Squish, you are right, my mother says that lard is the best, but we never bought any, so I’ve always used butter. And the “rolling the biscuit dough” was a foolish disasterly mistake I made when I was adolescent and silly. You should have seen the look on my mom’s face: “What do you men you rolled out the dough?!”
Maybe I should finally try to make biscuits this weekend (I don’t think I’ve had them since I moved out - but at least once a week growing up - no gravy, wouldn’t have touched that, still won’t - but butter/syrup and/or jam).
They (parents) always used crisco and rolled out the dough. And cut it with round cookie cutters (perhaps they were biscuit cutters - but round things) and then did the same with the scraps until the very last biscuit.
Washte’s made pecan pie with golden syrup and it was wonderful.
lokij - Yowza! You are talkin’ heaven on a plate! Here is someone who knows whereof he speaks!
A country ham is an amazing thing. It’s basically a smoked ham that’s been cured and aged for several months, sometimes even a year or more. It’s intensely salty, and almost cheese-like in consistency.
More information can be found here.
I stand corrected on the butter issue, then. 
The best known country hams in the United States are Smithfield hams, from the Virginia town of that name. It’s often used as a generic, too, but that isn’t any more proper than the abuse of the Stilton name.
Cooking one of these suckers (if you don’t buy pre-cooked) requires long soaking beforehand - days, IIRC, followed I think by boiling and roasting. (My step-mom has wrestled with them before and refuses ever again.) Take a look at the Hamowner’s Manual portion of the site.
(hijack)
I first read that as “severed cat head biscuits” and thought, my GAWD, those Southerners will eat ANYTHING with gravy on it!
(/hijack)
Country Ham is a wonderful thing. :> A country ham is an aged, smoked and dry salt cured ham. Three states are best known for producing great country ham, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. The thing that really makes a country ham different from most other kinds is the fact that it is dry cured. A country ham will lose up to 20 percent of it’s weight in water during the ageing process. When you purchase a whole country ham it will have a hard deep mahogany or even black color and it must be soaked prior to cooking. Country hams are traditionally baked or fried, my family always fried them. Country ham and biscuits are about as southern a food as you can get, up there with corn bread and grits.
OxyMoron writes:
> It’s often used as a generic, too, but that isn’t any more proper
> than the abuse of the Stilton name.
I’m not sure what you mean here. No Stilton cheese is made in the town of Stilton. None was ever made in Stilton. That’s just where some travelers first encountered the cheese, unlike Smithfield ham, which actually comes from Smithfield. See the following website:
http://www.stiltoncheese.com/history.html
It does have to be made in one of six authorized dairies in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire. It appears to me that the standards for what constitutes acceptable Stilton cheese has actually become stricter in recent times.
Can sombody tell me about corn bread?
Well, in my cupboard I have about 6-7 packets of “Jiffy” corn muffin mix. If you want some, let me know and I’ll send you a packet or two.
Anyway, the side of the pack lists the ingredients as:
Enriched flour, corn meal, suger, shortening, leavening (ie backing soda) and salt.
You mix a packet of this stuff with 1 egg, 2tbsp melted shortening and 3/4 cup of milk. Pop it into a greased 8x8in tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
In other words, corn bread (also called 'Johnny Cake" according to the side of the packet) is a cake. Made with corn meal.
But it’s not entirely corn meal? (it contains wheat flour too) - what sort of texture does it have?
It’s like a bathroom sponge.
Rather nice though.
I’m not going to post my opinion of corn bread here. I found out a few months ago that perceived dissing of American food can almost start a train wreck.
I will say that I disagree with jjimm. Which is why I have so many unopened packets of the damn stuff and am trying to offload a couple of them to you.
Put “cornbread” (note that it’s usually one word) and “recipe” into a search engine and you’ll get a lot of recipes. Here’s one I found, just at random:
http://www.freerecipe.org/Bread/Cornbread/SouthernCo_gjgh.htm
This and a recipe I found in a cookbook agree that you shouldn’t use regular flour or sugar, but there are also recipes that use both. There’s a lot of variation in the recipe, so there’s a lot of variation in the resulting texture and taste. Many people put some finely chopped hot peppers in it. It’s served like a bread, as a side item during the main meal, but it looks more like a slice of cake.
Southern cornbread. It is not sweet, as some people seem to like it nowadays. You want sweet, use honey after it’s baked.
I use an 8" cast iron skillet to cook mine in, mostly because the crust just doesn’t work if you cook it in a baking pan.
pre-heat oven to 425 deg. Grease skillet (or baking pan) well.
mix together: 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3-4 Tbsp sugar.
In a seperate container mix: 1/3 cup corn oil, 2/3 cup milk, 1 egg.
I use a fork and mix the dry ingredients just so that everything is fairly well distributed. Don’t overmix.
Beat the liquid ingredients together with the same fork.
Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients all at once and mix just until all the dry ingredients are moist. Again, don’t overmix. You want a kind of coarse batter, not smooth.
Using a spatula, scrape all into the well greased skillet (or baking pan) and smooth the top surface a little.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until the top just begins to brown a little.
Remove from oven and cut into wedges, slice horizontally down the middle (not all the way through the crust) and schlep lots of butter in there.
Serve with collard greens, speckled butter beans or black-eyed peas, and some country ham and you’ll know why they call it “soul” food.
Godfrey’s recipe sounds wonderful! Cornbread also is the best with beef stew or chili con carne. Yum!
I usually put in half and half flour and cornmeal. I don’t like my corn bread to be too sweet, either–some people make corn cake, almost! It’s the best with spicy beans and rice, maybe some sausage…
Then you put honey and butter on it for breakfast the next day.
Man, I’m getting hungry. I think I’ll make corn bread for dinner.
Beware: very often corn muffins /= corn bread. Corn muffins are usually sweet, made with a high proportion of white flour. Corn bread may be sweet, but I agree with the prior posters that it is better savoury.
Corn bread is especially good with certain additions: cheese, for example, and jalapenos.
One thing that complicates the making of corn bread is that corn meal isn’t nearly as standard as wheat flour (which itself has rather more variability than one would like). For one, it’s available as either white or yellow, and at various degrees of fineness. The best, I think, is yellow stoneground - “whole meal” if you can get it. (It’s very perishable so hard to find.)
The following recipe turns out well. Note that you make a mush with part of the cornmeal - this is a key step, because it makes the bread moister without having to add extra fat. If buttermilk isn’t available in England, you can either use soured milk (yes, I mean that - milk that’s turned, sour but not growing things in it). Or you can sour milk yourself: Warm a scant 3/4 cup milk in the microwave (about 25 seconds), then add 1 tablespoon lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or white vinager, and let sit about ten minutes until it’s somewhat thickened.
4 teaspoons bacon drippings or 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone ground
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup boiling water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten lightly
- Set oven rack at lower middle position. Add fat (bacon drippings or oil and butter) to 8-inch cast iron skillet. Place skillet in oven; preheat to 450 degrees.
- Measure 1/3 cup cornmeal into medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining dry ingredients (cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda); set aside.
- Pour boiling water all at once into the 1/3 cup cornmeal. Stir to make a stiff mush. Beat buttermilk in gradually, breaking up lumps until smooth, then beat in egg. Once oven is fully heated, stir dry ingredients into mush mixture until just moistened.
- Carefully remove skillet from oven. Make sure fat has spread over bottom and sides of skillet; pour excess into batter and stir to incorporate, then quickly pour batter back into hot skillet. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and instantly turn cornbread onto wire rack; cool for 5 minutes, then serve immediately.