Cornbread at Mamaw's

My mom taught me how to make cornbread when I was a little girl. It was one of the first things I ever learned to cook. I guess a mountain girl has to know how to make a good pone of cornbread. She taught me how to bake it in a little cast iron skillet.

Shortly after that, I went to spend the week with my Mamaw and Papaw who lived across the mountain. This was many, many years ago when one of my aunts and two of my uncles still lived at home. My uncles worked at the quarry and would come home for lunch. Mamaw and my aunt would cook a huge breakfast on the coal stove before my uncles left for work. Then they would clean up the mess and start cooking lunch. Then they would clean up the mess and start cooking supper. You get the idea. Cooking was a big deal and they took great pride in their meals. I have to add here, that both of my uncles were skinny as rails and they still haven't fattened up much.

One day, I told them that I knew how to make cornbread and wanted to make it for my uncles and papaw for lunch. Mamaw said I could. I got Mamaw's little metal mixing bowl, that I own and use to this day, and made up my batter. Mamaw got a large cast iron skillet and sat it on top of the stove. I noticed that it was much larger than the skillet I used at home, but being little, I had no idea how it would affect the outcome of my bread. I poured my batter into the skillet and Mamaw put it in the oven.

We had crust for lunch that day. My pone of cornbread had a top crust and a bottom crust, but there was no bread in the middle. My aunt just smiled and said, "Just the way Papaw likes it."