Heavenly Cornbread

"Cornbread must be made with white cornmeal," Tom says without equivocation. "Yellow cornmeal is yankee cornmeal. You want to cut the egg into cornmeal with a fork, and the main thing you are looking for is a batter that is pourable. Mama always says to err on the thin side, to make it like pancake batter. You know, back then when they didn't have anything else, they always had cornbread. Sometimes they would add cracklings to it out whatever else they had on hand. Cornbread became one of your more creative staples. You can do so much with it."