Holiday Entertaining

Warm Custard Spoon Bread

by:
December 17, 2010
5 Comments

Watch A&M make LocalSavour's cozy Warm Custard Spoon Bread -- a puffed sort of-cornbread, sort of-souffle that comes together in minutes, with a very cool twist at the end.

This week's videos were once again shot and edited by filmmaker Elena Parker. For more holiday breakfast inspiration, go here.

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See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • AntoniaJames
    AntoniaJames
  • sboulton
    sboulton
  • Morava
    Morava
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5 Comments

AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames December 21, 2010
Morava, I've been thinking about this some more, and I just don't understand why you would even use baking soda in this recipe as a leavening agent, when you've just doubled the baking powder called for in The Joy of Cooking "Custard Topped Spoon Bread," without changing any of the other ingredients/ratios, except to add flavorings. I use baking soda to counteract the acidity of buttermilk used in yeast breads. Perhaps the authors of The Joy of Cooking wanted the sour milk/buttermilk flavor, but also needed to balance its acidity? I'm just not that familiar with the way these ingredients play off each other in a dish like this. It's puzzling. ;o)
 
sboulton
sboulton December 19, 2010
It's like baked egg nog, yummmmmm.
 
AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames December 17, 2010
The vinegar in the recipe is there to sour the milk. It's a common trick you see in older cookbooks, for recipes similar to this one. Very typical of The Joy of Cooking. Modern cookbooks typically just have you use buttermilk.
 
Morava
Morava December 18, 2010
Not to sour milk, but to start-up the soda.
 
AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames December 20, 2010
Yes, morava, you're right. I've always made spoon bread with buttermilk, and now I realize that the acidity from the soured milk or buttermilk is necessary for the soda in this. I make mine the old-fashioned way, with no leavening agents at all. (It's practically against the law to put baking powder in spoon bread, where I come from.) I think the editors of The Joy of Cooking, when they published the "Custard Topped Spoon Bread" on which the recipe is based, must have figured that cooks would prefer to measure out chemical leavening agents rather than to separate the eggs and beat the whites, which is the traditional way of making spoon bread. Interestingly, the predecessor version of this recipe, in the 1943 edition, does not include any baking soda or buttermilk (or soured milk). In that edition, there are two different recipes, one which calls for buttermilk and soda; the other calls for regular milk and baking powder, but no soda, and has you pour milk, not cream, over it. ;o)