Question about Corn Bread

[AHunter3]

@Chronos

Huh, I always thought that was a North vs. South thing, not a racial thing. I guess Northerners got sweet cornbread from the African-American diaspora.

a) I did too. North vs South thing. and

b) I don’t think they did but I could be wrong. The northern folks had this old tradition something they called “journeycake”. That’s where I always heard the “sweet cornbread in the north” thingie came from. I’ve never heard it attributed to black northern cooking, but this could be one of those “let’s omit black people’s cultural contributions” things for all I know.

c) I’ve never eaten cornbread cooked by black folks, either in restaurants or in person, and had it be that sweet stuff.
I’m curious now. If you’re black and you cook cornbread: sweet or not? (and how about flour in it, while we’re at it?)

[Beckdawrek]

Johnnycake is an eggy cornbread. It is fried. It might have a tad of sugar in it. I don’t remember. Another name is corn dodgers.
Not to be confused with 'hot-water cornbread.

Is that what you mean by 'journeycake"?

[DorkVader]

@AHunter3

a) I did too. North vs South thing. and

b) I don’t think they did but I could be wrong. The northern folks had this old tradition something they called “journeycake”. That’s where I always heard the “sweet cornbread in the north” thingie came from. I’ve never heard it attributed to black northern cooking, but this could be one of those “let’s omit black people’s cultural contributions” things for all I know.

c) I’ve never eaten cornbread cooked by black folks, either in restaurants or in person, and had it be that sweet stuff.
I’m curious now. If you’re black and you cook cornbread: sweet or not? (and how about flour in it, while we’re at it?)

Had a black fella move here from Louisiana via Houston(chased by hurricanes) and open a restaurant. He claimed most of his recipes were family recipes and he was inordinately proud of his cornbread. Didn’t taste any more or less sweet than any other I’ve had, but you could tell he used bacon fat in the making.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@AHunter3

a) I did too. North vs South thing. and

b) I don’t think they did but I could be wrong.

Did you read that article I linked to earlier? It’s really interesting.

@that article

To be sure, today’s cornbread lines have gotten fuzzy. There are sweet cornbread fans in the white camp, and non-sweet cornbread fans among African-Americans. But the two styles are distinctive enough to make anyone who pays attention wonder how the racial difference started.

The most common theory is a change in cornmeal itself. Until early in the 20th century, Southern cornmeal was made with sweeter white corn and it was water-ground.

When industrial milling came along, that changed. The steel-roller mills used yellow corn that was harvested before it was ripe, so it had less sugar.

…

Yellow cornmeal was cheap, though. So black cooks who had little money may have changed their cornbread to match the cornmeal they could afford.

…

By 1936, she says, “The Eliza Cookbook,” by the Negro Culinary Arts Club, called for 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour – a recipe similar to today’s cornbread mixes like Jiffy. Martin thinks black cooks were influenced by those.

What about the claim that sweet cornbread is Northern? Adrian Miller, author of “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine,” thinks that association started with the Great Migration, when blacks moved North in search of better jobs in the early 20th century. In the North, where they would have only had industrially milled cornbread, the sugar habit got even more entrenched, then came back to the South with the rise of soul food restaurants.

“I keep going back and forth between Southern and soul (food),” he says. “And sugar in cornbread is one of those demarcation points.”

The whole thing is worth a read, if food history is your jam.

[AHunter3]

@DorkVader

Had a black fella move here from Louisiana via Houston(chased by hurricanes) and open a restaurant. He claimed most of his recipes were family recipes and he was inordinately proud of his cornbread. Didn’t taste any more or less sweet than any other I’ve had, but you could tell he used bacon fat in the making.

nods He has reason to be proud of his cornbread.