Devonviolet Acres

[greybeard]

Have had hot water cornbread lots of times. Mother made it frequently, tho I have to add it was probably cooked in lard or bacon drippings which would play havoc in today's health world.
Closest thing I can describe it as is a big flat 1/2-3/4" thick hushpuppy. I've seen some people try to cook them and they come out too flat, like a cornbread pancake, which I didn't care for at all. I think they add too much flour to the mix.

(I'd probably cut the flour back a bit on the above recipe)

 

[Bruce]

I've seen some people try to cook them and they come out too flat, like a cornbread pancake, which I didn't care for at all. I think they add too much flour to the mix.

Wouldn't more flour make them LESS flat?

 

[Devonviolet]

Seems those pyromaniacs should pay a bit more attention to what they are doing

Yeah! I'll say! I kept going to the back window, to check the burn piles. As expected, when it got dark out, I could see embers at the base of the piles.

Just before it got totally dark out, I could see what looked like smoke right at the edge of the road, on the burn pile closest to us.

So, DH & I got in the truck & drove down the road. I took the high power spot light & sat in the passenger seat. As we drove back toward the house, I shown the spotlight on the piles. A couple of the trees had huge root balls & trunks. It turned out I must have been seeing smoke from the back of the pile, as the grass was not burning.

The 2nd pile from us is the one that the grass caught on fire. The grass burned right to the edge of road and extended a good 400-500 feet along the road!

On the remaining 4 piles, you could see that the guy on the tractor had gone around the piles & dragged the blade to expose dirt, so the grass couldn't burn.

 

[Devonviolet]

Wouldn't more flour make them LESS flat?

Maybe flour is the problem. If you look at @Baymule's recipe, it only has 3 ingredients:
Cornmeal
Hot water
Salt

Bay's didn't have any flour and they were perfect!

It looks like in @greybeard's photo, that those corn patties were made with fine ground cornmeal. However, Bay's corn patties were made with a course ground corn. Since I don't have any home grown dent corn this year, Bay said that I could use Lamb's cornmeal, which is also course ground, and which I just happen to have in my pantry!

Lamb's Cornmeal is produced here in Texas, so I'm not sure if y'all can get it in other parts of the country. But if not I would think there are other brands of course ground cornmeal,

@Bruce, I can't say for sure, but I believe corn tortillas are made with Masa Harina, which is made from corn that is soaked in lime, dried and then ground to a fine flour.

One of the best things about Bay's corn patties, was the course texture, which created a crisp, crunchy outside when fried.

 

[Bruce]

Yeah, from your description I don't think the corn flour we have would be appropriate as I think it is pretty fine.

I see Lamb's has a website (what big company doesn't?) and you can get 2 pounds of the course grind for $2.50. CHEAP. Maybe cornmeal always is, wife and DD buy it from NutsOnline so I don't pay attention. I bet the shipping costs as much or more than the cornmeal unless you live near a H-E-B. Of course you can't see the shipping cost until you check out, which means AFTER you type in all your info (which I didn't). Their store locator doesn't work. I see you can get it on Amazon, four 2# bags for $23.96 + $7.99 shipping. Quite the ripoff charging 2.5 times the price on Lamb's site and STILL charging $8 shipping. I bet I know a few people who would pick it up and ship it cheaper if I asked nice (not that I'm planning to ask just at the moment).


Lamb's has quite a few recipes on their site. Some distinctly "southern" like Black Eyed Pea Cornbread and Jalepeño Crawfish. I don't think you'll find either of those in a New England cook book.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Naw, and there isn't any Clam chowder in our cookbook either....

 

[Bruce]

But you have gumbo and that is just as good

 

[Baymule]

Lamb's cornmeal is made with the whole kernel of corn. Regular cornmeal is only the outer part of the corn, the yellow part. Tasteless.

 

[Baymule]

When I lived in Baytown, practically on Trinity Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, I could get fresh oysters in burlap bags. I sure did make some oyster chowder! The recipe went sorta like this.....one oyster for the pot, one for me.....slurp.....one for the pot, one for me......and so on

I also make a darn good pot of gumbo.

 

[Mike CHS]

Lamb's has quite a few recipes on their site. Some distinctly "southern" like Black Eyed Pea Cornbread and Jalepeño Crawfish. I don't think you'll find either of those in a New England cook book.

I have lived my whole life in the south and have never heard of either one of those. But I have some Cajun friends who would probably like the Jalapeno crawfish.