Cracklin' Bread

From Margaret Nichol

2 cups corn meal (1/2 cup flour can replace 1/2 of the cornmeal)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup or more cracklin's, or more if desired

Mix corn meal, salt, soda, and baking powder. Add buttermilk and mix well. Add cracklin's last. If more cracklin's are added, add more buttermilk. Pour into a greased iron skillet and bake in a 375 degree oven till done and browned. (Cracklin's are the remains of the pork that has been rendered from fat after hog killing. These are collected and used in cornbread to give it a different flavor, and some relief of the daily cornbread. Pork was the main meat source for the southern Unit ed States and all of the pig was used in some way. The saying went that everything was used but the squeal. This seems to have been true, since there are ways given to prepare every part of the pig in the early cookbooks of the times.)