Free The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon

Cheese, with Kalamata Olive–Mustard Vinaigrette
    *
    Navy Bean, Tomato, or Zucchini Soup
    *
    B READBASKET :
    Yankee “Spider” Cornbread with a Custard Layer
    or
    Land of Milk and Honey Custard-Layered Cornbread
    *
    Fresh Strawberries, Raspberries, and Blackberries, with Brown Sugar, a Teensy Grind of Fresh Black Pepper, and a Splash of Kirsch or Aged Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

Y ANKEE “S PIDER ” C ORNBREAD WITH A C USTARD L AYER
    M AKES 8 WEDGES
    Another excellent custard-centered cornbread that combines features of the North and South, and a wholly unique twist on preparation. The twist? A cup of milk is poured over the finished batter, resulting in a custard layer just underneath the top crust.
    Originally this cornbread was baked in a spider, a footed, long-handled skillet designed to stand in the fireplace just above the coals for hearth baking. But now it’s baked in a preheated skillet. Serve the “spider” bread still warm, but not hot, beside a bowl of stew or paired with an assertive salad.
    Vegetable oil cooking spray
    ⅓ cup unbleached white flour
    1½ cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
    ¼ cup sugar
    1¼ teaspoons baking powder
    ½ teaspoon baking soda
    ½ teaspoon salt
    2 eggs
    ¾ cup buttermilk
    2 cups milk
    2 to 3 tablespoons butter or mild vegetable oil
    1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with oil, and set aside.
    2. Sift together the dry ingredients into a medium bowl.
    3. Break the eggs into a second medium bowl and whisk them well. Whisk in the buttermilk and 1 cup of the milk. Set aside.
    4. Place the butter or oil in the skillet, and place the skillet over medium heat on top of the stove. As the butter or oil heats, quickly stir the wet ingredients into the dry using as few strokes as possible to combine them. (The batter is wetter than most cornbreads. You might need to whisk it a couple of times to incorporate wet into dry, but don’t overbeat.)
    5. Pour a little of the hot butter or oil from the skillet into the batter, give a stir or two, then pour the batter into the prepared hot skillet. Now, here comes the odd part. Pour the remaining 1 cup milk over the batter, without stirring it in.
    6. Bake the cornbread in the oven until golden brown in spots on the top and quite golden around the edges, 50 minutes to 1 hour. The bread will still seem slightly wetter than most cornbreads, but if you poke a toothpick in the center, it’ll come out clean. Let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before cutting, so the custard can set up a little.
    “Spider bread … is sliced as a pie. A large piece of butter is placed on top of each slice and it is eaten with a fork.”
    —I MOGENE W OOLCOTT ,
The Yankee Cookbook, 1939

    M Y F IRST C ORNBREAD
    About seven years ago, my mother, Charlotte, who’s now in her nineties, was decluttering her kitchen. I saw, in the giveaway pile, the bowl : a large, heavy glass mixing bowl with a rosy-beige exterior and milky white interior. When you broke an egg against its side, as I did when I made cornbread in it as a girl, the sound was satisfying and the break clean.
    First cornbreads date from childhood. Mine, baked in the same kitchen my mother was clearing out, was in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, from a mix. When you opened the box, a cellophane bag with the mix itself rested neatly in a flimsy, very shiny aluminum pan, good for one use only. Could you get any more ’50s, any farther from cast-iron skillets and from-scratch, than that?
    Charlotte Zolotow, née Shapiro, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She claims to remember almost nothing about it; her speech has no Southern inflection and her family moved north when she was young. I’ve always suspected, though, that she was more influenced by the region than she either knows or lets on. Her mother, aunt, and three cousins remained in Norfolk; she visited them often. One endearment she and her sister, my Aunt Dot, use to this day is “honeychile,” and my