Would you care to share your favorite cornbread recipe?

[three_margaritas]

Hi everyone, I lost my favorite cornbread recipe. Do you have a good recipe you'd like to share? I prefer a cake-like texture, not the dense kind.

[Querencia]

This one is the opposite of cake-like. It is a no-BS cornbread that you could carry in your pocket when you go out to the fields to work. This was my great-grandmother's recipe. She was born in 1864 and learned to cook from her grandmother, born in 1824---their line ran to Trans-Appalachian pioneers, definitely cornbread folks. CORNBREAD: Beat 1 egg with 2 cups buttermilk or sour milk, 3 tablespoons bacon drippings, 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal, 2/3 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking soda. Bake at 400* about 20 minutes in greased pie pan.

[MsMaryMc]

This is my favorite--except that I threw fear of cholesterol to the winds and substituted bacon grease for the oil and the butter.

http://www.food.com/recipe/real-south...

[paulj]

Looks like a good recipe, though the name isn't right. That's a straight forward Northern style.

[MsMaryMc]

What distinguishes northern from southern cornbread?

(Don't say "sugar." My mother and her oldest sister--both Alabama farm girls--argued passionately about that contentious issue until my mother died at 81. I can still hear my aunt sniffing over my mother's ever-so-slightly-sweetend cornbread "That's not cornBREAD--that's corn CAKE!!" The only thing they would have agreed on was that NOTHING that came out of their kitchens was "northern" anything!"

[paulj]

There seems to be both the flour and sugar difference, but, as your family illustrates, that 'no sugar' rule is not strict as some claim. :) But then some are as passionate about white v yellow cornmeal. And now days all the extras like fresh corn, or creamed corn, or peppers or cheese change the character of the traditional versions even the more.

[SonyBob]

All good recipes but it doesn't hurt to have a couple of boxes of Jiffy on hand. Never fails.
Bob

[DrMag]

I just made Alton Brown's creamed corn cornbread and it was awesome! I prefer a not so sweet cornbread, and this hit the spot. The kernels of corn were really nice, and it was not too dry, which has been a problem for me with other recipies. If you like a sweeter bread, some of the commenters mentioned they had increased the sugar with good results.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/al...

[miss louella]

I love this one too, but found it somewhat dry when I moved from over 7000 feet above sea level to about sea level. Where are you? Did I just mess it up when I came down from the mountains?

[todao]

http://pinchmysalt.com/peter-reinhart...

[Tom P]

Suzanne Goin's is the best I've ever had... and I grew up on really good corn bread and have tried many, many recipes. This is now my go-to corn bread and I make it all the time and it is created for a cast iron skillet:

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/cornbr...

[paulj]

Watch the browned butter carefully.

[lilgi]

That was a good catch, I remember that being an issue. I just melt and smear then pour in the batter because the butter browns on its own while crisping up the corn bread.

[paulj]

In the Southern style, bacon drippings have a similar function - flavoring and creating a crust.

[lilgi]

That does sound good.

[lilgi]

This is the recipe that I use:
http://www.food.com/recipe/buttermilk...

I add 2 teaspoons of sugar since I'm a yankee :) I usually don't go for cornbreads that have more than a Tablespoon or 2 of ap flour, if any at all. I also like browning butter slighty in the skillet rather than using oil, it gives the crusty edges more flavor.

[paulj]

What kind of cornmeal do you have? If a box, does it have a recipe? Anything with roughly equal parts cornmeal and flour will give you that cake-like texture. The amount of sugar is up to you. And beware of the no-sugar cornbread mafia. :)

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/768866
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