Spoon bread is a variation on corn bread that is more like a corn pudding. It is best eaten with a spoon. This recipe is a very basic recipe. It could be easily modified by adding ingredients before baking or on top of the finished product. For a great savory spoon bread, add in cheese, chives, or diced bacon. For sweet spoon bread, top with honey or add in cranberries. Or, just have the basic recipe as a great side dish to go along with any meal.
Spoon Bread
- 3/4 cup corn meal
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 2 cups milk
- 3 eggs, well beaten
Early in the day (or the day before), in a saucepan, blend together the corn meal, sugar, salt, water and one cup of milk. Cook slowly, stirring until the blend thickens. Remove from heat and cover. About one and one half hours before serving, add eggs and one cup milk. Blend well. Pour mixture into a well-greased baking dish. Bake at 325 for one hour. Enjoy!
I remember the day my mother got this recipe for spoon bread. I was in Junior High School, so the year would have been 1959 or 1960. That spring, as the time was approaching for Easter Vacation (as spring break used to be called) Mom told me that she, my grandmother and I were going to travel to a little resort in Tennessee called Gatlinburg. We left Plymouth early in the morning on Easter Monday, and that evening we stopped to spend the night in Berea, Kentucky. This little town was home to a small college that provided tuition-free education to its students, many of whom were disadvantaged. The students earned their way through school by working in a variety of campus jobs. The college ran a motel and restaurant on its grounds, and it was there that we spent the night. At dinner, as we waited for our meals to be served, a young woman was walking around the dining room and serving patrons from a large baking dish she carried. When we tasted the food she was serving, we loved it. Mom asked our waitress what it was and she replied, "Spoon bread." After dinner Mom asked for the recipe and they were happy to provide it. After that trip my grandmother made spoon bread for us many times.
ReplyDeleteWe made it to Gatlinburg the next day, and the three of us fell in love with that quiet unspoiled little resort in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. I always dreamed of going back some day. In 2010, my dream came true as I returned to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for the first time in 50 years. To put it mildly, the place had changed. It had changed a great deal, and not for the better. The had paved paradise and put up...Dollywood. Oh, well...