Gather Round the Table: Christmas Cornbread & Beans

For some folks, Christmas is about peace and good tidings. For others it is a joyous celebration of the birth of the savior. For many it is just about the presents. In my family it was, and still is, all about the food.

There are many items that must be on the table, else it simply is not Christmas. Among these are the clam dip, the wild rice dressing, grandma's cranberries, and mom's bourbon pound cake. I've shared all these recipes in this space before save the pound cake, which is a very closely guarded family recipe. The secret is to? nope, still not going to tell you. Although I will say that this past year my mother did learn that you cannot make up for not having the last 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour by replacing it with 3/4 cup of bread flour, unless making a doorstop is your intended result.

My wife Kim's family had different food traditions, including oyster stew and tamales (odd for her Scots-German heritage) as well as some more conventional items like green bean casserole and a lemon Jell-o mold of pineapples and carrots that was on every holiday table at her grandmother's home in Decorah. But the best tradition of her family, and the one that made it so easy for us to combine our holiday traditions when we married more than twenty years ago, was cornbread and beans.

Kim's mother and grandmother both used Jiffy Mix for their cornbread, but Kim married a chef, so now we make it from scratch every Christmas Eve. The rich and luxurious feast on Christmas Day offers a fitting counterpoint alongside the prior night's nod of respect to a time not so long ago when our families could afford no more than cornbread and beans for their holiday supper.

Like all good holiday traditions, the ritual of production, presentation and consumption must be adhered to in order to experience the full effect. The cornbread must be served warm, sliced horizontally, and spread with butter (not margarine). The beans must be navy beans, cooked simply in salted water, and ladled piping hot over the buttered cornbread. The dish is then garnished with diced yellow onions, hand-chopped pickled hot peppers, and white vinegar.

The only exception to this rule belonged to Kim's brother Scott, who since he was a toddler refused the cornbread and beans and his doting grandmother made macaroni and cheese for him. Today homemade mac-and-cheese is an odd, starchy but satisfying side dish on our Christmas Eve table.

Though it divides in half easily, this cornbread recipe makes a large batch, because I hope plenty of family and many friends surround your holiday table.

Iowa Sweet Cornbread

3 cups stoneground cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 cups milk plus 2 tablespoons vinegar)
1/2 cup butter or lard, melted
1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese, shredded, optional
4 scallions, sliced, optional

Preheat oven to 425 f. and grease a pyrex dish (8" x 10" x 4" or equivalent)

Combine all dry ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Separately combine the beaten egg, buttermilk and melted butter or lard. Add the liquid to the dry (and add the cheese and scallions, if desired) and fold to combine until just evenly moist.

Spoon the mixture into the greased dish and bake in center of oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Allow to stand 15 minutes before serving. Makes 10-12 healthy portions.

		Kurt Michael Friese, Gather Food Correspondent
	Gather 'Round the Table is a regular feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is a freelance food and wine writer & photographer. He is also the co-owner - with his wife Kim - of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Directors, and is Editor-in-Chief of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. He lives in rural Johnson County, Iowa. Keep up with Kurt Michael's food series by joining his network, or subscribing to his content.