Corn Pone

Ingredients

• 2 cups stone-ground white cornmeal
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water, plus more as needed
• 3 tablespoons bacon drippings or lard, melted
• 3 tablespoons bacon drippings, for the skillet

Before you cook

• Heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Put three tablespoons of bacon drippings in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and set it in the oven.
• Bring the water to a full boil.
• Melt the remaining bacon drippings.

Steps

1. Stir the cornmeal and salt together in a heatproof bowl.
2. Pour the boiling water over the cornmeal while stirring hard with a wooden spoon.
3. Stir in the melted bacon drippings until the mixture holds together in a stiff, moldable mass.
4. Add a tablespoon more hot water at a time if the mixture crumbles rather than packs.
5. Let the batter stand for five minutes to cool enough to handle.
6. Scoop a scant half cup and shape it between wet palms into an oval about three quarters of an inch thick.
7. Pull the hot skillet from the oven and lay the pone into the sizzling fat.
8. Shape and add the remaining pones, leaving a little space between them.
9. Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 12 minutes.
10. Flip each pone with a spatula and bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, until both sides are crusted and brown.
11. Serve the pones hot with butter, buttermilk or a pot of beans.