Skillet Corn Bread
How to make good Southern cornbread - it's all about starting with a cold oven and oiled skillet, preheating both at the same time. Then when you pour the batter into the sizzling skillet, it almost "fries" the edge of the bread, creating that classic crust we all crave in an awesome wedge of cornbread.
Skillet Corn Bread
This recipe is typically southern, with no sugar or wheat flour. From Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking.
1 large egg
2 cups buttermilk
1 3/4 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons strained bacon grease
1 scant teaspoon baking powder
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
Mix the egg into the buttermilk, then add the cornmeal and beat it well into the batter, which should be thin.
Put enough bacon grease in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet to coat the bottom and sides with a thin film, then put it in a cold oven and begin preheating the oven to 450ºF. When the oven has reached 450ºF, the bacon grease should be just at the point of smoking.
Add the baking powder, salt, and soda to the batter, beat in well, and pour the batter all at once into the hot pan. Return to the oven to bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the top just begins to brown.
Turn the loaf out on a plate and serve with lots of the freshest butter you can get your hands on.
Skillet Corn Bread
I've had this recipe for a long time, but never made it. It differs from the one on the left in that it is baked on top of the stove rather than in the oven. It also uses equal amounts of flour and cornmeal. The recipe on the left uses all cornmeal.
Seriouseats.com advodates heating a cast iron skillet in the oven, adding a tablespoon of butter before adding the batter to give the cornbread a nice crispy edge.
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup oil
Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside. Beat the egg and add the milk and oil. Add to the dry ingredients.
Pour into a greased skillet [traditionally bacon grease is used]. Cover and cook over low heat 30 - 35 minutes.
Southern Skillet Cornbread
from http://www.simplyrecipes.com/
The thing that distinguishes Southern cornbread from, say Yankee cornbread, or any other cornbread one is likely to eat outside of the southern states, is that it is savory, not sweet, and it is made mostly with cornmeal. Northern cornbreads tend to be more cake-like, on the sweet side, with a finer crumb due to more flour in the mixture. Southern cornbread is flavored with bacon grease, and cooked in a cast iron skillet, a perfect side for barbecues, or chili.
With this recipe we experimented with all cornmeal or just three quarters cornmeal and one quarter flour. We also experimented with including or leaving out an egg. Either way works, though the version with some of the cornmeal swapped out with flour, and including an egg, holds together better and is a little more tender.
Whether to include sugar or not in a southern cornbread recipe is an issue for debate. We've included as an option a tablespoon or two which just intensifies the flavor of the cornmeal; it doesn't make the cornbread sweet. The choice is yours as to whether or not to include it.
You'll notice there are bacon drippings and butter in this recipe. The butter adds needed richness to the bread itself, and the bacon drippings help brown the crust, keep it from sticking to the skillet, and add a lovely bacon flavor to the bread.
Finally, the method that works best with using a cast iron skillet is to preheat the skillet with the fat and then add the batter to the hot skillet. This helps brown the crust and with the pan already hot, the cornbread cooks more quickly.
White cornmeal is used in most Southern cornbreads, but we could not find any here in California, so we used yellow cornmeal. If you can find white cornmeal, by all means use it.
2 cups cornmeal OR 1 1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 Tbsp sugar (optional)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg (optional)
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp bacon drippings
Put the bacon fat in a 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet and put the skillet into the oven. Then preheat the oven to 400° with the skillet inside. (If you don't have an iron skillet, you can use an uncovered Dutch oven or a metal cake pan.)
Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg and buttermilk until combined, then mix that into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir in the melted butter.
When the oven is hot, take out the skillet (carefully, as the handle will be hot!). Add the cornbread batter and make sure it is evenly distributed in the skillet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are beginning to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
Let the bread rest for 10-30 minutes in the skillet before cutting it into wedges and serving.
To avoid burning your hand because you've forgotten the pan is hot, I recommend placing a pot holder on the pan's handle while the cornbread is resting, or cooling the handle down a bit with an ice cube.
8 servings
