TBT: Southern Spoon Bread

Today's 'throw back Thursday' recipe from my new/old cookbook is for southern spoon bread - I've never had it but have heard of it, so it isn't one of those lost-in-time recipes; I assumed it's like soft corn bread, maybe like a cornbread pudding kind of thing (does anyone know what it's supposed to be like?). Well, I followed the recipe exactly (I know, that isn't like me right?) and something happened that made it look terrible - although it tastes good - it just didn't mix together and/or bake right. I couldn't fold in the beaten eggs whites, it was just liquid with clumps of floating egg white! When it was almost thru baking and I could clearly see the texture wasn't going to be right, so I stirred the whole thing up to try to blend things together which made for a lumpy ugly clumpy cornbread sort-of-thing. Hmmmmm....not sure I'd recommend this one, I might try again just to see if second time is a charm. You decide. It's totally edible, don't worry about that, it just isn't pretty.

2 cups boiling water
1 cup white corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 T. shortening
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated

Mix water, corn meal, salt and shortening. Cool. Add milk and beaten egg yolks; mix well. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into greased baking dish and bake in hot oven (400') 30-40 minutes. Serve from dish. Serves 6-8

Notes: that is the exact recipe, if you've never beaten egg whites it's very simple - the recipe just assumes you know how to do that. First make sure you don't get any yolk in the egg whites when you separate the eggs. Let the whites stand for a bit to bring to room temperature. You can beat them by hand but I use my standing mixer with the balloon whisk attachment, turn on high and let it go until the whites are stiff and foamy, looks like whipped cream. You'll know they're stiff enough if peaks form when you remove the whisk. You've essentially created meringue if you wanted to top a pie or whatever (I hate meringue so you'll have to find another recipe on how to use it!).

1.23.19: buttermilk drop biscuits (apparently not like Dave's mom used to make, insert eyeroll)
1.23.18: attempting to organize my life
1.23.17: heart and Scottie string art
1.23.16: Dave's cosmopolitans