Me, the butter and the cornbread. YUM. I loves me some cornbread.
I agree Amazon carries many items not available in my local grocer (Stop and Shop, Big Y.) Also they have better prices and sizes.
As I’ve always understood it, sweet yellow cornbread = Northern
unsweetened/white cornbread = Southern. That’s not to say all Southern cornbread is white, but white cornbread doesn’t fly up North, at least not where I am.
**In the South cornbread has no sugar because it’s mostly used in savory preparations like turkey stuffing/dressing, or crumbled then dried to be used as part of a dish. If it’s meant to be sweet, then one serves it with butter and honey (hence, the “honey cornbread” flavor one sees on the shelves). **
Up this way cornbread is mostly used as either a breakfast item or as a meal accompaniment. If you need it for something savory you make it yourself because most, if not all packages mixes contain sugar.
This is according to my LA friend who makes a killer cornbread dressing and knows a fair amount about Southern/Creole cooking. YMMV.
I made cornbread from scratch, every week for 20 years. There is no sugar in the standard recipe (its on the Aunt Jemima corn meal bag).
Sweet cornbread adds a 1/4 cup sugar to the batter. I didn’t even completely fill the measuring scoop. I probably used a tablespoon less than a 1/4 cup scoop. I grew up eating sweet cornbread and have eaten it that way my entire life. I can choke down unsweetened at a restaurant. It’s tasteless and bland. A little sugar brings out the corn’s taste and enhances everything.
I wouldn’t like overly sweetened cornbread. It’s not a slice of cake.
My WAG is that the owners* of Martha White bought a smaller / regional brand (Gladiola) at some point, and put the “From the Makers of Martha White” text on the packages. If that’s the case, they might eventually phase out the Gladiola name, once users of that brand associate the Martha White name with the Gladiola product they’d always used.
if the Wikipedia entry on the brand is accurate, over the past 30+ years, the brand has been owned by Beatrice, E-II Holdings, American Brands, Pillsbury, International Multifoods, and finally J. M. Smucker (which appears to be the current owner).
I picked up a bag of corn meal earlier today. Thought I’d make some cornbread from scratch for old times sake. Only takes a few extra mins compared to mixes.
You can premix the dry ingredients and store in ziplock bags. Then you have a mix ready to make quickly.
I prefer savory, buttery, moist cornbread. The recipe I use calls for buttermilk and butter in the batter. You heat butter in a cast iron pan until it sizzles, add the batter, then pour milk over the top and bake. It’s very moist, almost dense, and very buttery.
But I’m not a cornbread snob. As long as it’s not dry and not too sweet (as in grocery store bakery muffins), I’m happy.