Hot Water Corn Bread - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 c. white corn meal
2 c. yellow corn meal
1 tsp. salt
2 c. boiling water
1 Tbsp. shortening or bacon drippings

Preparation

Mix the corn meal and salt thoroughly and then scald with 2 cups of boiling water into which has melted 1 heaping tablespoonful of shortening or fresh bacon drippings.
Scald is the key word. This mixing of boiling water and fresh bacon drippings or shortening into the meal is a cooking process which produces a firm mound of dough, wet enough yet only malleable when cool.
Set aside to cool for about 20 minutes.
When the dough has cooled, work into it 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, dissolved in 2 tablespoons of cold water.
Pinch off a piece of dough the size of half a duck egg.
Pat dough into a small round cake about 5/8-inch thick.
Work up the balance of the dough in little cakes of this size.
The little cakes can be fried immediately or stored in the refrigerator on wax paper to be cooked later.
You fry them in deep fat, hot enough to bubble immediately over the cakes (about 380\u00b0) until they are browned slightly.
Serve immediately.