# Let's talk cornbread!



## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Anybody read The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon? Wadda ya think?

Got "the best" cornbread recipe? Got the oldest one? What kinda of cornmeal? Do you make campfire cornbread? Got or tasted a secret recipe?

I'm all fired up from trying a new trick I read in Four 'n Twenty Blackbirds - California Game Cookery and Other Recipes by Mary Dunbar Lemcke and Vida Hills Shepard, 1949.

It's from Mrs. Howard Fish, of Chico - "Real Ozark Cornbread": Heat 1 T. fat in heavy pan or cornbread stick pans and sprinkle with about 1 T. cornmeal until the meal is slightly brown and the house smells like popcorn. Pour batter into pans.....

No more sticking cornsticks, they pop right out and it's even more crunchy. Next, please.


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## wanda1950 (Jan 18, 2009)

I learned the cornmeal trick from Mama. If your iron skillet isn't quite stick proof it will help a lot with the bread coming out. What's really good is to use bacon grease!


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Good ol' bacon grease is a must! Cast iron is a must also!

I've been using the same cornbread recipe going on 20 years now, the only change I've made is an additional tablespoon of sugar, we like a sweet cornbread.
One of these days I want to try a sourdough based recipe.


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## FrodoLass (Jan 15, 2007)

I'm going to have to try that trick with my cornbread stick pan. I haven't ever used it b/c I just know it will be a mess.


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## my3boys (Jan 18, 2011)

We like to make cornbread muffins when we camp or cook outside in the summer so I don't have to heat up the oven.I bought a cast iron cornbread pan and dh keeps it with the camping stuff. We just set it on a rack inside the dutch oven. 

We make muffins instead of regular cornbread because you get more crunchy edges that way.

To make it easy, I use the Jiffy boxed stuff and add 2T sugar per box. Believe it or not, it comes out pretty tasty. Marie Calenders has a pretty good mix too, if you can find it. I have yet to find a from scratch recipe my guys like as well, but I'm still searching.

Carol


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

I like cornbread.... any kind of cornbread! LOL I keep my cornbread skillet well seasoned and hidden so others who occasionally get in the kitchen wont destroy it. One of my favorite "recipes" requires baked chicken for supper. I use the leftovers from breading the chicken as a base, and add enough meal, flour, milk and a couple teaspoons of baking powder to bring it up to a full batch. The seasonings from the breading really adds a nice flavor. Another thing I like to do for my cornbread is to take a half stick of butter, cut it into 4 chunks and stick them in the batter as soon as it hits the skillet. It melts as the cornbread is baking and permeates it through and through.


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## Ellen West (Sep 17, 2010)

What a great idea - no more dabs of breading mix lost in the freezer - tasty too, I like to ring some changes in my cornbread from time to time. Thanks Yvonne's Hubby!



Yvonne's hubby said:


> I like cornbread.... any kind of cornbread! LOL I keep my cornbread skillet well seasoned and hidden so others who occasionally get in the kitchen wont destroy it. One of my favorite "recipes" requires baked chicken for supper. I use the leftovers from breading the chicken as a base, and add enough meal, flour, milk and a couple teaspoons of baking powder to bring it up to a full batch. The seasonings from the breading really adds a nice flavor. Another thing I like to do for my cornbread is to take a half stick of butter, cut it into 4 chunks and stick them in the batter as soon as it hits the skillet. It melts as the cornbread is baking and permeates it through and through.


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

I will hate to admit this .. but I'm a fan of Jiffy corn muffin mix in the box. (I hear the gasps and sighs coming from the audience of self-reliancy) When I make corn bread or corn muffins from any product in a bag ... Martha White, Gold Medal, etc., my corn bread comes out hard, lacking moisture and bounce. The muffins you can shoot from a cannon. I've used shortening, lard, bacon grease, butter, margarine, white eggs, brown eggs, etc. Nothing will work for me with bagged corn meal.

When I make muffins or cornbread from Jiffy cornbread mix in the little boxes, it turns out perfect everytime .... raises perfectly, not burned, lots of squeeze and softness to the cooked cornbread, and it tastes just like it should. (I add sugar to my cornbread) If I make corn bread now, I'll only use the boxes of Jiffy. If I use the other brands in the bags ...they turn out like crumbly paving bricks.

I like my muffins with grape jelly in the morning ...... Jiffy has spoiled me.
Ohio Rusty ><>


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

This recipe has never failed me these past 20 years.

Preheat oven to 350
Preheat cast iron pan

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup +1 Tbls. sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups milk
2 lg. eggs, beat well
1/3 cup oil 
3 Tbls. butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients, mix well. Combine wet ingredients. Mix both together. Pour into preheated cast iron skillet which has 'some' melted bacon grease. Bake at 350 for 35 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Muffins- 18 to 20 mins.


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## ajaxlucy (Jul 18, 2004)

My recipe is similar to the one above, except I use half flour/half cornmeal, less sugar, and yogurt/sour cream instead of milk (a bit of baking soda, too). The butter isn't necessary, but adds flavor.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I start by grinding field corn into meal. Half fresh corn meal to half freshly ground whole wheat. About a tsp of salt per two cups and a tsp of baking soda. NO sugar! Pour in a little melted lard from the hot cast iron skillet. Add a fresh egg and some milk and a little vinegar and mix well. Pour into the hot skillet and into the oven at 400* till brown on top.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

I also use half fresh cornmeal, half unbleached flour. That being said, I wouldn't turn up my nose at a Jiffy Mix. It's the _*only *_cornbread that makes our favorite camping breakfast turn out right every time. 

Slice Smoky Link sausages into bite-sized pieces, place in bottom of skillet. Cover with cooked apples. Cover that with Jiffy cornbread batter. Cook on low heat until cornbread is done. Serve with butter and syrup. It started out as a campout meal, but has become a favorite breakfast whenever we get together.


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Oh Marilyn, that sounds delicious! Thanks!


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I tried a new recipe for Cornbread last night, it was a sourdough recipe I found online...we didn't enjoy it at all.
Didn't care for the sour cream/plain yogurt, hated that there was only 2 Tbls. sugar. We like a sweeter Cornbread especially if the rest of the meal is savory (vegetarian Hoppin' John for dinner)
I guess it would be okay with LOTS of Honey, Maple syrup or Jam...too 'savory' for Molasses.
The neighbors were treated with the leftovers, I'll hear Tuesday if they liked it or not.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

3 tablespoons honey and buttermilk. I like a coarse ground corn if not sweet in muffin pan. Corn bread and cabbage. MMM....James


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## mountainlaurel (Mar 5, 2010)

Ohio Rusty said:


> I will hate to admit this .. but I'm a fan of Jiffy corn muffin mix in the box. (I hear the gasps and sighs coming from the audience of self-reliancy) When I make corn bread or corn muffins from any product in a bag ... Martha White, Gold Medal, etc., my corn bread comes out hard, lacking moisture and bounce. The muffins you can shoot from a cannon. I've used shortening, lard, bacon grease, butter, margarine, white eggs, brown eggs, etc. Nothing will work for me with bagged corn meal.
> 
> When I make muffins or cornbread from Jiffy cornbread mix in the little boxes, it turns out perfect everytime .... raises perfectly, not burned, lots of squeeze and softness to the cooked cornbread, and it tastes just like it should. (I add sugar to my cornbread) If I make corn bread now, I'll only use the boxes of Jiffy. If I use the other brands in the bags ...they turn out like crumbly paving bricks.
> 
> ...


You might would like to try spoon bread. Spoonbread is cornbread but it has more eggs in it and it's soft and delicious. If you are interested, I can give you a recipe for it. That is one way you can use cornmeal that isn't Jiffy. But I will use Jiffy for a cornbread casserole that I make that has sourcream and creamed corn in it. Though I wouldn't add any sugar. It's too sweet already to really be cornbread


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## Sherry in Iowa (Jan 10, 2010)

I use Bob's Red Mill medium course, olive oil and honey in mine. I like it because it's so moist and sweet.


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## DWH Farm (Sep 1, 2010)

We eat alot of cornbread at my house.. Never been a fan of "sweet jiffy type" stuff.. I like a coarse texture and almost salty taste. The ingredients that I use are

cornmeal - from a local mill (War Eagle Mill)
buttermilk
baking soda
bacon grease
salt
egg

cooked in a greased (more bacon grease or lard) cast iron skillet.


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## sewsilly (May 16, 2004)

This is my version.. comes with a long tutorial and a printable recipe.

http://hometojumpingoffplace.blogspot.com/2010/11/cornbread.html

The basis for many, many meals at my house.

dawn


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## bknthesdle (Mar 27, 2011)

My favorite cornbread that is a hit each time I make it.

Mexican Cornbread

1 1/2 cup self rising corn meal
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 can cream style corn
3 jalepenos, diced (and seeded if you want less heat)
1/2 green pepper, diced 
5 green onions, diced
1 1/2 cup shredded cheese

Mix together and bake 400 until done.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I accidently bought some Cream Style Corn...Yucky!
I may give the above recipe a try in order to get the stuff out of my pantry.


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## bknthesdle (Mar 27, 2011)

LOL! That recipe is the only reason I would have a can of cream corn in my cabinets. The only cream style corn that I like is the kind that my grandmother made from cutting and scrapping corn off the cob and cooking it with butter in a skillet.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Vinegar is a new one on me, other than for souring sweet milk. What kind of milk do you use? What do you think about baking powder? (Had some zucchini bread with too much b.p., bitter & bad tasting.) How do you grind your corn?



Cyngbaeld said:


> I start by grinding field corn into meal. Half fresh corn meal to half freshly ground whole wheat. About a tsp of salt per two cups and a tsp of baking soda. NO sugar! Pour in a little melted lard from the hot cast iron skillet. Add a fresh egg and some milk and a little vinegar and mix well. Pour into the hot skillet and into the oven at 400* till brown on top.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Found a cool book today, Supermarket Backpacker that had a good sounding thang to do with cornbread. 

Mix your batter and spread it in a greased 15x10x1" jelly roll pan (I call these cookie sheets in my house), then sprinkle with chopped salted peanuts or sunflower or chia seeds, 1/2 grated parmesan cheese and a teaspoon of garlic salt, drizzle with 3 tablespoons melted butter (OK, the book really sez margarine) and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until light brown. Cut, cool 5 minutes & remove from pan to cake racks to cool. 

These would be great for picnics, doncha think?


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## Quiltingrannie (Oct 18, 2009)

I love cornbread too!!! My "secret" to getting it out of the pan easily, passed to me from my mother is to always start with a cast iron skillet, (not heated) and to use lard, bacon grease, or any semi-set shortening. The oven should be really hot 430 degrees. Cook about 30 min. and turn onto plate immediately upon removing from oven. Bread comes out everytime with that wonderful crusty texture we cornbread lovers love.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Cast iron is the only way to cook cornbread! Doesn't taste right if baked in glass or other metal or paper cups.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Well, I thought I was an ace with cornbread, but I get cornmeal from the bulk bins and it always seems different. (mistook polenta for meal in the cupboard once, it was crunchy but not too bad!)

So I had this kind floury stoneground cornmeal and I made muffins in my antique granite ware tins, the batter was pretty thick and they tasted BAD (my contribution to an Easter dinner party, of course.) I like 'em brown, but they still had this kinda raw flour taste. My recipe is 1 cup each flour & meal, 2 eggs (XL), 1 Tbs baking soda, 1 tsp salt and a bit of sugar. I melt a ton of butter in the hot pan, for the muffins I melted a Tbs. for the batter. Bake 425 degrees about 20 min.

So I still had this jones for cornbread and made up another batch for a skillet loaf, and put in more milk to make a pourable batter. World of difference! And I thought about pie crust needing an adjustable amount of water - does any one adjust their liquid for a certain batter consistency? Did I just pack too much flour and meal into the mix? :hrm:


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

wanda1950 said:


> I learned the cornmeal trick from Mama. If your iron skillet isn't quite stick proof it will help a lot with the bread coming out. What's really good is to use bacon grease!


Any time one of my skillets doesn't seem seasoned enough I bake cornbread in it. The skillet is seasoned perfectly!


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

my3boys said:


> To make it easy, I use the Jiffy boxed stuff and add 2T sugar per box. Believe it or not, it comes out pretty tasty. Marie Calenders has a pretty good mix too, if you can find it. I have yet to find a from scratch recipe my guys like as well, but I'm still searching.
> 
> Carol


Please don't take this the wrong way, lol...but you ADD sugar to the Jiffy mix???  The Jiffy mix already tastes like eating cake to me, lol, and I consider myself southern through and through. And I can't stand Marie Callender's! Now sweet tea is a whole 'nother thing!  My son says I make it strong enough and sweet enough to melt the spoon, but I don't like my cornbread very sweet, especially if I'm eating it with beans, and NO sugar if it's going in dressing!

I don't really have a recipe, I'm a "throw-together" kind of cook, but I use about half and half corn meal and flour, baking powder, salt, maybe a LITTLE bit of sugar (depends on what I'm serving it with), bacon grease, eggs and buttermilk. I put the bacon grease in the skillet and heat it in the oven until it's almost smoking. In the meantime, I mix everything else together, then take the skillet out, swirl the grease around to coat it well and then pour the excess into the batter. I stir that together real good, then pour it in that scalding hot skillet and cook at about 400-425. Comes out great, no stick, every time. I think the key is starting with the really hot oven and skillet coated with the bacon grease (and the grease sure doesn't hurt the flavor either, lol!). That's the way my grandma always made it, and that's how I do it. 

P.S. Cowgirl, it sounds like you did have too much solid and not enough liquid. I pour milk in and adjust, adding more if needed, until it's a little thicker in consistency than cake batter when you pour it into the pan. Also, are you sure you used baking soda and not powder? Soda might give it a bad taste, and it won't make it rise as well. Even with powder, a tablespoon sounds like a lot for the amount of your other dry ingredients, that could give a bitter taste.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

I think you've solved my dilema - I'll go for your batter consistency next time. I've been kinda careless about the flour lately too, it might have been pastry flour last time. I like your way of doing the skillet too, I only stopped putting fat in the batter to step back on the calories. I'm gonna do it your way when I make a pot of beans with bacon tomorrow.

PS: I did mean baking powder, not soda. I used to only use a tsp. of b.p., then I found this old recipe that used 4, so I was actually backing off. I'll try less again. Thought it was a good idea 'cause I had some of the best-ever banana bread someone made, & they used a whole tablespoon in the recipe. Not... I bet that's why I've been using more sugar lately too.



calliemoonbeam said:


> P.S. Cowgirl, it sounds like you did have too much solid and not enough liquid. I pour milk in and adjust, adding more if needed, until it's a little thicker in consistency than cake batter when you pour it into the pan. Also, are you sure you used baking soda and not powder? Soda might give it a bad taste, and it won't make it rise as well. Even with powder, a tablespoon sounds like a lot for the amount of your other dry ingredients, that could give a bitter taste.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

You're welcome! Let me know if that helps or not.

P.S. I have never and probably will never be a "health over flavor" kind of cook, lol. I know I probably should be and I don't eat really bad stuff all the time, but I figure there are enough things in life to worry about as it is. I think food should not only be nourishing for your body but also for your soul, and flavor has a lot to do with that in my book. Plus I was taught to cook by my old-fashioned farm woman grandma who was born in 1886.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

More liquid made all the difference! With this floury cornmeal, I actually added a 1/4 cup, and I backed off the baking powder to 1 tsp. Used whole milk instead of my usual 2%, it was just more tender and better all around.

Callimoonbeam, I thought about your grandma while I was stirring up, thank you so much for sharing your family's wisdom.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

You're very welcome! I'm so glad it helped! I think about my grandma almost every day as I'm cooking one thing or another. Guess now I've passed her legacy onto lots of other folks by sharing her cooking tips. I think she would have been pleased.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Don't want to turn you all too green, but I just got my hands on a little notebook full of handwritten recipes and remedies (they must have lived in a world of chillblains, boils, ringworm and dysentary) from 1897 - and it has a cornbread recipe that uses sour milk, 1 1/2 cups meal to 1/2 cup flour, and here's the surprise - 1/2 teaspoonfull of molasses! If anyone's interested in the full recipe, let me know, I'm still deciphering it all.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I use sweet buttermilk, it was my grandmas recipe. She homesteaded in New Mexico when she was 13, nearly starved to death out there and had to walk back to Kansas. I make it with chili all the time. I cook 2 slices of bacon in the skillet and crumble it up in the cornbread batter. Nice big piece with chili and blackberry honey and butter on another for dessert....James


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## momagoat61 (Mar 30, 2008)

Molasses was an easier process in 1897 then white processed cane sugar. White sugar was only for the richest households in those days and that's why the recipe states molasses and not white cane sugar. My grandmother was born in 1900 and I recall her saying when I was a littlegirl that when she was little that they very seldom had white sugar in their house and when they did have sugar it was used very sparingly. Sugar cane could be grown and farmstead horses and or mules would be used to ground the canes to extract molasses from the canes right there on the homestead. Molasses wasn't such a secret ingredient back in the 1800, white cane sugar was very expensive and people had little to no money to buy white cane sugar in those days.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

marinemomtatt said:


> Good ol' bacon grease is a must! Cast iron is a must also!
> 
> I've been using the same cornbread recipe going on 20 years now, the only change I've made is an additional tablespoon of sugar, we like a sweet cornbread.


Oh, yes! Bacon grease and some sugar in the corn bread batter. I love it that way.


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## huzzyjr (Apr 21, 2005)

Supper last night black-eye peas, fried cabbage, cornbread, mmmmm.
To the mexican cornbread recipe we add 1 can whole kernel corn, 1 lb pan sausage fried crumbly, we don't use bell pepper I have tried for years to like bell pepper but just don't.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

2 cups good cornmeal
1 heaping tbspn grits
1/2 tspn salt
1 teaspoon baking *soda*
2 tbspn bacon grease
1 large egg
buttermilk 
a cast iron skillet (pre heated)
450 till its done

Its best if you use fresh ground white hickory king corn.


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