Skillet Cornbread

Skillet Cornbread

Southern cooking traditions run as deep as that old Tennessee River. However, one staple of the Southern table comes to mind as being the most universal.

Cornbread... Ask a hundred Americans and you’ll probably get a hundred different family recipes. Hell, I wouldn’t doubt it if the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys started over whose Ma had the best cornbread.

I can hear it now, “My Ma’s cornbread could whoop your Ma’s cornbread.” Well, the cornbread feuds still rage on.

Cornbread as we know it originated with hoecakes and/or johnnycakes, which were cornmeal, water, and salt mixed into an unleavened batter then cooked on a griddle, much like a pancake. Hoecakes were born out of necessity in the impoverished South because it wasn’t until well after the Civil War that they had easy access to flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.

Controversies abound in defining what authentic Southern cornbread is. The inclusion of sugar, wheat flour, and buttermilk are just a few of the hotly contested ingredients.

Sugar

Probably the greatest controversy in cornbread lore would be whether or not to add sugar. No offense to Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix (based in Michigan), but they have completely skewed the palates of generations of Americans by making what I would call “corn cake mix” (There is almost as much sugar in a box of the Jiffy as there is in Duncan Hines’ Classic Yellow Cupcake Mix). I’m not saying that Jiffy cornbread is bad… it’s just not very traditional.

In my opinion, the only legitimate reason for adding sugar to cornbread is to give today’s lackluster cornmeal a boost. The corn of our forefathers was much sweeter than today’s so they didn’t need to add sugar. Personally, I remedy this by adding a little honey to my batter (not enough to make my cornbread “sweet”, but just enough to taste right).

Wheat Flour

Cornbread from north of the Mason-Dixon line is usually 50% or more wheat flour. And they still call it cornbread? Hell, there are people in the South that believe cornbread shouldn’t contain any flour at all. Seeing as how I’m not a sharecropper who can barely afford to feed my family, I use just a little bit of flour to help obtain a slightly finer crumb in my cornbread.

Milk

To me, the debate over what type of milk to use is of much lesser concern. Let’s face it, you can’t buy “real” buttermilk these days anyway. The “buttermilk” that grocery stores sell is really just liquefied yogurt / sour cream. Plus, buying a quart or more of an ingredient that you’re only gonna use a cup of is unnecessarily wasteful.

*Notes:

Using only stone ground, coarse ground, or medium ground cornmeal is imperative to getting the right cornbread texture. Most grocery stores do not carry a very good selection of these kinds of cornmeal. Since selection is sparse, I don’t quibble about choosing between yellow or white cornmeal. The one brand that is probably the most widely available would be Bob's Red Mill .

If you really want to make authentic Southern cornmeal, Anson Mills uses heirloom corn varietals that definitely don’t require any sweetening. Their mail order coarse white cornmeal is the king of all cornmeals when making Southern cornbread.

This recipe fits perfectly in an 8" cast iron skillet. Double this recipe for a 10" cast iron skillet.

Recipe

Cornbread (6-8 servings)

8” cast iron skillet, or 6 muffins, or 12 mini-muffins

1 ¾ cups Cornmeal – Stone Ground, Coarse Ground, or Medium Ground

¼ cup Flour

1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1 Egg

1 cup Whole Milk

3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter – Melted

1 tablespoon Honey

2 tablespoons Butter for Pan

Instructions

• Place skillet on middle rack of oven.
• Preheat oven to 425°.
• Allow liquid ingredients to come to room temperature.
• Beat egg then combine with milk, butter, & honey.
• Place dry ingredients in a separate bowl & mix well.
• Combine wet & dry ingredients then stir. Do not overwork batter.
• Carefully grease preheated pan with butter.
• Pour batter into pan then place in oven.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (cornbread muffins will cook faster than skillet cornbread).