Tipper's really good cornbread

Tonight I watched a video by Tipper Pressley, owner and administrator of the blog, Blind Pig and the Acorn. Tipper lives in the southern Appalachians in North Caroliona. Her blog and her You Tube channel celebrates Appalachia and the people who live here. I have followed her blog for twenty years or more and now she has begun making videos for her You Tube channel.

She and I cook in much the same way. She learned from her mother and I learned from my mother. Tipper taught us the secret to good cornbread in this video, She has a special cast iron pan she keeps only for cooking cornbread. In the south, our cornbread is that important. I, too, have a cornbread pan. Mine once belonged to my mother-in-law, Helen Beall. 

I learned something new from Tipper tonight. She coats the pan with lard or Crisco and puts it into the oven where it heats as the oven heats to 475 degrees. Mother usually put some lard or vegetable shortening in the pan and let it melt. But Tipper spread it thickly over the bottom, sides and rim of the pan. That makes for a crisp crust on the bread. And like Tipper, I like that crust and I, too, have to cut a small piece when it comes out of the oven, slather it with butter and eat it. Delicious!

Tipper is helping to revive or restore the old ways of living here in our beautiful mountains. She and her family grow a garden every summer. She cans and freezes vegetables. She teaches cooking classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC close to her home.

Her family is also keeping the music of Appalachia alive. She, her brother and her twin daughters sing and play traditional music together. If you want to know more about this part of the world, check out The Blind Pig and the Acorn. Get to know her family and the many friends who leave comments every day after reading her words.