The Great Cornbread Debate

Don said:
Elaine will sometimes fry up what she calls "lacy corn cakes" which is basically a thin enough corn bread batter so that it will makes holes in the cake (hence: lacy) when poured into the skillet of hot oil and fried.
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She's feeding you a doily and you don't know the difference.
 
I know cornbread is supposed to be savory and not sweet. The reason i know this is because the olny way you can get it in maryland is sweet. If they are doing it one way you know its supposed to be done the opposite. Butter lard pepers corn bacon grease are the only things allowed in cornbread. They dont all have to be there but all are welcome. For dessert i like a piece in a glass of milk. Cooked in cast iron. The way that makes our southern fore fathers proud.
 
np307 said:
I always call sweet cornbread 'Yankee cornbread'. Gotta be the real deal made in cast iron.
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By god. I always say that shits for fagggggg...... Wimps. Or yankees. Another thing i claim yankees do is put sugar in grits. My wifes a yankee and shes never made either with sugar, because she has never made cornbread or grits. Salt, black pepper, butter for grits.
 
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I've never quite understood this one. Adding sugar to a recipe as an ingredient is different than making something "sweet". I guarantee you that you would not be able to tell if sugar was added to any recipe if you didn't see it added. It all depends on how much is added.

On the other hand, like @Don and @Brangus is talking about, there are so many types of "cornbread" that you need to be specific when talking about it. Cornbread, cornpone, corn sticks, corn fritters are a different animal than hush puppies.
 
Brangus said:
Cracklin' cornbread prepared in a cast iron spyder.

If you don't know what it is then you'll need a beginner's lesson in Southern history because the better things in Southern life are always left out by those who wish to re-write our history to fit another agenda.

That is all.
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Now yer talkin...cracklins are harder n harder to come by...I have a source though :)
 
No sugar added, add a small can of creamed corn to the mix. Then it must be poured into a hot cast iron pan coated in and floated in bacon grease. You added corn didn't you? It offsets the bacon grease lol. A ying and yang thing.

If you have chili made then add finely diced jalapenos. Cook it pull a slice out, cut it in half to line the bowl and then ladle the chili on. Just try not to bite your fingers.

I've cooked it an oven and over coals and the trick is to get cast iron hot and then its heat retention takes over. It gives you a good crust and nice center.
 
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Cornbread, prefer white corn meal and jalapeño and sometimes will serve with a drizzle of honey. Happily mash it up with chili (no beans) but in milk or buttermilk, that's only for folks with a delicate constitution.

That said, I prefer corn pudding made with fresh sweet corn!
 
I remember when I was a kid if someone asked how old are you (young folk that is.... don't be sassin your elders. lol) we'd say: "Old enough to eat cornbread without choking."

I haven't heard any kids say that in a long time....
 
Firemedic54 said:
Yellow corn meal, buttermilk, and lard (not vegetable oil), a seasoned cast iron pan, and definitely NO SUGAR!!!!
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All correct except the yellow part. Proper cornbread, white in color, should have a crispy, thickish crust, (top and bottom), easily discernible buttermilk flavor, be sugar free, and without question lard and cast iron must be used.
 
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I've had all kinds of corn bread. Only one's I didn't really care for were versions that had extremely chunky corn, or were not sweet in any way. I've had corn bread with no honey that was great and corn bread with honey on top that was great. I do like a little nicely browned crust, but it doesn't need to be all ecncompassing. I'd also bet that most of the restaurant cornbreads were not baked in cast iron. I still liked them though. I'll volunteer to judge at the corn bread cookoff. Cause it has to be pretty bad for me not to find some redeeming quality.

Been thinking of making some on my Green Egg to see if adding a little smoke flavor to it does any good. Can't be bad right?
 
CZfool68 said:
'd also bet that most of the restaurant cornbreads were not baked in cast iron
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Probably right. Preheat your cast iron to get a better crust.
 
JimB said:
Preheat your cast iron to get a better crust.
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^^This! The oil/bacon drippings/lard needs to be just about smoking when you dump the batter in. I've found if I let the oven come up to temp and then put the skillet in the hot oven while I mix the batter, the skillet is just about at the right temperature.
 
Shrek said:
Adding sugar to a recipe as an ingredient is different than making something "sweet". I guarantee you that you would not be able to tell if sugar was added to any recipe if you didn't see it added. It all depends on how much is added.
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I agree. Mama used to add a pinch of sugar to some of her dishes to "brighten" them. However, all the sweet cornbread that I've ever had was just that: sweet. There was a restaurant in Graham back in the early '80s that I would eat at once a week or more. I finally quite getting the cornbread because it was as sweet as cake.
 
My brother and I set up at a gunshow in Bristol, VA back in the 1900's. The concession stand there had on their menu a bowl of pinto beans and a slice of corn bread. We both got the beans and cornbread. He started crumbling the cornbread into the bowl of beans. I started to do the same thing and I noticed the consistency of the cornbread was a little off. I took a bite and it was SWEET. About that time I heard my brother saying WTF. He had ruined a good bowl of pinto beans. I said I was going to get a scoop of ice cream to put on my cornbread. It was that sweet, it would have been good with ice cream.
 
This is what you put on cornbread:

Alaga.jpeg

AL meets GA!
Over 100 years ago, ALAGA Syrup Company found the secret formula for the “Sweetness of the South” when the original cane syrup recipe was created in 1906. ALAGA syrup was born out of love, and the “feeling of family” when a Georgia boy met and married an Alabama girl.

Whitfield Foods, Montgomery, AL
 
Geezer said:
My brother and I set up at a gunshow in Bristol, VA back in the 1900's. The concession stand there had on their menu a bowl of pinto beans and a slice of corn bread. We both got the beans and cornbread. He started crumbling the cornbread into the bowl of beans. I started to do the same thing and I noticed the consistency of the cornbread was a little off. I took a bite and it was SWEET. About that time I heard my brother saying WTF. He had ruined a good bowl of pinto beans. I said I was going to get a scoop of ice cream to put on my cornbread. It was that sweet, it would have been good with ice cream.
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musta been off the chuck wagon
 
Don said:
This is what you put on cornbread:

View attachment 10346

AL meets GA!
Over 100 years ago, ALAGA Syrup Company found the secret formula for the “Sweetness of the South” when the original cane syrup recipe was created in 1906. ALAGA syrup was born out of love, and the “feeling of family” when a Georgia boy met and married an Alabama girl.

Whitfield Foods, Montgomery, AL
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Either. I've used homemade sorghum syrup when I couldn't get Alaga.
 
Don said:
^^This! The oil/bacon drippings/lard needs to be just about smoking when you dump the batter in. I've found if I let the oven come up to temp and then put the skillet in the hot oven while I mix the batter, the skillet is just about at the right temperature.
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Exactly. My point was that this is why cast iron matters, you need the heat capacity of the heavy pan in order to get the best crust. You can make it in cake pans, but it's not the same.
 
Took said:
My Grandma would make it fried in a cast iron pan and it was thin and crispy. I spent a lot of time at her house growing up; this thread has made me miss her terribly.
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We always called them cornbread fritters.... had a little more chew to 'em. Still good though!
 
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