Yellow Bread 315 



erstwhile Mrs. Simpson used to serve to her royal admirer. In 

 New York they laid it all to clothes by Molyneux and cos- 

 mopolitan sophistication. Down South they shrewdly sus- 

 pected yellow bread. 



There are as many recipes for the making of corn breads 

 as there are F.F.V/s in the Tidewater. Every family has one; 

 and every family's is "the best." Some call for buttermilk; 

 others advance the claims of clabber. Some ask for a little 

 wheat flour; others protest that this spoils the flavor of the 

 corn. In fact, they argue about making corn bread the way 

 New Englanders argue about crullers and doughnuts. 



As in all debates of this sort, there is only one right way. 

 And that is 



MY WAY TO MAKE CORN BREAD 



To two cups of corn meal add one teaspoon of salt, and one 

 teaspoon of soda. Add two cups of sour milk and stir well. Then 

 add two eggs, well beaten. And one-fourth of a cup of butter, 

 melted. Bake this in a well-greased and warmed sheet-iron pan in a 

 fairly hot oven for half an hour. 



You need buttermilk for pones. Some prefer clabber. But 

 whether you use one or the other, whether you roll the dough 

 in moistened corn husks and bake these in the embers, or 

 drop it onto a skillet, or bake the pones in the oven, you 

 should eat them hot with plenty of sweet butter. And for a 

 drink, buttermilk. 



Soon after I had begun the writing of this book I was 

 traveling by train from Washington toward Pittsburgh. My 

 seat-mate was a young man with a friendly smile and a pleas- 

 ant Tennessee drawl. Somewhere between Harpers Ferry and 

 Cumberland, and midway between Munich and Gone With 

 the Wind, I made the discovery that though by vocation he 

 was a government clerk, by avocation he was a cook. Like all 

 the men I have known who have this gift, he spoke endear- 

 ingly of the materials and mechanics of his art. 



"Well, ma'am, to make right good pones, it's like this. 



