Southern
Why Spoonbread Matters
The souffle-like corn dish is a Black Southern delicacy, and it's become increasingly rare.
While driving outside of Richmond, Virginia, one day, I passed a seafood restaurant called Stuart’s Fresh Catch. Posted outside was a vinyl sign advertising lake trout, crabs, fresh fish, and spoonbread. Clearly one of those things wasn’t like the others, and I made a mental note to come back the next day to try spoonbread.
Spoonbread is one of the oldest Southern delicacies. When executed properly, it is incredibly light, even though it has a similar texture to grits, and almost tastes like an incredibly moist piece of cornbread. “A properly prepared dish of spoonbread can be taken as continued testimony to the perfectibility of humankind,” as John Egerton, author of Southern Food, wrote, The ingredients for spoonbread are cornmeal, milk, butter, eggs, sugar, and baking powder (although some recipes call for flour), and the lineage of spoonbread can be traced back hundreds of years in Virginia. Spoonbread was originally called “Batter Bread,” and a recipe for it appears in Mary Randolph’s 1824 cookbook, The Virginia Housewife, which is considered to be the first Southern cookbook by many culinary historians.
It’s reasonable to conclude that Randoph used recipes from James Hemings, who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson and was the chef de cuisine at Monticello. Although many recipes and ingredients listed throughout the cookbook, such as okra and gumbo, were traditionally used and prepared by enslaved African Americans, one of the best examples to support this theory is Batter Bread. The dish is baked in small ramekins, similar to a soufflé, and fits perfectly into the half-Virginian, half-French dishes that Hemings was renowned for.
When Jefferson became the ambassador to France in 1784, he brought Hemings to France from Virginia to learn how to cook under French chefs. Upon Hemings' return, he worked in the kitchen of Monticello, and taught other enslaved cooks how to recreate the technically difficult dishes he learned. Those dishes and service quickly became the template for fine dining in America. “One can see the French influence in several soul food dishes like spoon bread… Most likely we owe such dishes to the French chefs who taught recipes and techniques to enslaved cooks,” wrote Adrian Miller in his book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet.
Famed African-American chef Edna Lewis was born in Freetown, Virginia (about twenty miles from Monticello), grew up eating spoonbread, and included it in her cookbook, In Pursuit of Flavor. She calls the dish “Orange County Spoonbread” as a nod to her origins, and notes that she grew up eating it, although her version has a lighter texture, because instead of using flour, she grates fresh corn and blends it into liquid.
Today, however, finding spoonbread in a restaurant is a rarity, even in the South. The erasure of spoonbread would be a tragic loss, not just because it is delicious, but because if we lose spoonbread, we lose a part of our culinary history. Hundreds of years of history and the melding of different groups of people can be tasted in one spoonful—the interesting combination of corn from Indigenous people, the European technique of soufflés, and the expertise of enslaved African Americans who elevated this dish to a refined staple on Southern tables. Spoonbread isn’t just cornmeal or eggs or sugar. Rather, it is the intermingling taste of countless tears and joy, and the story of how people have adapted over the centuries while holding on to the promise that life will be better for the next generation. This is the power of food, to not only sustain us physically, but emotionally as well.
The day after I saw the sign outside Stuart’s, I ordered a large spoonbread to go. The cashier at Stuart’s handed me a warm styrofoam container filled to the brim with a fresh batch, and after making sure to grab a spoon, I headed to the car to see what a centuries-old recipe tasted like. The spoonbread was rich, sweet, and creamy, and quite delicious. Although I wasn’t transported to another world or filled with nostalgia, it did make me slow down for a moment and enjoy what I was tasting. And maybe that is all that was needed.
Written by: Deb Freeman
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65 Comments
-a Richmond native (family roots to late 1600's Southampton County) who is happy to see the monuments gone.
https://bereachamberofcommerce.org/spoonbread-festival/
(Another commenter on 4/18 mentioned this festival, which is staged alongside the justly famous Berea College.)
My Washington, DC-area family has loved spoonbread for several generations--starting with my Midwestern grandparents who moved here as government employees during the WWII effort in the early 1940s. My now-19-year-old son instantly adored it the first time he tasted it as a little boy, and readily chose it for his "family recipe project" in early grade-school social studies: he learned how to cook it, write up the recipe and notations properly, and describe its regular place on our family's holiday menus. I rotate among several spoonbread recipes because I still haven't settled on a favorite, but I do always deliberately make extra so that my son & I can look forward to a perfect breakfast next morning: warmed leftover spoonbread with butter, darkest maple syrup & flaky salt. If fresh corn kernels are available to add to the batter before baking, that is another layer of perfection.
It was set on 40 acres in the midst of crowded Northern Virginia, restored in the 18th Century style. The farm raised much of the food served in the restaurant, the flowers on the tables, herbs, and more. They made their own chutneys, relishes, james, and preserves. The staff dressed in colonial attire, and in addition to table service, there was a heavily laden buffet with a variety of delights. When I was old enough to serve myself from the buffet, I always made a beeline for the spoonbread.
I am thankful my mother bought the book of recipes and even more grateful she gave it to me when I married. The first recipe, and most asked for, is the spoonbread. The last recipe is one purported to be from Martha Washington’s own receipt book for her “Great Cake”.
It reports to be from Evans Farm Inn but I wonder how it matches us with the one that is in the cookbook.
Copied directly from the recipe booklet:
“Spoon Bread
2 Cups milk
1 Cup corn meal (white)
2 eggs (separated)
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Salt
Scald milk and add corn meal. Add egg yolks, butter, and salt. Continue to cook until smooth and thick. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg whites.
Bake in a well-greased casserole 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
We use water ground white corn meal.”
The little cook book contains 38 recipes, ranging from house-made condiments, sauces, entrees, and sides to dessert and even their pot pourri. The most asked-for recipes, apparently, were the spoon bread, the peanut soup, Chicken Barbara, and Martha Washington’s Great Cake. If anyone would like the list of recipes included, I’d be happy to type it out. I don’t think there’s a way to add a photo to the comments here.
A cheerful debate- sweet or savory? Just like the debate over the sugar levels in cornbread, many people prefer spoon bread not to be sweet. To me, spoon bread is a simple, savory dish. Also- Mary Randolph’s cookbook is not just an early, Southern cookbook, although that’s true of course. . It’s also early American , north and south.
Thank you for recognizing her influence, that of Edna Lewis, and Chef Hemings. All are important contributors to American food culture.
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