Cooking Up Cracklins

Cracklins used to be common fare on southern tables. Sometimes you have to go back to your roots and eat the food of your heritage. My folks and the neighboring farm families had hog killings in the winter and they made cracklins/cracklings. So in cold weather we ate cracklin bread. Rest assured we don't eat like this all the time.

Cracklin Corn Pone Bread Recipe (eggless corn bread popular in the South)

• 1 cup pork cracklins
• 2 cups fine ground corn meal (I use House-Autry)
• 2 Tablespoons self rising flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of sugar (optional)
• 1 cups warm water (add more if needed)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the pone pan with some really sturdy grease like Crisco or lard.

Chop cracklins. If you don't like brown flecks in the bread, then grind the cracklins.

In a large mixing bowl stir together the cracklins, corn meal, flour, salt and sugar. Add the water slowly, stirring until the mixture is the consistency of pancake batter.

Pour into pone pan, filling to the top. Bake until edges are brown and bread is crusty, 35-45 minutes. As soon as the bread is cool enough to handle, pop the pones out of the pan. Serve immediately while bread is hot.

Yield: 16 pones.

This bread is made in a cast iron corn pone pan

The corn meal is also important. When I was growing up I rode my bicycle down our dirt road to the Big Mill to get a paper bag full of fresh ground corn meal; usually from our own corn. Miss Sadie James made the best meal; I can't find any meal of that quality now. My dad Ops taught me how to take the raw meal in your hand, squeeze it and it should clump together like clay. If not, then it was ground too fast and the stone heated the meal too much.

Cracklin bread ready to eat

If you really want to try eating cracklins and you aren't planning to attend any hog killings, you can buy them in some grocery stores like Piggly Wiggly. Buy the cracklins without skins, your teeth will thank you.

I did find a Cracklin' Bread Recipe in the White Trash Cookbook, but don't think cracklins are just for us down home folks anymore. Emeril Lagasse has a recipe on how to make Cracklins and a Cracklin Bread recipe!

To see Cracklins being made, join us at the Martin County Farm Heritage Fair in Williamston, N.C. at the Senator Bob Martin Agriculture Center on December 5th, 2009, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you attend, look for me – I will be spinning wool, taking photos and eating cracklins. And I will be hoping my jams win another first prize!

…and all the Big Mill Bed & Breakfast guests can be certain they will feast on "just picked" strawberries in the months of April, May and June. We have two U-Pick Strawberry fields here in Martin County and our local produce is the best. Folks say berries from different fields have different flavors, and I believe them.

At the Berry Patch in Robersonville you can buy local grown cabbages, onions, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peas, potatoes and corn.  And you can get just-made strawberry jam.

Shirley is going on her eleventh year at the Berry Patch…I only see her in the strawberry season, but that can be at least several times a week. The berries are so luscious, I can’t resist picking more than I need. Vivian, Shirley and Carleen are also familiar faces at the Berry Patch.

At the fields you pick (and eat) berries, weigh them and off you go with quarts of ripe red fruit. Then you must decide what to do with all these pounds of berries that you picked. 

I make strawberry jam for our Big Mill B&B guests. Don’t think I’m bragging (much!), but this is an award-winning strawberry jam recipe!  It won best-of-show at our Farm Heritage Fair.  It is wonderful.

When I was growing up, we would pick the berries, make jam and – on the very same night — we ate homemade biscuits with jam and homemade butter.

Growing your own and buying local is a growing trend — and a good one. All around us there are many farmer’s markets, vegetable stands and local folks selling their produce. We even have vendors who sell collards out of a pick up truck. We need to support them all. You can find a list of farmers in your area at Local Harvest and at North Carolina Farm Fresh. 

I will be posting some guest articles on The Bountiful Kitchen – Inn Cuisine.  The article with my recipe for Chloe’s Strawberry Jam is just the first in a series of eating local, sustainable foods.  

Plan to Visit: The Berry Patch in Robersonville, NC 252-795-4903 and Berry Tyme Farm in Jamesville, NC 252-792-6916. This year, there is a new J & J Farm Produce in Martin County near Jamesville 252-799-8110. They are not a You-Pick farm, but they do sell strawberries, cabbage, potatoes, May peas, corn and asparagus.