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get drunk on it (bourbon).
    One cup of raw white corn has about 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein, 29 grams of carbohydrate, and 4 grams of fiber, with no cholesterol. Corn is also rich in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, which are associated specifically with eye health, as well as a lowered risk of many chronic diseases. And corn oil is high in the essential fatty acid linoleic acid, as well as vitamin E.

M ISSISSIPPI -T ENNESSEE D ELTA –S TYLE C ORNBREAD
    M AKES 8 WEDGES
    David Johnston, an East-Tennessean and Dairy Hollow guest, disapproved of our cornbread, although he was highly cordial about everything else. “Notice that my recipe does not call for sugar,” he noted on the top of the file card he sent me after he returned home. Then, echoing Mark Twain’s famous line, he added, “Real cornbread does not contain sugar.”
    If you want to make cornbread like they do it in the Delta, use bacon drippings, though I myself go for half oil, half butter.
    Vegetable oil cooking spray
    ¼ cup mild vegetable oil, melted butter, or bacon drippings
    2 cups self-rising cornmeal (see Pantry, page 350 )
    1½ cups milk
    1 egg
    1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
    2. Spray a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with oil and place 2 tablespoons of the fat of your choice in it. Put the skillet in the oven to get good and hot. Let it stay there a couple of minutes before you start mixing the batter, which is so quick to put together you need to give the skillet a head start.
    3. While the skillet heats, combine the self-rising cornmeal, milk, egg, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of fat in a medium bowl. Don’t overbeat.
    4. When the oil and skillet are both smoking-hot, remove the skillet from the oven and pour in the batter.
    5. Return the skillet to the oven and bake the cornbread for 20 minutes, then crank the heat to Broil until the bread is extra crusty and deeply golden on top, 1 to 2 minutes.

    “Mrs. Pickett smoked a lipstick-stained cigarette between bites of cornbread and butterbeans. She’d stare at me and shake her head as if confused. ‘You’re the skinniest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on; you better eat up ’em butterbeans, girl.’”
    —B ARBARA R OBINETTE M OSS ,
Change Me Into Zeus’s Daughter

T WO G RANDMAS ’ C REAMED C ORN C ORNBREAD
    M AKES 8 WEDGES
    This is adapted from a recipe from the excellent, story-rich Kwanzaa: an African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking , by Eric V. Copage. Typical of many African American cornbreads, it’s a little sweet and extremely moist. Creamed corn gives it a comforting pudding-like texture.
    Vegetable oil cooking spray
    ¼ cup (½ stick) butter
    1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
    ¾ cup unbleached white flour
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
    ½ teaspoon salt
    1 cup canned creamed corn (see Pantry, page 351 )
    1 cup milk
    1 egg
    1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with oil and add half of the butter. Put the pan in the oven to let it get very hot.
    2. Meanwhile, combine the cornmeal, flour, and sugar in a medium heat-proof bowl, then sift in the baking powder and salt.
    3. Whisk together the creamed corn, milk, and egg in a small bowl.
    4. Add the wet mixture to the dry, stirring until all is combined but taking care not to overbeat.
    5. By now your pan should be nice and hot. Remove it from the oven, lowering the oven temperature to 400°F. Carefully pour about half of the by-now-melted butter from the hot pan into the batter. Stir the batter a couple of times, and then pour it into the hot pan.
    6. Bake until the cornbread is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.
V ARIATION :
“A LL T HAT J AZZ ” S OUL F OOD V EGAN C ORNBREAD
    I met a lovely dreadlocked young woman selling vegetarian food from a booth at the Eighth Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival in Los Angeles. She was kind enough to give me this recipe,