spoonbread

6.9

A soft baked food made from ground corn like a pudding that people eat with a spoon

noun
/ˈspuːnˌbrɛd/

: pan de cuchara

For Thanksgiving dinner, my grandmother always makes her famous spoonbread, which everyone loves to eat.
Miss Maude's spoonbread

Examples

The recipe called for a blend of cornmeal and milk to create a fluffy spoonbread that pairs well with savory dishes.
When I visit, she takes me to wonderful restaurants where they serve black-eyed peas garnished with cilantro and spoonbread hot with chiles.

Fiction book (1990)
I ladled out the stew, which gave off steam as it reached our plates, and scooped up mounds of spoonbread swimming in butter.

Fiction book (1994)
At the family gathering, we enjoyed delicious spoonbread served alongside fried chicken.

Synonyms

cornbread

vsspoonbread

42 2.4

A bread made from cornmeal usually served warm with butter

is soft and pudding-like, meant to be eaten with a spoon

corn pudding

vsspoonbread

1 2.2

A baked dish of corn, cream, and eggs served as a side dish

uses cornmeal as the main base, producing a spoonable bread texture

spoon bread

vsspoonbread

1 5.1

A soft, creamy cornmeal bread you eat with a spoon

is written as a single word rather than two words for the same dish

Surface Forms

spoonbread singular

spoonbreads plural

Morphology

spoonbread = spoon + bread (transparent) = spoon + bread

A straightforward compound of 'spoon' + 'bread' indicating a bread-like dish eaten with a spoon, though the specific regional cornmeal pudding sense is a cultural instantiation.

Etymology

Spoonbread is a simple combination of spoon and bread, literally 'bread you eat with a spoon'. It names a soft, baked cornmeal dish with a 'pudding-like' texture that is traditionally served with a spoon, especially in the southern United States.