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She wrote that she was concerned if it qualified as gluten free. Yes, Melanie...it does. However, I wouldn't have cared if it didn't. We are adding a section for non GF recipes...The only perquisite is that is has to come from "The Shore"
To back up my claim of this recipe being GF, my friends at LiveStrong.com write, "If you follow a gluten-free diet, any product with wheat, barley or rye is off-limits. Cornmeal is made from dried corn kernels, and thus contains none of these ingredients."
To read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/442873-is-cornmeal-gluten-free/#ixzz2UPrFcTR4
I can also say it qualifies to replace my original GF cornbread recipe. Mine was too damn complicated! I like simplicity.
Cornbread History
Food historian Lynne Olver (http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaqa.html#super) writes. "Corn bread was not invented. It was a product of cultural exchange and practical necessity. Corn [aka maize] is a new world food. Native Americans were cooking with ground corn long before the European explorers set foot on New World soil. The food we know today as "corn bread" has a northern European (English, Dutch, etc.) culinary heritage. Because the new settlers often had to "make do" with local ingredients [corn meal] when their traditional ingredients [finely ground wheat] were in short supply. When colonial American recipes carried the name "Indian" in their title (Indian bread, Indian pudding) it was because one of the ingredients was cornmeal".
In the book, Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, Mariani writes, "Native Americans roasted their corn and ground it into meal to make cakes, breads, and porridges...The new cereal was precious and helped the early settlers to survive those first harsh years. ..Before long uniquely American dishes were being developed on the basis of this new grain, including an Indian bread called pone' or corn pone' (from the Algonquin word apan,' [meaning] baked) made of cornmeal, salt and water. This was later called corn bread' and has been a staple of American cooking to this day...Once the [corn] crops took hold throughout the colonies, cornmeal foods were everyday fare..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 96)
Eastern Shore Cornbread
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| Contributor: Melanie Hearn Draper |
by Melanie Draper- Sharpsburg, MD
"I've never had cornbread like this and [I] get rave reviews whenever I make it, especially if I serve it warm out of the oven. My mom would always make this whenever she made fish that my dad caught at the beach. I'm not familiar with gluten-free recipes but from your description I think this qualifies.- Melanie Draper
Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal (white cornmeal preferred but you can use yellow)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Crisco
3 cups boiling water
2 cups milk (I use 2%)
2-3 beaten eggs
Preparation
Mix cornmeal, sugar, and salt in large pot and drop Crisco on top. Bring water to a boil and add to cornmeal mixture to melt Crisco (turn heat on medium) then add milk and beaten eggs. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon over medium heat until batter thickens (this will happen quickly).
Pour batter into greased iron frying pan and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour until top is very brown. Let cool slightly. Can be served warm or cold. The consistency of the cornbread is almost like a dense cheesecake. It's not crumbly or "cakey" at all but more like a very firm spoonbread.
You can also lightly fry leftover slices in a small amount of butter for breakfast the next morning and top with powdered sugar or syrup.
*note: Don't expect the same results if you anything other than a cast iron skillet. - G.S. Jones
Thanks Melanie!
G.S. Jones
