Hot Water Cornbread

When I was growing up, Mama often made fried cornbread. When I was living in exile in Arkansas, I heard it called "hot water cornbread". Seemed logical, I supposed, since it was made with hot water.

Lonnie has found a lady barber here who is trying to correct the botched haircut he got at another place. When he was there a couple of weeks ago, they got to talking about food, and she mentioned that she'd like to know how to make hot water cornbread.

I haven't made it in a long time, but I told him I'd try to remember how it was done. Since I don't measure things a lot of times, this is what I've come up with. . .

Put enough fat (bacon grease is great, but shortening or canola oil works fine) so that it's about 1/2" deep in a 10" iron skillet. Let it be heating while you're mixing up your cornbread batter.

Mix about 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal with maybe 1/4 cup sifted flour (2 or 3 scrapes of my flour sifter), 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. baking powder. Add 1 egg and enough really hot water to make a reasonably-thick batter. Not too thick, or it won't get done in the middle.

Using a large spoon, make mounds of cornbread batter in the hot grease and flatten them a bit if they don't spread out on their own. Fry until brown on the bottom, flip over, and brown them on the other side. You'll make more than one batch, so watch carefully when you get to the second and third batches because your grease just keeps getting hotter and your bread will burn if you aren't careful. Using a spatula or slotted spoon, remove the cornbread patties from the skillet and drain on a paper towel. Great served with butter & honey, purple hull peas, greens, fried catfish, or just about anything else you can think of!