Maize, or corn, has been grown in North Carolina for thousands of years. Native Americans, who baked bread by open fires, shared this method with European settlers and enslaved African Americans. Enslaved people were given cornmeal as a regular ration. Cornbread and hush puppies have remained a constant on dinner tables across the South, providing sustenance in lean times and good.

This cornbread recipe is from Recipes and Remembrances, Volume II, 100^th Anniversary of Lowe’s Grove Baptist Church, which was published in 2009. The rural Lowe’s Grove area would have been lush with game in earlier years, and you can see from the note at the bottom that Mrs. Clegg made good use of it.

Cover of A Harvest of Recipes from Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, published in 1983 and one of the many fun covers to be found in the the North Carolina Collection’s cookbook collection

Cornbread: In Memory of Lydia Marshall Clegg

2 c. cornmeal

2 T. flour

½ tsp. salt

1 1/4c. buttermilk

¼ c. hot water

 Grease in baking dish

Mix well cornmeal, flour, salt, buttermilk, and hot water.  Use an iron pan or large baking dish and enough grease to have about ½ inch of hot grease.  Spoon mixture to make small patties.  Put them in hot grease and bake at 400 F until brown, turn over very carefully, let brown on other side.

Note:  Lydia Clegg was known to cook lots of foods i.e. quail, possum surrounded with baked potatoes, squirrel, barbecued rabbits, fish and deer. Her cornbread was a request at community gatherings.