Great-Grandmother Mary's Cornbread

My great-grandmother was the most Southern woman I've ever known, with the exception of my own mother. She was everything to me that my grandmothers never were, and I'm so glad I had the luck to know her for almost 20 years, even if we didn't always understand each other.

Her name was Mary, and she was born on Christmas day.  She had two daughters, three grandchildren, and four to five great-grandchildren when she passed away over 90 years later on Valentine's day.  Those years were full of love, laughter, hardship, happiness, and perseverance.  Most of all, they were full of her smiling.

When she passed away and her daughters began divvying out her belongings, I asked for two things: her photo albums and her recipe books. They were some of her most cherished belongings, and I could not bear to see them lost or shelved somewhere they wouldn't be used and enjoyed.  Mary would've wanted to be remembered by her food and her escapades, I'm sure. That's just the sort of great-grandmother she was.

Mary and Henry

A family favorite of hers was her sour-cream cornbread, which both my mother and I still make to this day. We've differences of opinion on whether to use Greek yoghurt or sour-cream, but I like to think Mary would've tried either and enjoyed them.  (Her recipe books, after all, were written almost entirely in her own measurements and substitutions.) Mary was always up for something new, after all. Even if it meant wearing knee-high shorts in the early 1930s. The scandal!

Try this recipe with Mom's copycat chilli, while you're at it. They were made for each other, even if they were separated by a generation. 

Great-Grandmother Mary's Cornbread

Serves: 6-8

3/4 cup + 3 tbsp polenta flour or cornmeal

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

½ cup oil

8 oz sour cream (or Greek yoghurt)

16 oz corn, puréed (or 1 can creamed corn)

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 425 and grease pan. 
2. Mix ingredients until just blended. Pour into pan. 
3. Cook in lower half of oven for 25-30 minute until set and lightly golden.

Cooks' note: If you are using self-rising cornmeal, omit the baking powder and use 1 cup of cornmeal. We haven't been able to find this in the UK, so we had to make our own self-rising cornmeal with polenta and baking powder.