Pone bread is a simple skillet bread originally made from cornmeal, which was a staple food in Appalachia. The word comes from the Algonquin’s word apan, meaning baked. 

 

Over time, mountain folk began to refer to any round skillet bread as pone. Even though they were traditionally made with cornmeal, and still are, by the late 1800s families began using flour to make pone as well. 

 

Trying to choose what kind of pone to make for the Hatfield and McCoys book shout-out, really took me down the rabbit hole. There are so many variations! You’ve got cornbread types and flour types. And in the flour types, you’ve got fluffy biscuit versions, and denser, buttery versions. 

 

So this is how we’re doing it: we’re doing it all! 

 

If you’d like to make the fun, fluffy, one big biscuit version, check out our Cathead Biscuit recipe. Instead of cutting out your biscuits, just put the whole disc of dough in the pan and cook maybe a couple minutes longer. 

 

Later in the book, the sisters make a pone as a treat for their girls. For that one, I’ll share a sweet cornbread style pone. 

 

Today, we’ve got a flour pone that has melted butter in the dough, in the bottom of the skillet, and poured over the top! My youngest who never likes to slow down enough to eat, stopped in his tracks and piled a bowl up with this crusty, buttery goodness. 

 

Pone is good with any meal. With jam and butter, or eggs and sausage for breakfast. With beans and greens and bacon, or with a piece of fried chicken wedged between for supper. I can even see it being delicious with fruit and whipped cream for dessert. 

 

You can slice up your pone for serving or you can do it like they used to by tearing off a piece straight from the skillet for your plate. We read about the Scots doing this with their bannocks- breaking it by hand and not with a knife to show welcome and harmony in the home.