THIS! What it’s supposed to look like is the key to cooking.
Thing 1, showing a spoon covered with stuff: Is this right?
Me, knowing what to expect and how she cooks: Needs salt.
You’re funny.
Other than chili, I also strongly associate cornbread as a side for collard (or other) greens, to help with mopping up some of that pot liquor. But that’s not so much a main dish (as you’re looking for) in my book.
the classic depression era meal.
Buttermilk & cornbread.
It was sometimes all my dad had to eat for supper.
Our family occasionally had it when I was growing up. Dad liked to eat it once in awhile. I prefer sweet milk and cornbread. It’s a quick meal when there’s leftover cornbread on the countertop.
Chili, of course.
Also, jambalaya.
Pulled pork sandwiches
That…sounds fantastic.
I wouldn’t have thought of that in a million years (cornbread and soup? Vegetable soup, right? What else?), but I am totally trying that.
Trying that, too. Not all THAT far from my favorite leftover: warmed-up cornbread with butter and blackberry preserves. Fat and sweet is a GOOD thing.
To accompany gumbo, I usually buy a baguette. More often not; the rice under the gumbo is enough starch for me at one meal.
dropzone @38: Yeah, lived in Cleveland ages 0-17. I could have kielbasa for dinner three times a week. Or Italian sausages…we had nearly as many dagos as polacks where I grew up. (Mods: is it okay to use those terms in an affectionate sense?). Even so, greasy spare ribs and buttered cornbread at the same meal seems excessive.
Saltines with chili is definitely a Great Lakes thing. I also make my favorite chili (after years of experimentation with styles from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Pacific Northwest, New England, Deep South, etc) Great Lakes style: with tomato, onion, ground beef, and RED KIDNEY BEANS. I make no apologies.
One time I had some leftover cornbread and some leftover strawberries. I cut up the strawberries and added a little sugar, and poured them over the cornbread.
I might be totally over pound cake at this point! 
At home, beef stew.
Out, ribs or any old barbecue.
We don’t make chili (not sure why) but cornbread is good with that too.
Ham & Bean Soup, but that is more of a Winter comfort food, IMO
So many things: chili, beef stew, Brunswick stew, turnip greens and black eyed peas, pinto beans, pulled pork, fried chicken, etc., etc.
Cornbread is served with goulash, with butter and maple syrup for adding.
Oyster crackers, too. I’m not sure either are specifically a Great Lakes thing, but either of those are definitely the usual starch to accompany chili around here. Cornbread is something I learned later in life. I don’t usually make cornbread for my chili (I’m too lazy and don’t need to pig out on that much starch), but I do really prefer it. A close Chicago substitute is what we call a “tamale boat” or a “chili tamale” or sometimes a “mother-in-law” (although that is usually a sandwich version of what I’m about to describe.) You take a Chicago-style corn-roll tamale (made with cornmeal, not masa, and filled with a ground beef mixture) and float it in the chili. As a kid, that was my favorite accompaniment to the chili (soupy kind, often with beans, but not always.) The cornmeal + chili are just such perfect accompaniments to each other.
Cornbread is just about lovely with everything. I wouldn’t mind it being served with some fried chicken and Cole slaw, yum!
pulykamell @56:. My personal food writer god, John Thorne, also promotes oyster crackers as a chili accompaniment. But he’s a Maine boy, and is used to having them with his chowdah.
Turnip or collard greens and pepper sauce.
So does Wendy’s restaurants serving saltines with their chili only happen in certain regions of the country?