That second cornbread recipe approximates my own, but I would omit the sugar entirely. Use of a cast-iron skillet is imperative (or you could use a cast-iron “corn sticks” pan, or a shallow cast-iron muffin pan. Godfrey Daniels got the important part: preheat the skillet with bacon fat in it. When you pour the cornbread mixture into the skillet, it should sizzle a lot. This is what makes the nice crunchy crust.
Cornbread is better the next day, split, buttered, and toasted under the broiler.
I was very recently in Chicago for a Brunchmeet, where I partook of biscuits and sausage gravy at a Southern styled restaurant (Wishbone, at 1001 Washington, if you’re interested). The biscuits were damn good - rich yet fluffy, just as they should be, according to by breakfast companions who had more biscuit and gravy experience than I. The gravy was good and peppery. I’m going to use some of the recipes linked in this thread to make bisuits and gravy at home. A good Cumberland sausage would make excellent sausage gravy. (Beware of crap Cumberland sausage, however).
Reading about country ham is reminding me of how much I miss my exhub’s family. Those folks could cook some Southren food!
Remember, that country ham also should have s funny looking green mould on it. Don’t worry! It’s perfectly fine after you scrub it off.
My Mother would cook this type of ham in a either 7Up or Verner’s ginger ale. It would draw out alot of the saltiness and the sugars from the soda would brown the exterior beautifuly. But if you do this don’t try to make gravy from the drippings, it will taste funny.
Something diferent for you cornbread folks who use mixes. Substitute half a can of creme corn for the milk/oil. The flovor wil be fresher, the consistancy will be a bit heaveir.
:eek:
Pillsbury biscuits? At my house we use those for doorstops.
REAL, southern-style biscuts are FLUFFY. They are DELICATE. They are YUMMY.
I don’t much care for my sister-in-law, but she makes heavenly biscuits.
If you find the gravy in biscuits and gravy to be too bland, the proper remedy is to at hot sauce to taste at the table. “Hot sauce” being those pepper-and-vinegar combinations like Tobasco (which my husband considers mild. Then again, we are talking about a man who has been know to eat raw habeneros by themselves)
You can get Bisquick here, I think I saw it at Sainsburys. And Tansu beat me to recommending Cumberland sausages for the gravy. And to head off possible confusion - a skillet is a frying pan, but with a sharp bend between the flat bottom and vertical sides. They are usually all cast iron which makes them suitable for making cornbread in the oven.
Isn’t that funny, it hadn’t even dawned on me that there could be be confusion over “skillet”! Learn something new every day.
Without escalating the biscuit argument: as you can see, there are two broad schools of thought. Southern biscuits, usually made with very soft flour* for a fluffy, airy texture, and northern, made with harder flour and sometimes folded over in the rolling to make them a flakey.
I like them both.
*A note on flour, on which Cooks Illustrated has done some exhaustive reporting. One of the problems with biscuit recipes is that they’ll usually call for “all purpose” flour (which I think was one of the OP’s original questions). “All purpose” flour differs by region, sometimes even within the same brand. Southern brands, like White Lily, are very soft - about 9% protein, which places them barely above cake flour. Northern brands, like King Arthur, are at the opposite extreme - 11.7%, which is just shy of bread flour. Pillsbury and Gold Medal are in between, with Gold Medal showing quite a bit of variation.
A Northerner following a Southern biscuit recipe runs the risk of making rocks. IIRC, the best option is to use the same measurement of flour, but substitute about 3/4 cake flour. (Self-rising cake flour is available, if the original recipe calls for self-rising flour.)