Spoonbread is a dish that is popular throughout the American South, usually consisting of ground cornmeal, milk, butter, and eggs. The whole thing is flavored with salt and sugar, then baked in an oven like a pudding. It is often served as a side dish, sometimes accompanied by gravy or various sauces.
The name spoonbread is derived from the fact that the dish is typically scooped from the baking vessel by using a big spoon. It can additionally be enriched with cheese and vegetables in order to have more flavor. Regarding spoonbread's origins, Sarah Routledge links it to Native Americans in her 1847 cookbook called The Carolina Housewife, Jeff Smith says that Virginia spoonbread was a staple during the Revolutionary War in his 1987 book The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American, while some claim that it can be traced to an Indian porridge known as suppone or suppawn.