NEW WAYS WITH CORNBREAD

While crispy-bottomed cornbread is a quintessential side to any Southern meal, this buttery bread got its start with the Native Americans. Cheap and plentiful, maize was a central part of their daily diets, so it was important for them to find a variety of ways to use the adaptable crop. In early days, cornbread was a simple mixture of cornmeal, water, and salt fried into cakes over a fire. European settlers arriving in the New World took this Native American recipe and added game-changing ingredients like buttermilk, eggs, and leaveners, as well as new cooking techniques. Hoecakes (small pancake-like cornbread cakes cooked on old-school griddles, colloquially called hoes) became a staple for early Southerners; and while hoecakes are still made today, most of us turn to our trusty