Backcountry Notes

Brown beans and corn bread are the "national" dish of the Backcountry.  There are countless recipes ranging from traditional to juiced-up modern.  My recipes are closer to traditional:

    Jay's Brown Beans

    Granny's Cornbread 

I highly recommend yellow corn meal, which produces a better flavor than the bleached, white stuff.  Stone-ground yellow corn meal is available at most local groceries.  A family from Honaker, Virginia, occasionally shows up at fall fairs hereabouts to show off a steam-driven cornmeal mill, using home-grown corn to produce fresh-ground yellow corn meal on the spot.  It doesn't get any better than this!  I buy two large bags - - one goes in the fridge, the other in the freezer. 

 A nine-inch cast-iron pan is essential for the cornmeal recipe.  Use a cake pan only if you must.  I recommend that you buy a cast-iron pan if you don't already have one; Lodge makes a line of pre-seasoned cast iron ware which saves you the trouble of seasoning the pan yourself.  The Lodge line includes a Dutch oven very suitable for the beans.

Traditional accompaniments for brown beans and cornbread are chow-chow or chopped onion.  You can serve brown beans without cornbread, but, seriously - - why?