One for the family & one for the dogs! When I was growing up one of his favorite snacks was cornbread in a glass covered by milk or buttermilk. I enjoyed the story about Granny Bell.
Tipper I had to smile at your “she made a history teacher”. Now there is an old timey expression but not limited to Appalachia. I guess there must be a relationship to the idea also of being a “self made” person. I don’t hear that use of “made” much anymore except as regards the making of a physical object. like the implication of “made” as including a lot of other things such as time, diligence, experience, insight; all the things that get us”made” including the help of others. Makes me wonder how I could – and would wnt to – honestly complete “He made a pretty fair ____________.” about myself. Maybe that is best left to others.
Up early for an appointment and hopefully another glimpse of 2 young bucks. One, a button buck and the other an impressive little 8 point fella. Both were out my front window early yesterday morning. Granny Bell sounds like a very interesting lady! I enjoyed the snippet about her this morning and am looking forward to reading more about her. I’m sorry your losing your helper of the summer. My best friend goes back to work/school, today. I took early retirement from the local school district 8 years ago, after close to 30 years of employment. Then I worked part-time for friends small car dealership for another 4 years before fully retiring. I know you’ve heard people joke about this but I don’t know how I had time to work!! Here’s to another wonderful week on this blue marble ♡
For years I ran a waterpowered grist mill. We custom ground corn for meal and grits for the local community. I had many of the old timers show up and keep a hand under the spout of the mill checking that it was ground just how they wanted it. They would bring in the corn that they had grown that summer when it was dry and ready to grind. We would keep a little corn back for the toll. Over the years, we saw more than two dozen different kinds of corn. Everyone had their own preference and some had grown it in the family for 100+ years. Their was one common thread, White corn was for people and yellow corn was for the hogs and other animals.
Thanks or the glimpse into the miller’s world. I had never known that about checking the output for the desired grind. That tells me at least two things; (1) some ability to adjust the grind, and (2) a check on the wear on the stone leading to having t retool the grooves. And while I was kinda aware of the white versus yellow, I think it has greatly faded sing so few people kept stock anymore. I wonder if there was or more differences beyond the color though, maybe taste or something else.
Ron, read my reply comment to Woody, Jack could dress the grinding stones and adjust the grind to grind anything from grits to cornmeal. He would grind several varieties of corn. Seems like one of his favorites was a white corn with a red cob.
I was told that white corn has a higher protein content than yellow corn. That may explain some of the differences. The yellow corn has a higher sugar content and is sweeter.
I always enjoyed dressing (sharpening) the stones. It was a job that I always looked forward to.
I have a mill in the garage that I can pull with a motor like Randy talks about. We would use it when the water was low.
Well, I reckon I’m a hog or other animal then. I much prefer yellow cornmeal and grits. Both are hard to find though. I have resorted to buying yellow corn polenta and cooking it like grits (grits and polenta are really the same thing.) I have a bag of clean dry yellow corn in the freezer from which I plan to try to make yellow hominy.
Woody, I had a friend ( now dead) that had an old time grist mill mounted in a 3 axle enclosed trailer he had built. Of course it was not water powered but powered by an older International engine. There was only his and one other of these engines still known to be in existence. He would carry and demonstrate it working at many of the antique farm shows and spend about a week at the large show near Knoxville, Tenn. Jack helped the man the owns Marsh Hen Milling at Edisto Beach, SC get interested and started with his milling business.
It is wonderful to carry on stories of our ancestors. On my Mama’s side Holcombe’s and Guthrie’s are the most prominent. On my Daddy’s side Tuggle and Everett are. It seems it’s getting closer and closer that my generation will be the oldest pretty soon. It feels like a heavy task to carry on the families names and stories, but necessary.
I will be interested in hearing about Granny Bell.
I love UNSWEETENED corn bread. Since my wife’s death I have learned to make it using today’s exact recipe. It is good but not as good as my wife made, she did not use a so called recipe or measure anything, when asked she would say “I know when it is like I want it.” I often think it is missing something, I reckon it must be her touch and her hands. I will hardly ever finish off a meal that has cornbread without eating a small bowl of cornbread and sweet milk for my dessert. We have and I still cook it in a 52 year old Lodge cast iron frying pan. This pan was given to us by a friend that knew both of us as a gift at my wife’s wedding shower. The friend, Dianne told my wife she could not only use it for cooking but also use it to make Randy behave! She knew me too! Now Dianne and so many other loved friends in my life have passed on.