batter bread

8.1

A soft bread made from cornmeal with a wet, thick mixture you eat with a spoon

noun
/ˈbætər brɛd/

: pan de maíz

She served the hot batter bread straight from the oven with plenty of butter.

Examples

I love batter bread with my chili.
This recipe for batter bread is one my grandmother used to make every Sunday.
At the family reunion, a large bowl of batter bread sat at the center of the table.
Have you ever tried batter bread before?
In Southern cooking, batter bread is often served as a comforting side dish with meals.
She prepared batter bread for dinner, ensuring its soft texture complemented the stew.
During the family gathering, everyone enjoyed the warm batter bread topped with butter.

Synonyms

bread

vsbatter bread

805 1.0

A common food made by baking dough from flour, often with yeast

is a specific soft cornmeal spoon-served Southern dish rather than general baked staple

cornbread

vsbatter bread

42 2.4

A bread made from cornmeal usually served warm with butter

is the wetter, spoon-served Southern version rather than a typical baked loaf

spoon bread

vsbatter bread

1 5.1

A soft, creamy cornmeal bread you eat with a spoon

is a spoon-served Southern cornmeal dish with wet pouring consistency rather than a firm loaf

Surface Forms

batter bread singular

batter breads plural

Morphology

batter + bread

The compound denotes a type of bread made from a batter rather than a dough, so a learner who knows 'batter' (a runny flour mixture) and 'bread' will easily infer it refers to bread made from batter. The regional or ingredient specifics (cornmeal, hominy) are cultural details but do not obscure the transparent compositional meaning.

Etymology

Batter bread comes from how it is made: cooks use a thin batter (like pancake batter) instead of a thicker dough, so it bakes into soft bread. Because it is made from batter and is often 'served with a spoon', the name now means a 'soft' cornmeal bread common in the American South.