Spoon Bread Recipe: How to Make Southern Spoon Bread

Spoon bread or spoonbread is a savory bread pudding made with cornmeal. The moist quick bread gets its name from the extremely tender crumb, meant to be spooned onto plates straight from the casserole dish, similar to corn pudding. This Southern comfort food staple is softer, more soufflé-like, and has higher moisture content than cornbread.

Spoon bread is a classic Southern dish with a history that dates back centuries:

• Owendaw: The earliest versions of spoon bread are from the Sewee Indigenous peoples. Early settlers referred to spoon bread as “Owendaw” or “Awendaw,” the name of the region where the tribe lived in what is now South Carolina.
• French influence: The technique of separating and whipping the eggs to create a risen soufflé texture without leaveners traces back to French culinary traditions. Enslaved Africans who trained in French kitchens brought this technique to the South.
• Cookbook: The first written reference to spoon bread was in 1847 in the cookbook The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge. Spoonbread spread in popularity throughout the South in the nineteenth century.
• Leaveners: Spoon bread has become a traditional soul food side dish. Some modern spoon bread recipes rely on baking powder in addition to beaten eggs for leavening, rather than whipped egg whites. While this makes them a little less soufflé-like, they are just as custardy and delicious.

Follow these simple tips to make the best spoon bread:

1. 1. Add mix-ins. This spoon bread recipe can act as a canvas for a wide variety of additions. For more texture and flavor, try sliced chives, sweet corn kernels, crumbled bacon, or chopped jalapeños to customize your side. You can also swap half of the milk for buttermilk to add some extra tang.
2. 2. Make it sweet. While the earliest versions of spoonbread were strictly savory, you can add a pinch of sugar to help draw out the sweetness in the cornmeal.
3. 3. Use the right cornmeal. Use medium or finely-ground cornmeal to achieve a silky, spoonable texture. Grits, polenta, and coarse cornmeal will not absorb enough liquid, yielding a gritty and clumpy texture. You can use yellow or white cornmeal, but yellow cornmeal will yield a lovely golden color.
4. 4. Get some air. The key to getting air into the egg whites is a fast, steady whisk to whip air into the mixture. It’s okay to do it by hand, but it can be tiring. A hand mixer or standing mixer is the optimal tool for beating the egg whites. This is a good technique to master for other dishes as well, like sponge cakes and meringues.
5. 5. Avoid opening the oven door. The cool air will inhibit the spoonbread from rising. If you want to watch, just turn on the oven light.