THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

1 egg.    1 cup each corn meal, flour & sweet milk.  4 tb. melted butter added last.  2 tb. sugar    2 tsp. Powder.  Bake in gem pans.

~Janet Cleland Morton’s handwritten recipe book. (Janet was born in 1872 and died in 1920).

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• ¼ c. butter (+ additional for greasing tins)
• 1 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 c. corn meal
• 2 Tb. granulated sugar
• 1 c. milk
• 1 egg.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Melt the 1/4 c. of butter in a saucepan.

Grease 6 – 8 muffin tins with the additional butter (or use 6″ x 6″ squares of parchment paper to create muffin tin liners).

Sift the flour and measure it;  then add the baking powder to it, and sift together.

In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, cornmeal), and stir to blend.

Beat the egg lightly with a fork, and add it to the milk;  mix well.

Add the melted butter to the milk and egg mixture, and combine it thoroughly.

Add this liquid mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix with a fork, just enough to moisten the dry ingredients completely.

Put the batter into the buttered muffin pans, filling each compartment about ⅞ full.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 400F for about 15 – 20 minutes, until the gems are a light golden brown.

Serve warm from the oven, with butter, and jam or jelly. Or serve with chili or a hearty soup.

Yield:  6 large muffins, or “Gems”.

A note from Patricia: Cornbread is a favourite of mine. I love it with a salad or chili or soup, and let’s be honest, it’s pretty amazing fresh out of the oven with butter slathered all over it. Cornmeal is naturally gluten-free, and I substituted 1:1 gluten free flour for the all-purpose flour in this recipe and it all worked out fine. Better than fine, really. These were lovely, and extra special because it’s my great-grandmother’s recipe. I made four using the plain batter from the recipe above, and then I mixed some shredded cheddar cheese and chives into the remaining batter and filled up the last two muffin tin liners. Bonkers.

A quick fire is necessary in cooking good corn bread.

~Hearst, W. R. The American Cook Book. New York, 1901.