- Southern
- Cornbread
- Skillet
This traditional Southern cornbread is made in a cast iron skillet and is the ideal partner to a bowl of chili or a plate of ribs.
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In This Recipe
What Makes Cornbread Southern
Sugar Is Optional
How Much Cornmeal?
Choosing the Fat
Using Cast Iron
Reader Memories
Use Up Leftovers
Anytime you write about cornbread, it's likely to stir up controversy. It seems like every person I've ever known from the South has their favorite way of making homemade cornbread, and every way is different.
What Makes a Southern Cornbread
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. It also tends to be rather crumbly.
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A Cornbread Experiment
With this cornbread recipe, we experimented both with all cornmeal, and with just three-quarters cornmeal and one-quarter flour. We also experimented with including or leaving out an egg.
Result: 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.
Sugar Is Optional
If you are new to making southern cornbread, take note of the following. Whether to include sugar or not in a southern cornbread recipe is an issue for debate. We've included as an option a tablespoon 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. (See this excellent article from Serious Eats on why traditional southern cornbread does not include sugar.)
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Cornmeal: All In or Only Some?
You can either use all cornmeal or a combination of cornmeal and flour to make this cornbread. If you go the all cornmeal route, note that the result will likely be very, very crumbly. That's just how the Southern cornbread crumbles. If you would like cornbread with a little more structure, I recommend using a combination of cornmeal and flour.
Why Use Bacon Drippings and Butter
You'll notice there are both bacon drippings and butter in this cornbread 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.
Make Cornbread in a Cast Iron Skillet
Finally, the method that works best with using a well-seasoned 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.
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Readers Weigh In With Opinions and Memories
Readers from all over (but especially the South) love to share their feelings about cornbread.
- Randy (from KY): "My mom always used flour with cornmeal but she also added melted bacon fat to the mix itself as well as to coat the skillet or muffin tin. An egg was never an option, it had to go in. Sugar is sacrilege...I don't know where people came up with that silliness!"
- Sheila: "I grew up in NC. After baking cornbread in that cast iron pan, we show off our perfectly crisp crust by inverting it onto a plate or cutting-board to slice it. Grandma would never cut the cornbread in her beautiful cast iron pan nor would she allow it to sit crust-side down in the pan! She said it would get soggy, or maybe it would start to blacken from the residual heat
- Georgia: "I'm from Georgia and we always used WHITE cornmeal. Used flour with it. You can substitute bacon grease if you have to and use Crisco shortening. We only put butter on/in it when took a piece and sliced it open. Used buttermilk too. We would take the grease in the skillet and pour it into the mixture and pour it back into the cast iron skillet (we made sure the sides were coated with the grease)."
- Carol: "This cornbread is delicious!! The tablespoon of sugar really makes a huge difference. I will never make cornbread without sugar again. It doesn't make it sweet, it just gives it a heartier flavor."
Leftover Cornbread
- Cornbread will keep at room temperature for a day or two. After that, it tastes stale.
- Can you freeze cornbread? Yes, for up to two months if you wrap it well, though because it's very crumbly, it's best to freeze it only if you plan to use it as crumbs, or in cornbread dressing.
- Speaking of, leftover cornbread is excellent in cornbread stuffing.
Try These Other Cornbread Recipes, Too!
- Jalapeño Cornbread
- Yankee Cornbread
- Cheesy Skillet Cornbread
- Green Chile Cornbread
From the Editors Of Simply Recipes
Southern Cornbread
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time35 mins
Servings8 servings
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.
The egg is optional, though without it the cornbread will be very crumbly.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon bacon drippings
2 cups cornmeal OR 1 1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
1 large egg, optional
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Method
Preheat pan with bacon drippings:
Put the bacon drippings in a 9 or 10-inch well-seasoned cast iron skillet and put the skillet into the oven. Then preheat the oven to 400°F with the skillet inside. (If you don't have an iron skillet, you can use an uncovered Dutch oven or a metal cake pan.)
Make the batter:
Whisk together all the dry ingredients (cornmeal, baking soda, salt, sugar if using) in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg (if using) and buttermilk until combined, then mix that into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir in the melted butter.
5 Substitutes for Buttermilk READ MORE:
Pour batter into hot skillet and bake:
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 at 400°F 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.
Rest bread in skillet, then serve:
Let the bread rest for 10 to 30 minutes in the skillet before cutting it into wedges and serving.
To store, let the cornbread cool, then remove from pan and wrap in plastic wrap or transfer to an airtight container. Store at room temp for 2 to 3 days
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.
Did you enjoy this recipe? Let us know with a rating, review, or your own cornbread memories below!
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| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 232 | Calories |
| 12g | Fat |
| 27g | Carbs |
| 5g | Protein |
Show Full Nutrition Label
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| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 8 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 232 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 12g | 16% |
| Saturated Fat 7g | 33% |
| Cholesterol 49mg | 16% |
| Sodium 518mg | 23% |
| Total Carbohydrate 27g | 10% |
| Dietary Fiber 2g | 8% |
| Total Sugars 4g | |
| Protein 5g | |
| Vitamin C 0mg | 2% |
| Calcium 52mg | 4% |
| Iron 1mg | 7% |
| Potassium 157mg | 3% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.
