You might recall a scene from The Help when Octavia Spencer’s character Minny asks Jessica Chastain’s Celia what she knows how to cook, to which she replies, “Oh, um, I can cook corn pone,” among a scant few other things. But unless you’re from the South, you probably have no clue what corn pone even is. Lucky for you, yours truly is a resident Southerner who loves an opportunity to nerd out about all things comfort food, and it would be my pleasure to give you all the deets.
Corn pone, sometimes referred to simply as pone, is a traditional unleavened bread made up of cornmeal, salt and water. Unlike its cakier cousin, cornbread, corn pone is dense and flat, more similar to Johnnycakes or hoecakes with a texture similar to grits. As for where it came from, corn pone is an amalgamation of recipes co-opted by colonists from Native Americans, who made a type of bread they called apones. It became a staple on tables across the United States due to its simple preparation and relatively low cost, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Naturally, then, it makes sense that a certain Smoky Mountain Songbird from East Tennessee (aka country music legend Dolly Parton) would have her own recipe for the classic Southern staple, and of course I had to try it out for myself. Read on to find out how Dolly Parton makes her version of corn pone, and learn how you can make it entirely your own with a few tiny tweaks.
Ingredients for Dolly Parton’s Corn Pone
Courtesy Kenn C. Bivins
The beauty of Parton’s recipe is that it’s almost impossibly simple with only five ingredients total, and most of them are probably already in your pantry. All you need to make Dolly Parton’s Corn Pone is 2 cups of cornmeal, 2 teaspoons of flour, salt, 2 teaspoons of some sort of fat (Parton uses bacon grease), and just enough milk to make a thick batter (about a cup). Once you’ve got the basics, you can play around with extra flavors or additions to make Parton’s corn pone uniquely yours.
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How to Make Dolly Parton’s Corn Pone
Courtesy Kenn C. Bivins
In keeping with the easy-as-pie theme, making corn pone is as simple as tossing everything into a bowl, mixing it up and shaping the pones by hand. From there, you can either fry them up in a cast-iron skillet like I did, or place them on a sheet pan and put them in an oven preheated to 425°F for 12 to 15 minutes. After that, all that’s left to do is enjoy! This recipe makes about a half dozen pones depending on their size, but you can always double it to make as many as you need.
As far as serving them goes, you can go either sweet or savory. Pones with gumbo are a match made in heaven, but they’re also fantastic with a drizzle of honey or a slather of jam. You could even enjoy yours the true Southern way by pouring a generous amount of milk on top and digging in.
What I Thought of Dolly Parton’s Corn Pone
Courtesy Kenn C. Bivins
Hot diggity dog, these corn pones are good! For those of you not from the South, that translates to you should, in fact, absolutely make these. Not only are they incredibly easy to make, but they’re the perfect little something to add to your dinner spread to beef up whatever else you’re making. They’re dense in a way that’s endearingly satiating, but also craveable enough that you can’t eat just one. Parton is definitely onto something with her corn pone recipe.
That said, they are a tad bit plain, but that’s also what makes them perfect to pair with other dishes like red beans and rice or beef stew. Even for how simple they are, the possibilities for making them even more flavorful are virtually limitless. Personally, I can’t wait to make some with cheddar and minced jalapeños folded in. Needless to say, corn pone has absolutely found its way into my recipe rotation.
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5 Tips for Making Dolly Parton’s Corn Pone
Courtesy Kenn C. Bivins
Although Parton’s recipe is pretty perfect as is, you can always kick things up a notch by making a few smart adjustments. Here are five tips for making Dolly Parton’s corn pone even better.
1. Use the right cornmeal.
To stick as close to the original recipe as possible, you’ll want to look for plain cornmeal without any extra leavening agents or additives. Of course, if you’ve already got a self-rising corn meal mix on hand, you can use that, but you’ll end up with a fluffier finished product. And as far as how coarse you like your cornmeal, that’s totally up to you.
2. Swap out the liquid.
While there isn’t a ton of liquid in this recipe, you can still play around with what you use to give your corn pones some extra flavor—whether it’s chicken broth or the water from soaking dried chiles. You could even make a corn broth to wade further into cornmaxxing territory. Whatever liquid you use, the key is to use just enough to help create your batter without making it runny. You want a thicker oatmeal consistency rather than a runny porridge when it comes to this recipe.
3. Experiment with fat.
Another way to experiment with flavor is to choose the right kind of fat. In this case, it’s bacon grease, but you can also use butter, oil or lard to give your pones their own unique flavor. Brown butter would also be fabulous in these, adding a rich, nutty flavor. Fortunately, because this recipe is so forgiving, you can add a little extra fat if you want to really concentrate the flavor without much change to the finished product.
4. Add a little sugar.
This is more of a personal preference, but a pinch or two of sugar can go a long way in bringing out the cornmeal’s natural sweetness. It helps to balance things out and give the entire dish a subtle lift. Honey is also a great addition, and as a bonus, it’ll give your pones a little bit of added moisture. And if you really want to kick things up a notch, I suggest reaching for your favorite hot honey.
5. Don’t forget the mix-ins.
Although it’s definitely not traditional, corn pones are practically begging to be studded with mix-ins. You can fold in cheese or caramelized onions, and why not crumble in that bacon you just rendered the fat from? And who says you have to stop at savory inclusions? You could add in diced peaches or a swirl of strawberry jam and even butterscotch chips if you’re feeling adventurous. Mix-ins are a low-effort way to make your corn pones even more of a showstopper, and who knows—you might just find yourself with a new favorite recipe.
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