Southern Cornbread | Suite101.com

The key to making good Southern Cornbread is in the pan. While you can make it in a baking pan or dish, it's just not going to taste the same as made in a cast iron skillet. Something about the cast iron (which is good for you and makes your blood stronger) allows for enough air circulation so that the cornbread gets that crispy, crunchy crust that is the signature of Southern Cornbread.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. You can go ahead and put the 3 TBS of butter (margarine) in the pan and stick that in the oven to melt. Just watch and make sure you don't scorch the butter.

Measure out the cornmeal and add the TBS of sugar on top. It does not have to be mixed before it's poured in later.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs a bit. Add the cooking oil and milk. Mix that well.

Now, add the cornmeal with sugar to the mixing bowl and stir. At this point, you don't want to stir a whole lot, or the bread will be tough. Just stir with a spoon or fork until the cornmeal lumps are broken up and mixed in.

If you were heating the butter in the pan, it should be ready at this time. If you didn't, then melt the butter. Once the butter is melted, take the pan out, shake it around carefully to coat the surface pretty evenly.

Spoon the Southern Cornbread batter into the hot cast iron pan. Some of the butter will come up over the edges and make a ring, which is fine and gives it a great taste.

I use the 10-inch cast iron skillet for this recipe. If the pan is smaller, you may want to cut the ingredients down. If you're using a bigger skillet, then that's fine, but you'll want to cook for a shorter time as the bread is not as thick.

This recipe is also good for muffins or for breadsticks. Both shapes also come in cast iron versions.

You can add cracklings or diced onions to the batter, but my boys like it best plain and simple without any extras.

I've made cornbread all my life and even won a cornmeal muffin contest when I was in 4-H. This is the best basic cornbread recipe I've made over all the years.

Oct 18, 2008 12:57 PM

Guest :

Fantastic Cornbread!

Jan 3, 2009 7:37 AM

Guest :

this sounds like the recipe my motehr used to use off the Ruby Corn Meal bag -- the Ruby mill closed down and I've not been able to find the right recipe ever since!

Jan 9, 2009 9:27 AM

Guest :

Your cornbread ist very delicious. I never eat something like this!
It´s not so usual to eat cornbread in Germany, but I will!
Greetings from Frankfurt/Germany
Bye
Renate

Jan 15, 2009 3:30 PM

Guest :

Hey, this is a cool way to make cornbread. It works just like the buttermilk kind but since you use the self-rising cornmeal you don't have to keep buttermilk or remember to get some. The cornmeal will keep, and it's always there. Cool.
My grandmother, "Mama Pryor," used to make hers a lot like this. She got some bacon grease hot in the skillet then poured some of the hot grease into the batter and stirred it real fast, then poured the batter into the hot grease that was still in the pan. She always had buttermilk because she made cornbread every single day.
And she put a tablespoon of suger just like you!
It's silly for people to say that real Southern cornbread don't have sugar. Mama Pryor was born in Louisiana but they were on their way west to a sanitorium with her mom who had TB, but her mom died in central Texas, so they buried her at Mt. Calm, and there they stayed. Mama Pryor married a share-cropper and they farmed with mules and lived on the creek and raised a bunch of kids in good old southern dire poverty.
She kind of married down, but he was a charmer.
Anyway, I loved Mama Pryor so much. She was a Baptist, but I was brought up Catholic, which was not my doing, and she was the only one of my relatives who treated me nice anyway. I loved going to vacation bible school at her church!

Jan 15, 2009 3:43 PM

Cyndi Allison :

Thanks for all the great feedback.

Many people will tell you that traditional cornbread has bacon grease for the fat in the cast iron, buttermilk and no sugar. That's one style and certainly Southern.

This is how my grandmother (who has now passed) made her cornbread, and she was definately Southern. She was more likely to use bacon grease. I do at times but don't always have that. That's great if you have it on hand.

The sugar does not have to be added. It's just a small amount, and the cornbread is not sweet (like some of the boxes that really are - more like cornbread cake). It's just the little touch that many Southern cooks do put in but maybe don't mention that much. That is optional, but my boys like that extra pinch in there.

This is definately Southern Cornbread, but I considered what cooks might have on hand and also an easy version that would work for most any cook.

Going with bacon fat and eliminating the sugar is fine. Folks can also use plain rather than self rising cornmeal. We like it with those changes as well, but this is a really easy classic cornbread recipe and has that Southern flavor.