BAKED SPIDER BREAD
Source: The Old West Baking Book by Lon Walters

Also called skillet corn bread, Spider Bread has been around for at least two hundred years. Spider Bread was cooked in an open frying pan. The heavy cast-iron skillet was designed to stand on three 'spiderlike' legs over hot coal. The hot fire could bake the bread in fifteen minutes, perfect for chuck wagon or wagon train cooks on the move. Since skillet breads baked so quickly, their texture left something to be desired, but this mattered little to hungry trail riders. Our updated recipe bakes Spider Bread in the oven for a finer, more evenly textured dish, but it maintains the look of the Old Wes variety and is a hearty corn bread you won ‘I soon forget.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

In a large mixing bowl, blend all the dry ingredients. Add buttermilk, egg. and melted butter. Lightly blend until just mixed.

Pour into well-greased 9-inch or 10-inch frying pan. If no frying pan is available, use a large cake pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Spider bread is done when an inserted toothpick comes out cleanly.

When served piping hot with butter melting. Spider Bread just can’t be beat. Slice into pie-shaped wedges.