Soft Egg Bread

The first recipe we uncovered in our Forgotten Recipies of the Smokies series, was for Soft Egg Bread from the book: Shenandoah Valley Cooking: Recipes and Kitchen Lore. Some may recognize this recipe as something similar to what we would call “spoonbread” today. It was a staple on many tables in Virginia prior to the Revolutionary War. The addition of baking soda would have come a little later, because it was not invented until the 1790’s. However, whipping the egg whites would have given it the lift and air it needed to rise. Once baking soda was added, it reacted with the acid in the clabber or buttermilk to also give it some lift. So while spoonbread is not a forgotten dish, this original recipe is certainly closer to what Mordecai Lewis would have brought with him to have on his table here in East Tennessee.

Here is the original recipe from the book: Shenandoah Valley Cooking: Recipes and Kitchen Lore, and our modernized version follows.

Soft Egg Bread (Original Recipe)

1 cup of boiling water poured over one cup cornmeal
1 cup of clabber or buttermilk
2 eggs (yolks only) well beaten
1⁄2 teaspoon soda
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lard
Then add beaten whites of eggs, bake in a greased pudding dish about one hour, serve with a spoon.

Testing Notes:

We used buttermilk and plain yellow cornmeal. However, plain white cornmeal can be used as well. We baked it at 325-degrees to keep with the instruction of baking for 1 hour, in a medium pottery casserole dish, but you could use an 8-10 inch cast iron skillet or 9 inch baking pan. We served it warm with a drizzle of honey. Honey or molasses adds quite a bit of flavor and would have been how it was originally enjoyed, since both were plentiful in the 1700s.

Yield: 6-8

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Soft Egg Bread

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 10 M

Ingredients

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup Yellow Unbolted Cornmeal
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ teaspoon soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon lard

Instructions

1. Pour boiling water over cornmeal and mix well. 
2. Mix the buttermilk, soda, and salt together, then add to the cornmeal. Mix in the egg yolks. 
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold into the cormeal mixture. 
4. Generously grease your dish with the lard and fill with the cornmeal mixture. 
5. Bake at 325-degrees for 1 hour. Serve warm with a drizzle of honey. 

Notes:

Tips for success:

1. The cornmeal and water mixture will seem very dry at first because the boiling water will quickly begin to plump the cornmeal. But that is key to getting the cornmeal soft enough to mix properly.
2. Adding the soda to the buttermilk begins the reaction with the acid of the buttermilk, which will help give the bread some airiness.
3. Serve warm with honey, sorghum, or molasses. It will be a little bland on its own, but the sweetener adds quite a bit of flavor.

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