Bread: Overview: Cornbread

While Americans always ate wheat bread, corn grew more readily in more places. “Indian bread” became the first true American bread, made under various forms: “pone,” “corn-dodger,” “hoecake,” and “Johnnycake.” As the nation expanded, pioneers found it most practical to make. Even in New England, more corn was eaten than wheat (Boston brown bread includes both corn and rye). But as the country expanded and methods improved, wheat production increased and corn’s importance declined. Today cornbread is associated, above all, with the South or with African American food with strong southern roots. It is most often eaten elsewhere as a corn muffin; that is, as a breakfast food.