Virginia Willis's Buttermilk Cornbread
I could make a meal out of just buttered cornbread. Except perhaps for barbecue, cornbread is as close to religion in the South as any particular food gets. At the top of the list of cornbread sins is adding sugar. You will notice a complete lack of sugar in this cornbread recipe. Sugar is more often found in what is referred to derisively as “Yankee cornbread.”
Adherents of white versus yellow cornmeal are like Methodists and Baptists--some think you’re going to hell if you follow one path and not the other. I am of the white cornmeal sect. The theory is that white corn was less hybridized and is closer to the original grain than yellow. Plain white cornmeal can be surprisingly tricky to find, even in Atlanta; most of what lines the grocery store shelves is a mix or self-rising, which already contains the leavener that makes the cornmeal rise. Although yellow and white cornmeal are interchangeable, plain and self-rising cornmeal are not.
Warming the skillet and bacon grease or butter in the oven prepares the skillet for baking and melts the fat. Most often, I use butter. I like to let it get just barely nutty brown on the edges. The brown flecks give the cornbread extra color and flavor.
Buttermilk Cornbread
Makes one 10-1/2-inch skillet bread
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or bacon grease
2 cups white or yellow cornmeal (not cornmeal mix or self-rising cornmeal)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the butter in a 10-1/2-inch cast-iron skillet or ovenproof baking dish and heat in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.
3. Remove the heated skillet from the oven and pour the melted butter into the batter. Stir to combine, then pour the batter back into the hot skillet. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Variation: Instead of baking in a skillet, this batter may be prepared as muffins. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat or in the microwave. Prepare the batter as directed; after mixing with the melted butter, spoon the batter into a 12-cup standard muffin tin, filling each cup no more than two-thirds full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Reprinted with permission from Bon Appétit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking by Virginia Willis, copyright © 2008. Published by Ten Speed Press.
Donna B. on June 08, 2009 at 06:45 PM
This sounds exactly like what I remember my Mama making, except it was always bacon grease.
Every time I attempt it her way, my cornbread is bitter, so I've started adding sugar. Has my taste changed or am I doing something else wrong?
HopeSew on September 19, 2009 at 07:03 AM
Donna B., if you accidentally used self-rising cornmeal and then added baking soda too, the overdose of soda could cause bitter taste. Other than that, maybe the type of bacon? Or did something else get into your skillet in the past? I know the "pores" of cast iron open when heated and can trap old flavors then release them into the new food each time the skillet is used again.
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Camilla on November 25, 2010 at 08:57 AM
You are somewhat right about the suger. In Alabama, my mom put about a teaspoon of suger but now everybody likes a lot of suger. I think it is from eating Jiffy cornbread, too much suger there. Also, I have experienced the bitterness of too much soda and baking powder, nasty.Dont really need seasalt, regular salt is just fine. When I was a kid, we loved buttermilk with cornbread crumbled in. today that just sounds nasty to me, I guess my taste changed, LOL. BTY, I am 59 years old.
Camilla on November 25, 2010 at 09:00 AM
Oh, forgot to mention. I live in Chicago 23 yrs before moving to Atlanta. I was amazed at how different cornmeal is here. It is very finely ground and makes cornbread more cake like. I was used to bigger crumbs texture in my cornbread. Does that make sense? Does anyone know where I could find a course grind of cornmeal?
G Puckett on December 08, 2010 at 10:55 PM
It's been a long journey trying to match my momma's cornbread. One thing I never experienced until I had graduated college and was out on my own was sugar in cornbread. It just doesn't seem right. Before she passed on my Momma would just scotch about the quality of cornmeal these days. She was convinced that it is the GMO corn that is the problem. Any bitterness or bad taste may come from that. Every winter she would fix extra cornbread and put out for the birds. She had to stop because the birds started refusing to eat it!!! I have found a source for fresh stone ground organic non-GMO cornmeal that I am going to try. If this delivers then I plan to grow a fair amount of heritage dent yellow corn next summer just for grinding into cornmeal. This sounds very similar to my Mom's cornbread recipe. I will try it when the cornmeal arrives.
KB on December 10, 2010 at 11:36 AM
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!! I have been trying to figure out why my cornbread tasted bitter no matter what I did until I read this recipe and about baking soda and so forth regarding self-rising versus plain cornmeal. I had my hubby pick up a high quality plain cornmeal this morning on his way home from work and made up a pan so I could make some cornbread dressing for supper tonight. I was sick on Thanksgiving and missed out on the dressing, my favorite food on earth!! so I was craving it badly but the last few times I've made it, it was bitter. After reading this I realized I had no idea how old my cornmeal was and have been assuming it was plain. This turned out perfectly...no bitter taste, no aftertaste at all and it made the best pan of homemade dressing I have turned out in several years! I have always been known as the dressing queen on the holidays and have always been the one to bring the dressing but the last few years I knew it wasn't turning out right but couldn't for the life of me figure it out...I had used every different type of stock on the market, several different cornbread recipes, but always had this bitterness. I knew it was getting to everyone because usually we had family fighting over who got to take home the leftover dressing if there was any but for the last couple of years the pan had been only half eaten...I am so happy! It may seem silly that something this trivial would mean so much but it does! I'm not sure if it was the age of the meal or the self-rising aspect or both...but whatever it was, it is solved and I have my perfect dressing back. I am going to take a big pan to a family dinner this Sunday and can't wait to see everyone devour it like old times.