1 cupful of white corn meal.
1 large cooking-spoonful of melted lard.
1 cupful of boiling water.
1 small cupful of cold water or milk.
1 egg.
Little salt.
1 teaspoonful of baking powder.
Scald most of the meal with the boiling water — which is the most essential thing in making first- rate corn bread — then add the other ingredients, the powder last, and beat up thoroughly. Make baking pan hot in the oven without greasing it. When the batter is poured into a pan hissing hot it never sticks, and there will be no discoloration of burnt grease. It should be over an inch deep in the pan and bake about half an hour. The top crust should be baked quickly that the bread may rise with a smooth top, not cracked open.
Really good corn bread makers are about as scarce as are the makers of fine puff-paste. Few seem to know how good corn bread can be, and how quickly skiliful hands can make the people leave all other kinds of bread and prefer this.
Buttermilk and soda can be used instead of the cold milk and powder.
Whitehead’s Family Cook Book, 1891