If you’re not familiar…
‘Pi-R-squared.’
‘Pie are not square! Pie are round! Cornbread are square!’
Now, I’ve had cornbread cooked in a baking dish. But I always (like tonight) make my cornbread in a cast-iron frying pan. So in my opinion, cornbread are round.
Cornbread can be square or round. Pi can only be squared, except if it is rounded. Pie are round.
Hmmm. I’ve always made my cornbread in a square pan. I may have to try your method. Crisper outside, I would guess. Any other differences?
When I tried to make cornbread in a cast iron skillet it never seemed to turn out well. IIRC it got too done on the bottom and too dense. I’ve made it in a square pan or square glass baking dish. But most often I make it in a deep dish pie pan. So my cornbread are usually round.
Mmmmm cornbread. Tomorrow is my meal planning and shopping day. I’ll have to plan a meal with cornbread now.
Good Southern cornbread means 1. no sugar, and 2. cast iron skillet. There’s something about being able to eat a wedge of cornbread with your hands without worrying about it disintegrating all over your lap. The crust lets you do that.
I’ve also found that cast iron is best when you do add-ins, as I am want to do. Diced chilis, cheese, onions, bacon…it’s all good.
Then Pi can never be squared because it’s always rounded.
As for cornbread made in cast iron frying pans, it’s only round if you eat the entire pan by yourself. Slice it up into sectors and share it, you greedy bastard.
Round cast iron pan. ‘Pie’ shaped slices, though.
I can’t remember the last time I made cornbread in a square pan/dish. ISTM that a round baking container avoids it being too done in the corners.
I’ve never had a problem with it coming out too done on the bottom. It does get brown and a little crispy on the bottom. It’s never come out too dense. FWIW, I use the Albers Cornmeal recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup Albers® White or Yellow Corn Meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.
COMBINE meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, oil and egg in small bowl; mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until blended. Pour into prepared pan.
BAKE for 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.
As I said, I don’t use a square pan. I use a 10-inch cast-iron frying pan. I prepare it by using a paper towel to apply a liberal amount of Crisco to the inside. I don’t use a toothpick. I just let it bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes (usually closer to 25). When it’s done, I pop the pan over onto a cutting board, and the cornbread just falls right out. (Then I turn it over, using a spatula so it doesn’t break.)
I always use the recipe in “Joy of Cooking.” If my copy wasn’t still boxed I’d copy it here. But it’s pretty similar, except it has a lot less sugar IIRC.
Mrs. L.A., who lived in the South when she was in the Army and after, likes sugar in it, so I put sugar in it. Unless…
I like cheddar cheese and chipotle chiles. Or jalapeños, but I pretty much always use chipotles. No sugar.
I cut off the arcs, so there’s a half-arc per serving (8 half-arcs – not to be confused with half-Orcs), leaving a square that can be cut into six pieces.
We nearly always cook cornbread in a cast iron skillet…IMO, it’s the best. Nicely crunch on the outside, perfect crumb on the inside.
If we aren’t making it in the skilled, it’s because we are doing cornbread muffins.
Johnny L.A., that’s the exact same recipe I use, and same size skillet. Perfect cornbread every time!
Cornbread for anything less than a family gathering should be made in an 8" cast iron skillet and cut into wedges.
Cornbread for a family gathering should be baked in a tray and served in squares.
I prefer mine plain or with cheese and jalapeños. And yeah, down south we use some sugar.
“Cornbread! Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that!”
When I was growing up in Louisiana, real cornbread was invariably cooked in cast-iron skillets, and therefore round. The only square cornbread I saw was the nasty stuff that turned up in school cafeteria lunches.
I was never a huge fan even of good cornbread, but I considered the crunchy crust at the edge of the skillet the best part. I’ve had corn dodgers fried crisp in a skillet, too; those aren’t bad, especially with a little bacon crumbled in them, and they provide a third option: cornbread are irregular ovoids.
Grew up in Texas and my Great-Aunt Imogene would always say about sugar in cornbread, “Sugar? I’m not baking a cake, I’m making cornbread!”
This is her recipe - note there is no sugar and no flour.
*Get a 10" cast iron skillet, add a tablespoon of butter and put it in an oven preheated to 400F
Stir together 2 cups yellow cornmeal, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt
In a separate bowl beat 2 cups buttermilk, 2 eggs and 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Combine the wet and dry mixtures, being careful not to overbeat
Scrape the batter into the hot skillet and bake until it is golden brown and crusty at the edges, approx. 25 minutes.*
Very simple with only 6 ingredients. The buttermilk is really an important component in giving it a nice tangy sour flavor.
I add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the batter.
That’s an 1/8 cup (16 US tbsp to a cup).
My mom always baked hers in a round cake pan. I did too for many years.
I switched to a large muffin pan ten years ago. That way it can be served more easily.
But how can it be CORNbread if it doesn’t have CORNers.
A thin pun at best, but damn it sounded funny in my head.
Trader Joe’s is carrying some Cornbread Crisps; don’t know if it’s only seasonal or if it will continue, but they are delicious. Crackery texture, cornbread flavor. Yum. And yeah, they are square.
In the never ending battle between a Square Baking Pan and Cast Iron, I give you:
Minor nitpick: in math, Pi is precise, not rounded.
3.14156whatever is rounded.
Dennis
You guys are not going to like this pan:
Dennis