Hot Water Cornbread

Hot water cornbread — cornmeal mixed with boiling water, salt, and a small amount of fat, formed into small oval patties, and fried in a skillet until crispy on both sides — is the oldest continuous bread tradition in the African American South. It predates the buttermilk-and-egg cornbread of LA3-12, predates the cast-iron skillet cornbread that became the standard, and connects directly to the indigenous North American cornbread tradition that enslaved Africans adopted and adapted. The hoecake — named for the field hoe on which enslaved workers are said to have cooked cornmeal patties over open fire — is the same basic preparation. The technique requires nothing more than cornmeal, water, fat, and heat. It is the bread of absolute necessity, and it is still made in African American kitchens across the South because it is also the bread of deep satisfaction.

Coarsely ground yellow cornmeal mixed with boiling water (the boiling water partially cooks the starch, creating a dough that holds together rather than crumbling) and salt, formed into small oval patties approximately 7cm long and 1cm thick, and fried in hot fat (lard, bacon drippings, or oil) in a cast-iron skillet until the exterior is deeply golden and crispy on both sides while the interior remains soft and slightly creamy. The patty should be golden-brown, audibly crisp when bitten, with a tender corn-flavoured centre.

Alongside anything with gravy, pot likker, or broth. Hot water cornbread is the sop — its job is to absorb liquid from the plate. It replaces sliced bread, biscuits, or skillet cornbread in the simplest Southern meals.