On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 04:51:21AM +0000,
bread-bakers-sender@lists.bread-bakers.com wrote:
>From: mt <mt@lockedbags.org>
>Subject: Questions on Skillet Cornbread
>Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 19:55:45 +1000
>So, here's my questions:
>
>1. With buttermilk not being available, can it be substituted with skim milk?
>
>2. I seem to remember adding some vinegar to the batter: would this
>make sense when buttermilk is not available??
>
>3. In your experience, does cornbread behave/taste differently when
>white flour is added? (Again, I'm not at all sure, but I have a
>feeling the recipe I used only had corn flour in it
>
>TIA! :-
>
>marina
>Thank you Reggie for the Southern Cornbread recipe you posted
>earlier this year, which brought back memories of what I baked a few
>times, and enjoyed tremendously, (many) years back.
>
>I should clarify I'm an Italian-Australian and have therefore no
>background on skillet corn bread - but back then, I was using a
>recipe from a friend, adapted to the ingredients I had available at
>the time. Sadly I can't find that recipe anymore, and none of those
>I've come across recently seem tobe it.
>So, here's my questions:
>
>1. With buttermilk not being available, can it be substituted with skim milk?
>
>2. I seem to remember adding some vinegar to the batter: would this
>make sense when buttermilk is not available??
>
>3. In your experience, does cornbread behave/taste differently when
>white flour is added? (Again, I'm not at all sure, but I have a
>feeling the recipe I used only had corn flour in it
>
>TIA! :-
>
>marina
question 1: yes. see answer to Q 2
Question 2: Many recipes that I've seen suggest a teaspoon of vinegar
or lemon juice added to the milk and stirred, let it sit for a couple
of minutes, to acidify (and curdle) the milk. If your recipe uses
baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) as (part of) its leavening, then
this would probably be appropriate. If not, I'd guess it calls for
buttermilk merely for the flavor, and you could probably get away
without using the acidifier.
Question 3: I don't personally have any experience with corn breads
that contain only corn. All the ones I've made use corn meal with
some flour, either white or whole wheat. It would seem to me that
without some sort of flour, there's be nothing to make all the bits
of corn meal stick together. You mention "corn flour", is that what
use US-ians would call corn meal, or is it in fact corn ground to a
flour-like powder? Here in the US, corn meal is coarser than wheat
flour,... you can feel the grittiness of it if you rub a little
between your fingers.
Please post back here once you've had some time to try out the
recipe(s) you're looking at so we will all know what you discovered.
I'm always up for a new corn bread recipe!
Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:28 (niv) -----------------------------