I must admit, I am not good at too many things, but I do know something about making good cornbread. I come from a long line of cornbread cooks and eaters. I do not like sweet cornbread. The southern folk I was raised with believe that sweet cornbread is what "Yankees" eat. This is not to say that you should not put a little sugar in the mix, just not enough so it evokes any taste resemblance to cake.
CATDADDY'S CORNBREAD
I offered to sell this cornbread recipe for $3.00 and a SASE after I "gave away" my "Catdaddy's Backstrap" recipe. After 3 weeks of anxiously checking the mail box I sadly realized the market for cornbread recipes is pretty doggone thin.
There are somethings that just naturally go together like "Baked Coon and Sweet Potatoes", "Catfish and Hush Puppies" and "Squirrel and Dumplings"—so it is with cornbread. I mean, is it even possible to eat collard, turnip or mustard greens without cornbread?? If you witness somebody doing that--you know "They ain't from around here". I love my cornbread. Here is how I make it.
Ingredients:
Self Rising Cornmeal---If you choose to get your cornbread bread recipe from some fancy dancy cookbook written by some guy who has never witnessed a "hog killing or seen the inside of an "outhouse", it will instruct you to use regular cornmeal and add baking powder. That will work but it is entirely unnecessary. I have made cornbread with the course ground stuff, but I am not really a fan of it. I like to use Martha White buttermilk cornmeal. How much cornmeal you need depends on how much cornbread you are making and the size of your skillet (deductive reasoning is one of my strong points). If you really need to know an amount to get you started, I'd say about two cups for a normal sized skillet. I realize my "normal" may be different than your "normal". In fact, if you ain't from around here" it most probably is.
Milk---Buttermilk is good too, but I usually don't have any, if I do, I use it. If you must use that low fat watery stuff your wife buys go ahead—just don't tell anybody.
Eggs—a couple will do. If you are fortunate enough to have farm eggs with the real "yellar" yolks, that is even better.
Sugar—use just a dab (a "dab" in the redneck conversion tables is close to a teaspoon). If this helps you any, a "dab" is a little more than a "touch" .
Mayonnaise-- Mayonnaise?? I bet your thinking "What in Gods green earth had ole Catdaddy been smoking??" Trust me on this. Put in a nice big glob ( a glob in the redneck conversion table is about 2 heaping tablespoons) and it will make the cornbread turn out all nice and moist. This is a little secret of mine that I don't mind giving up to my friends here ( the rest of you got lucky ).
Bacon Grease—if you must, you can use vegetable oil. I realize that folks don't keep bacon grease in a container on the stove like my mother and grandmother used to. I tried saving some in a small coffee can shortly after I got married and was quickly –shall we say 'retrained" .
Instructions:
You will need a cast iron skillet to make good cornbread. I saw on a cooking show once where a so called "chef" made some cornbread in a glass Pyrex pan to be used in a stuffing he was creating. It was all I could do to not "Go Elvis on him" and shoot the TV with my pistol. If you are really want to get " Foo Foo" (look that up in your red neck dictionary—it means fancy) you can get yourself one of those cast iron cornbread stick pans.
Put in enough bacon grease /oil to cover the bottom of the skillet and then some. The "then some" is important because when you pour in the batter, you want the grease to roll up a little on the edges, making for a great outside crust. Put the skillet in the oven on about 375. You want it good and hot before you pour in the batter. If it is not, it is guaranteed to stick. A little tip here is if I hear the batter sizzle when I pour it in the skillet, I know it is hot enough.
While the skillet is getting hot, you can be making up your batter. Dump in the cornmeal, mayonnaise, eggs and sugar in a bowl. Now add your milk a little at a time until the batter is the right consistency. I struggle with trying to describe what the right consistency is—too thin and it will get too brown on the bottom and not be done in the middle—to thick and the cornbread will be too dry. For those of you that have plenty, just use your common sense and figure it out. For the rest of you, it will have to be the old "Trial and Error" method.
Once the skillet is hot, pour in the batter. For me personally, I'd rather have cornbread a little on the thin side than being too thick. So no matter how much batter you wound up making, stop pouring it in when the skillet is a little over half full. On your next batch, this is where the "Trial and Error" group will have a distinct advantage on the common sense crowd.
After about 25 minutes or so, open the oven and push down a little on the middle of the cornbread. If you can make an indention, it still needs to cook. If it is firm, put the oven on broil just for a few minutes until the top is golden brown and then take it out of the oven. You will know you have done things right when you flip the skillet over on to a plate the corn bread slips right out. I don't like to leave it in the hot skillet as it tends to dry the cornbread out.
There you have it. If you simply must have sweet cornbread—pour some sorgram molasses on it and eat it for desert.
