Happy Easter to everyone!

Another Sunday and another month ends…..and what better time than one of the Old Professor’s trip into the magic land of food and history?

I am a Southerner and I grew up with that delicious food known as cornbread…..I have eaten it in any way it can be made…..sweet, spicy, cheesy and into cakes….We Southerners love their cornbread…..and a bowl of beans and cornbread is the perfect meal for me.

For those that have not eaten much cornbread this may not mean a lot to you but to us down here it means everything….so let me pass on some stuff.

Cornbread has passed through the hands of Indigenous and enslaved people to become a lasting culinary staple of the American South. Cherished for its dense yet crumbly texture and a slightly sweet or savory flavor, it’s traditionally made with cornmeal, water or milk, and fat. 

This traditional bread can be leavened or unleavened, made with white flour or not, and baked in an oven or pan-fried on the stovetop. From cornbread squares and muffins to crispy-edged fritters and hush puppies, cornbread is more than a side dish. It’s a culturally significant, nutritionally rich symbol of resilience that holds a unique place on the plate. 

Maize was and is a staple crop for Indigenous people in the Americas. According to research published in the journal Social Research, the term “corn” was introduced by European colonists, a word they used to describe small grains of all kinds from oats to wheat and even salt. 

The earliest versions of what we now know as cornbread were typically ground-up maize held together with animal fat and may have been baked or boiled, Miller says. A form of this basic recipe later became the daily bread for enslaved Africans, made from their weekly rations, which often included several pounds of cornmeal. 

https://www.consumerreports.org/health/healthy-eating/is-cornbread-good-for-you-a4401550107/

I can say no more….I have to run into the kitchen and make a pan for dinner.

Try it!  You may like it!

Now it is Easter so I need to give my reader a little something extra….in this case it is history and Soul Food….

An Unofficial History of Southern Soul Food

Have a great Easter Sunday and hopefully a great meal…..and as always Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”