Beulah's Mayonnaise Corn Bread

1/2 c. self-rising flour
2 c. self-rising meal
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. Crisco, melted in bread pan

Mix first 5 ingredients; pour into preheated skillet, containing the Crisco. Bake for 20 minutes in 450 F degree oven.

Hilda Hamilton, Mobile Council
Calling All Cooks Two (1988), page 81

The title of this recipe speaks to me. It whispers of hot summers on Gran-Momma's front porch snappin' beans. It sings the sweet notes of iced tea with enough sugar in it to make your teeth hurt. It also screams that Beulah put mayonnaise in her cornbread. I hear the lament of Lenny, the broken-spirited husband sitting at the table with a greasy piece of cornbread next to his nearly-burnt beans. I see the tears running down his cheeks that he swears are from the quartered onion on his napkin. I see Beulah, in all her Southern glory, proud that she has whipped a man like Lenny. His tears are her triumphs.