Cornbread: Tips & Tricks #1

Cornbread:  It's typical to use flour in cornbread, as cornmeal doesn't have any gluten and binds poorly.  But using a lot of flour gives you bread, not cornbread.  So use bread flour: its larger amount of gluten will make your cornbread hold together better.  You can then use less flour and correspondingly more cornmeal, which gives you a corn-ier cornbread.  It also lets you put in more other stuff (like bacon, green onions, or corn kernels), so you can make your cornbread more interesting.

By the way, use some real, preferably locally ground, cornmeal.  Do not use one of those huge national brands with the taste and texture of sand. 

This inaugurates the "Tips & Tricks"  section: an experiment to form a sort of running column within the blog of things I do in the kitchen that I'd like to pass on, but probably wouldn't otherwise get their own post.  We'll see how it works out. 

Comments

[Aunt Jenny]

WELL... David Lebovitz certainly has some pointy opinions about the bread. I think you and Maura need (knead? hee) to go to Paris immediately and straighten (again, hee) him out:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/12/the_nail_in_the.html

[Joe]

I don't know what Mr. Lebovitz is making, but it ain't what I'm making. The loaf depicted in the post you reference doesn't look right either: the sides are way too acutely angular and (individually) straight. He's doing something wrong, but I don't know what. What's doltish about his post is that there's no one stopping him from kneading his bread. If he wants to modify the original recipe to include real kneading, and he thinks the loaf is improved thereby, that's great: let us know. That sure is a nice looking pan he's got there in the background though.

[Aunt Jenny]

Ooh, I know-- that pan is a coquelle by Le Creuset, either vintage or a recent reissue. Clotilde talks about hers here:

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/07/coquelle_jaune_poussin.php

I want one BAD... but I don't think it's the right size or shape for this bread (4.5 liters? 13x9? too big).

David can be wonderful, but, again, I think he should stick with chocolate.

[maura]

Joe and Jennifer are both pan sluts.

[maura]

RE: David's column. I will agree that it's not a powerful bread, but I don't think it's supposed to. It's not a sourdough. What makes it great is the texture. And he can always add more salt, which he should know if he's such an expert.
His comment on the amount of time it takes is irrelevant. Good bread takes time. The recipe I used before this, an Italian style bread from Nancy Silverstein, who owns Le Brea bakery, takes almost as much time. As for kneading, he's right that it's not that hard to do it, but that's not really the point of the bread either. It's the crust.
We sure are taking this personally, aren't we?
One more point - isn't matzoh an unleavened bread? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Aunt Jenny]

>>Joe and Jennifer are both pan sluts.<<

Guilty as whorishly charged.