It’s dawned on me that a lot of you have never eaten real cornbread. Yeah, whatever, you ate those things at that new “Southern” place but that was made with a mix and not cooked in Cast Iron. That shit ain’t Cornbread….
Real Cornbread is made from scratch and baked in Cast Iron. It’s also not hard to make from scratch since it’s more or less a quick bread recipe, just like cookies or pancakes. You use Baking POWDER and Baking SODA with a little salt to get things to rise.
This is not a healthy recipe. While most people will tell you to use butter or oil, I use Bacon grease. This sounds a bit overboard but it adds a lot of flavor and keeps the bread moist, plus you’re only using a half a cup of it.
The reason for the sugar? Simple, most of the time Cornbread is served with spicy food such as Smoked Pork or other southern favorites. The sweetness helps balance it out a bit similar to Coleslaw.
Mise
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- A big ass Cast Iron Pan, preheated
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- Two Mixing bowls
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- A measuring cup
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- A whisk
- A wooden spoon or rubber spatula
Ingredients
Dry Mix
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- 2 cups AP flour
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- 1 cup cornmeal
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- 2 TEA spoons baking POWDER
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- A pinch (a quarter TEA spoon) of baking SODA
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- 1 Teaspoon of Salt
- A quarter to a half cup of sugar, depending on how sweet you like it
Wet Mix
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- 1 egg
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- A half cup of room temp bacon grease. If you’re one of those folks who doesn’t keep bacon grease on hand at all time then you can sub with either vegetable oil or melted butter that has been cooled (see notes)
- One and a quarter cups of whole milk (see note)
Method of Preparation
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- Heat up the oven and your pan to 370℉
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- Mix the dry ingredients
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- Mix the wet ingredients
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- Add the wet to the dry but don’t over-mix
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- Brush the pan with butter or bacon grease and add the mix
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- Spread evenly and bake for 15-20 minutes.
- It’s ready when it starts to pull from the sides and a small knife comes out clean.
Notes
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- For a nice dark crust, heat up your cast iron pan in the oven while you’re prepping everything else.
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- You can use molasses as a sugar substitute for a darker cornbread.
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- Do not add hot butter or bacon grease to cold milk and eggs. Take the time to let it cool before mixing.
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- I love almond and soy milk and it’s awesome since I can eat cereal like a kid again but for the love of fuck don’t use them in this recipe. Don’t disrespect my Grandmother Gloria, use real milk.
- When it looks like it’s almost done but not quite, brush the top with some butter
What color cornmeal do you use? I use an equal mix of yellow and white and have always baked in a cast iron, just like my ma’maw would make it. However, I will argue that true southern cornbread shouldn’t be sweet. 😛
I use yellow but this is one of those things that every family down South has a recipe for. Go into 5 restaurants in Fayetteville and you’ll get 5 “authentic” cornbread recipes.