Classic Southern Cornbread, the iconic bread of the South that has graced tables for generations. A simple and straightforward recipe cooked in an iron skillet, using three must ingredients, bacon drippings, buttermilk, and yellow cornmeal.
About cornbread, I don’t want to expound on this too much for fear of stepping on some people's toes.
The people in the North like their cornbread made with half cornmeal and half flour with sugar in it. But the people in the South like their cornbread with cornmeal and a little flour if not any at all in it, and definitely no sugar.
Also, Southern Cornbread is traditionally made in an iron skillet, which gives it that desired crispy crust that I like so much.
I must say, my taste for cornbread has been swayed to somewhere in the middle because I actually like both recipes. I go back and forth. Sometimes I want the salty, tangy taste of my mother's cornbread, and sometimes I want the sweetness of the northern style cornbread which my husband's mother makes.
My mother was a true Southerner and made her cornbread with bacon drippings heated in a cast iron skillet. One of the memories that come back to me when I make my mother's cornbread recipe is her and I sitting in the living room late at night watching TV and eating cornbread in a glass of milk. Does anyone still eat cornbread and milk anymore?
Classic Southern Cornbread
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of cornmeal (yellow)
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg slightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons bacon drippings or vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Put the drippings or oil in a 9-cast iron or 10-inch cast iron skillet and place it in the oven for a few minutes until it’s sizzling.
In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients: cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix well. Take cast iron skillet out of the oven, and pour batter into cast iron skillet.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown on the top.
Remove the cornbread from the oven and flip the cornbread over in the skillet, then continue baking another 5 minutes.
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