Photograph by Catherine Grace
Indigenous populations grew maize and ground it into a mealy substance long before America was America. That cornmeal has made many dishes over time—like the Choctaw’s Bvnaha (similar to a tamale without the meat), the Navajo’s Tóshchíín (blue corn mush), and several tribes’ versions of corn fritters—but nothing caught on culturally across palates quite like cornbread. Early European settlers learned the technique of grinding maize, mixing it with salt and water, and baking it over an open pit from Native peoples in the 17th century, when the hot climate of the South proved to be inhospitable to their favored foreign wheat grains.
European traders introduced maize to West African countries through the Transatlantic Slave Trade before those enslaved in the United States made cornbread a cornerstone of soul food cuisine. An unleavened pone or hot water cornbread could be carried into the fields and eaten without utensils for sustenance under grueling work conditions. High-heat hearth cooking has deep-rooted African traditions that evolved in African American foodways, including the use of cast-iron skillets during slavery, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration. Over time, cornbread was relegated to a side item but the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Black women cooks haven’t been forgotten. Grab your standard moist square as a side at Richie’s or try an elevated version in a miniature cast-iron skillet that’s worth its own course at Nolia Kitchen.
- Nolia Kitchen, 1405 Clay St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 384-3597
- Richie’s Chicken & Soul, multiple locations, (513) 832-8347
