Cornbread is a southern staple. You rarely, if ever, see peas on the table without a “pone” of cornbread. We all take pride in our mother’s and grandmother’s recipes in the south and cornbread is no exception. You may be accustomed to white cornmeal or yellow cornmeal depending on what your mama told you to use, but for dressing to go with your chicken or turkey you’re gonna want the white “hotrise” cornmeal mix. My favorite will always be White Lilly. No, they didn’t pay me to say that, they don’t even know I’m breathing.

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When I was taught to make cornbread there were no measuring cups involved. We learned to “eyeball” it. Once I started this blog I learned how to work backwards and measure things so I could explain how to make things for those who were uneasy working that way. I dumped in what I thought looked right and then measured it back out. Cornbread was the first recipe I had to do this with.

In a medium sized bowl combine your choice of white or yellow cornmeal mix with two eggs, self rising flour, a little canola oil and stir in your buttermilk. You want this batter to be thick but pourable. I have seen cornmeal batter work up thinner than mine and it bakes up just fine but it does take longer in the oven. That’s ok too.

I always bake cornbread in cast-iron but I guess you don’t have to. This recipe will give you a smaller pan of cornbread that is just right for this #5 skillet. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet to bake in then you can use a regular baking pan for now. Just make sure you find a yard sale and get an iron skillet as soon as you can or no southerner will take you seriously. Just sayin…

I use vegetable shortening to coat my pan and prevent sticking. If you wrap a napkin around your fingers like a little puppet you can smear a serous coat of shortening into your pan and it will give your cornbread a nice crispy crust that you will love!

This pan of cornbread will go into a preheated oven at 400 degrees F and bake for 45 minutes. You could use this same recipe in a muffin tin and bake it much faster. When the top is golden brown, simply invert the cornbread out of the pan and onto a plate. Don’t bother washing this iron skillet, wipe it out really good and it will be ready to go back where it came from until you are ready to use it again. The oils from the vegetable shortening will protect your iron cookware from rust. That’s important!

Cornbread freezes well too! You can place any left over cornbread into a plastic bag or wrap it in foil, then drop it into the freezer to save for later. Reheat thawed cornbread in the oven and it will be almost as good as new. You can also thaw out cornbread and use it to make chicken and dressing. Never throw out left over cornbread! Freeze it or feed it to the chickens. We don’t put up with being wasteful around this farm!

The printable recipe is below and don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of this page. Thank’s for stopping by! Y’all be sweet!