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which, she explained, is “Just like my grandma’s but vegan.” Follow the recipe above, but instead of the egg use reconstituted egg replacer, either homemade (see Eggscellence, page 352 ) or commercial, to equal one egg; instead of the 1 cup dairy milk use ¾ cup soy milk; and instead of the butter use 5 tablespoons (¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon) canola oil or vegan margarine. Add an extra 2 tablespoons canned creamed corn (see Pantry, page 351 ).

W ENONAH F AYE ’ S M AMA ’ S “P LAIN B READ ” (C ORN P ONE )
    M AKES EIGHT 2- TO -3- INCH PONES
    The cornbread of childhood stays with a person a long time. Wenonah Fay Holl, my good old friend who now lives in Little Rock, grew up on and with the following, in Conway, Arkansas. But this stripped-down bread had its precursor in Indian days, and it was a constant for blacks during slavery times. In some places it was known as ashcake and hoecake; and, traveling north and east, it was johnnycake or jonnycake (sometimes as elaborate as the preceding recipes, other times just as simple as what follows). But it was always Mama’s Plain Bread in Wenonah Fay’s family, and the individual cakes were pones.
    “This was a fixture of my growing-up years,” Wenonah Fay wrote me (she was eighty-seven at the time). “There was not much to it but meal and boiling water. And this is the only time Mama used white cornmeal. It was made into little pones,about an inch thick and a size that would fit nicely in the palm of her hand, with the prints of her fingers on top. The pones were baked in a HOT oven, and I never remember having them except when we had cabbage. But we had cabbage fairly often. And her cabbage was so good … steamed crispy fresh. And the pones served hot from the oven with lots of butter … oh, my!”
    “Your choice of fat,” the recipe tells you. This could be butter, mild vegetable oil, or bacon drippings. Most probably the Native American precursor would have been something like bear fat.
    And the cornmeal really ought to be white. Just ask Wenonah Faye.
    Vegetable oil cooking spray
    About 2 cups boiling water
    2 cups stone-ground cornmeal, preferably white
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 tablespoon butter, mild vegetable oil, or bacon drippings
    Butter, for serving (optional)
    Skillet-Fried Cabbage ( page 297 ), for serving (optional)
    1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a baking sheet with oil.
    2. Pour the boiling water over the remaining ingredients in a heat-proof bowl, and let the mixture stand for 5 to 10 minutes—long enough so the cornmeal can soften slightly, plus cool enough so that you can handle it.
    3. Now, you’ll want to shape it into small, patty-like cakes, about 2 to 3 inches round and ⅓ to ¾ inch thick. Their consistency will not be smooth and seamless but rather rough and uneven. It’s possible you might need to add another tablespoon or so of boiling water to achieve this.
    4. Place the pones on the prepared sheet. Then, with a wet hand, press your three middle fingers across the top of each pone, leaving three little indentations … a love note or valentine to those who will eat them.
    5. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve hot, with butter and skillet-fried cabbage, if desired.

    “If God had meant for cornbread to have sugar in it, he’d have called it cake.”
    —M ARK T WAIN

J ESSICA H ARRIS ’ S H ERBED C ORNBREAD
    M AKES 9 SQUARES
    In her terrific book A Kwanzaa Keepsake , Jessica Harris points out that, like tomatoes and peppers, corn and cornmeal are New World additions to the traditional African diet. However, she says, they “have been so gleefully adopted that it is virtually impossible to think of the cooking of the African Atlantic world without them.” This excellent cornbread, adapted from hers, features an accent of thyme and uses canned or frozen corn.
    Vegetable oil cooking spray
    ¾ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
    ¼ cup unbleached flour
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    ½ teaspoon