Sadly, Ohio cannot compete very well in this chase. I love cornbread and just had some from Meijer that was pretty good, though. Let’s hear it for your favorite. Sweet vs savory? Pan fried or oven? Fried in bacon fat? Muffins or slabs?
I will let Beck be the final say for this contest as I think She Knows.
Mine.
2 cups water ground (aka stone ground) corn meal
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
Put your oven shelf in the middle and start it heating to 400° (make it 405 ° if using Pyrex like I do)
Butter the inside of a 12 x 12 baking pan (or a 10" cast iron frying pan) (or other baking pan that will hold that much);
Sift the corn meal, salt, and baking soda together.
When the oven is preheated, add the egg, oil, and buttermilk to the dry ingredients and mix, just to the point you don’t see clumps of dry batter as you stir (i.e., don’t worry about getting it absolutely smooth)
Pour into pan. Bake 50 minutes. Set aside a plate to upend it onto when it’s done; I put a couple table knives across the bottom to keep the cornbread from sitting direclty on the plate – if you wanted to be fancy you could use a short baking rack I guess.
In every regard except for sweet tea, where southern and northern cuisine differ, the South has it right. Cornbread should not include sugar or other added sweeteners. It’ll still be slightly sweet, because corn itself is sweet, and if you want, you can top it with honey, jam, molasses, or other sweet toppings. But no sugar in the bread itself.
I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever bought cornbread. It’s always something I make. And, preferably, on the savory side, though, sometimes, with some chili I do like my cornbread slightly sweet. If I’m feeling feisty, then cornbread with corn and jalapenos in it.
I make mine with sugar, so sue me. One good tip: Soak the cornmeal in buttermilk for about ten minutes, then mix in the eggs. You get a moister product by hydrating.
Nah, it’s mine. I reduce the amount of salt, swap the oil for bacon fat and double that amount, top it with honey…
The grind of the corn meal matters too, texture affects flavor in this case and finer ground meal yields a more cake like and (imho) less desirable result. Coarser cornmeal is prefereable.
I differentiate between sweet and savory homemade cornbread. I do not buy cornbread from the store because it’s full of … stuff. Just no.
Savory should have roasted green chili, and ideally be cooked in a lard or bacon grease baking pyrex or tin.
Sweet, while not traditional of course, is fine as long as you’re making it with the intent to have as a dessert, at which point the sweetener should be honey.
But 90% of the time I want the sweet corn style flavor, I’m making tomalito anyway
Of course, I grew up mostly in southern New Mexico, so I may have a strong bias. (above link for reference, I’m not typing out my personal one, which uses honey, agave nectar, and, yes, chili)
My recipe is straight out of Joy of Cooking. Blazing hot skillet, with mix-ins of cheese, bacon and various peppers as the whim moves me. No sugar. Cooked until it has a solid, crumbly crust which gets broken up in buttermilk.
If you’re buying it ‘Crackerbarrel’ does it well.
But, of course mines better.
I’m okay with a bit of sweetness in cornbread. What I found very odd was this cornbread I bought that also added vanilla. It literally tasted like cake.
(Less sweet than most cake mixes, but still cake.)
i use Marie calendars mix usually or jiffy occasionally …jiffys tho state like sand unless eaten warm
I’ll take cornbread made from a box of Jiffy mix over any of the dozens of others I’ve tried. Partly sentimental (those 15 cent boxes really helped my family stretch the grocery budget when I was a kid) but mostly because cornbread for me is mostly a butter and/or honey delivery platform.
Marie Callendar’s is horrible if you want cornbread. If you want yellow cake, it’s fine. Way too sweet.
Yeah, you can’t beat Jiffy’s for value, but my mom always made ours from scratch using Albers Corn Meal. I can still picture the box it came in.
I agree with this. It’s the only real tasty cornbread around these parts. Looks like I need some stone ground cornmeal and lard!
I like the Famous Dave’s mix, but my local Fareway has a cartload on clearance that contains cinnamon and nutmeg. That doesn’t even sound good, even if it has added vanilla.
Coarse ground corn meal works best.
My favorite comes from that bastion of southern cooking: America’s Test Kitchen
4 teaspoons bacon drippings or 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1
teaspoon vegetable oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal preferably stone ground
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/3 cup water (rapidly boiling) 3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg beaten lightly
There’s a process of mixing some of the cornmeal with the boiling water to get a mush, heating the bacon fat in a cast iron skillet in a 450 oven, and then cooking the whole mess in the skillet for 20 minutes or so.
I usually leave out half the sugar, because it’s from the Chris Kimball era of ATK.
Corn cup cakes and corn sheet cakes can be good, but I really like the toothiness of the pure cornmeal style.
What I remember growing up was having three different kinds of cornbread.
I don’t know for certain, but I suspect Nana’s was pure cornmeal, while I’m pretty sure Memaw’s used flour.
Sing it! Hallelujah!
God knows I’m not prone to elevate the South for very many of its qualities. But yeah they can sure cook.
QFT. In particular, stay away from that fine-ground Quaker stuff. Indian Head is quite good as a commercial brand you can generally find. (Lots of local brands in your area may be better).