PDA

View Full Version : Cornbread for casters



Typecaster
02-22-2008, 12:04 PM
Here's a better use for those cast iron muffin pans than making ingots...

CORNBREAD FOR CAST IRON


Ingredients

1 c all-purpose unbleached white flour*
3/4 c yellow cornmeal
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp sugar
3/4 c buttermilk
1/4 c whole milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c butter or margarine, melted

Instructions

For a sweeter cornbread use 1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Using about 2-3 tbsp of shortening, grease a
9-in. cast iron skillet or cast iron muffin pan. Place the skillet in the
preheated oven while you mix the batter. In a large mixing bowl, combine
all the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl add buttermilk, milk, and eggs. Add the
melted margarine or butter and mix well. Add the liquid mixture to the dry
ingredients and mix well.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour in the batter (if you use a muffin
pan, the batter will begin to rise in the preheated pan, so be ready).
Return the skillet to the oven, remembering that the skillet is still HOT (kinda like an ingot mould).

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove to a plate and rub top with a stick of butter or
margarine.

TIPS: Have all ingredients at room temperature. Stone ground yellow
corn meal works best and gives a golden color bread. Don't use no-fat
margarines—they contain too much water. Mix the batter till smooth...
I don't care what your grandmother said about lumpy batter being OK.

Use a seasoned cast iron skillet or cast iron muffin
pan without the paper cups. If you use any other type muffin pan the
paper cups may be necessary. Spray the paper cups with PAM. Make
sure the greased skillet is in the oven long enough to get hot. This
will make for a crispy crust. Be very careful and use plenty of
potholders and oven mitts, as the skillet will be very hot!

*Gluten-free substitute (Most-Purpose Flour) works equally well. Go to my son's site, www.glutenberg.com, for mixing instructions.

sundog
02-22-2008, 12:16 PM
Typecaster, SUGAR!. Not you, in the cornbread. To your own taste as noted, but it makes all the difference in the world. This is not like the difference between sweet or unsweet tea. Sugar in the mix knocks off the 'bitter' in the cornmeal - enhances the flavor. I don't know for sure, but I bet Splenda might do the same, if you can't have any added sugar.

fourarmed
02-22-2008, 01:45 PM
You could also stir in 1/4 cup of cracklings. Or finely diced jalapenos.

Typecaster
02-22-2008, 03:32 PM
Sundog—

I thought I'd get feedback about the sugar...it's my impression that Southerners consider it sacrilegious to add sugar to cornbread; they prefer it more like a hushpuppy. Maybe it's a pride thing to differentiate themselves after the War of Northern Aggression? I dunno, but I do have an enquiring mind and welcome corrections.

Anyway, I use 3 tbsp of sugar in mine (and I usually don't butter the top).

Bodydoc447
02-22-2008, 04:46 PM
My mother was born and raised in New Orleans. She always made sweet cornbread. My wife and her mom always make it without the extra sugar. Her family grew up in Memphis, TN. Of course, I like it sweet like my mother's so I end up with butter and a splash of honey on my wife's cornbread to make it taste "right" for me. FWIW, another data point in your search for the truth about conrbread.

Doc

KCSO
02-22-2008, 06:15 PM
I almost quit eatin' the stuff after I found out my Grandmother used mole a$$es in it!

Slowpoke
02-22-2008, 10:07 PM
Your recipe is pretty close to the one I use the only difference is I use two tablespoons butter , one egg and use bacon drippings to grease the pan . Bake at 425 for 20 minutes

Sometimes if in a hurry I just use a full cup of corn meal instead of measuring out 3/4 cup and add a bit more milk.

I use one egg but I cheat and save the double yokers from our hens just for baking.

good luck

Oh Yea I never put mole A$$es in it, but I keep a honey bear full of it for putting on it :)

RBak
02-22-2008, 11:44 PM
You could also stir in 1/4 cup of cracklings. Or finely diced jalapenos.

What part of El Paso you from?

I'm with Sundog on the sugar thing...it actually improves the flavor without making it "sweet"....does that make sense?

My dear old Granddaddy liked nothing better than corn bread & buttermilk. He said he, "needed it for his tummy".
He ate it for dinner at least 4 or 5 times a week, no matter what else was on the table.

Russ...

testhop
02-23-2008, 07:27 AM
i like cornbread and milk both buttermilk(when i can get it)or whole milk is ok in a pinch

Rick N Bama
02-23-2008, 08:23 AM
I think it says somewhere in the book of Deuteronomy, that cornbread should be made from white stone ground Cornmeal & that it should be made without Sugar. The addition of Cracklins or Jalapenos is OK should someone insist on it.

Just this redneck Southerner’s opinion:drinks:

Rick

jawjaboy
02-23-2008, 01:13 PM
Sugar in my cornbread? Nossiree! Ain't gonna happen.

DrJay1st
02-23-2008, 07:49 PM
Everything made from cornmeal ain't cornbread. I offer as an example that on the cooking network, grits were made from cornmeal...I'm sure they can be and were fine...but cornbread does not have sugar in it! Why don't you just get a cake and be done with it? Next, you will be putting sugar in your biscuits and then in your greens. Damn that's what McDonald's has done for us...started you guys out on hamburgers with sugar in the sauce. Yes it is a sacrilege!

Jerry

45 2.1
02-23-2008, 08:34 PM
I like yellow cornbread with some sugar in it. I've had white cornbread, in the south BTW, which was ok but a poor substitue. You don't know what your missing.

Rick N Bama
02-24-2008, 09:46 AM
Everything made from cornmeal ain't cornbread. I offer as an example that on the cooking network, grits were made from cornmeal.

Jerry

Unless I'm bad wrong Grits cannot possibly be made from Cornmeal as Grits are much more coarse.

The best Cornmeal does not come from the grocery store! Find yourself a good mill and stock up. The best we've found comes from the Nora Mill just south of Helen, GA. I think they have a website in case someone wants to order from them. While you're at it, try some of the Chahoochee Cereal & Buckwheat Pancake Mix.

For supper last night my wife made a pot of "Cleanout Stew" and we had a 'Pone' of Cornbread (white!) with it, yum, yum.

Rick

Junior1942
02-24-2008, 10:22 AM
If you put sugar in cornbread what you then have is a cornmeal cake. Might as well put some chocolate icing on it. Besides, sugar in cornbread causes premature balding and ED.

Hackleback
02-24-2008, 10:23 AM
"yankee" sweet cornbread is also known as jonny cake. I have a family recipie that is over 100 YO and calls for sour milk and sugar. It is also a fair bit moister than "traditional" southern cornbread.

calaloo
02-24-2008, 10:46 AM
I sometimes make cornbread using eggs and drippings and such but never sugar. Cakes should be made from flour. An old army cook that I worked with made cornbread as follows. Two cups of cornmeal, one cup of self rising flour, one cup of buttermilk. Add just enough cold water to make a batter that pours fairly easily. Put a couple tablespoons of shortning in a skillet and heat so that the batter sizzles when poured in. Bake at 350 untill golden brown on top.

Bill

45 2.1
02-24-2008, 10:51 AM
If you put sugar in cornbread what you then have is a cornmeal cake. Might as well put some chocolate icing on it. Besides, sugar in cornbread causes premature balding and ED.

Take off your hat Junior...................

Scrounger
02-24-2008, 11:03 AM
If you put sugar in cornbread what you then have is a cornmeal cake. Might as well put some chocolate icing on it. Besides, sugar in cornbread causes premature balding and ED.

Yes, but without the sugar you have a tendency to park cars in your yard, eat strange animals like coons and possums, and become romantically inclined with blood relatives...:drinks::kidding:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o9/artcompton/RedNeckWindChime.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o9/artcompton/RedNeckTatoo.jpg

DrJay1st
02-24-2008, 12:13 PM
Here's the episode on the food network that I alluded to in an earlier post:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9956_35123,00.html

Alton Brown does indeed make grits, polenta, and a cake from cornmeal. I still prefer the wonderful cornbread that my wife makes...sans sugar.

Jerry

xtimberman
02-24-2008, 01:17 PM
Grits are ground from hominy - bleached corn - so I guess they're related.

You can make a grits-like hot cereal with cornmeal called "mush", and it's good, too - but not as good as grits.

Lots of folks from the old south still recoil at the idea of sugar in cornbread, grits, or mush. That must go back to the days when precious, expensive sugar was used strictly for baking pies and pastries.

Yum! I'd like to have me a batch of all three right about now.

xtm

Rick N Bama
02-24-2008, 03:57 PM
Here's the episode on the food network that I alluded to in an earlier post:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9956_35123,00.html

Alton Brown does indeed make grits, polenta, and a cake from cornmeal. I still prefer the wonderful cornbread that my wife makes...sans sugar.

Jerry

Hey Jerry, my former neighbor's daughter works for Alton Brown. When you see a set of female hands, that's her. Aside from her hands, she's appeared in only one eposode that I'm aware of. I think it was a show on Pie & she was the lady in the Diner that ordered 2 pieces........for herself. Through her I managed to get my son an autographed copy of one of his books for Christmas a couple years ago. He's my son's hero:)

Here's a link to a mill just up the road a ways in TN. This page explains their process for making grits. http://www.grits.com/discript.htm

Rick

DrJay1st
02-24-2008, 09:24 PM
Hey Rick,
If you get a chance to see that episode, you gotta do it! Alton Brown really did make all those products from cornmeal. It is amazing that you know someone that works with Alton. I'm mighty impressed with him myself. You know that he is a GA boy. So that ought to answer the N vs S thing...at least it does in my mind. Hmmm, I don't know a single decent chef from yankee land!!!
Thanks for the link. Now I know more about grits than I wanted to know. Where is that place? I might want to drop by there sometimes.
You ever get by Lawrenceburg TN? Lot's of homemade products made out in the country thereabouts. Molasses, cat head biscuits, and some fresh churned butter....yum, yum.

Jerry

DLCTEX
02-26-2008, 07:49 PM
Cornbread is Yaller! And how can you put mo'lasses in it if'n you aint put no lasses in yet? DALE

rockrat
02-27-2008, 09:52 PM
The recipie I got from my grandmother used 1& 1/2 cups cornmeal (yellow) and 1/2 cup flour. I prefer stone ground cornmeal where she used regular cornmeal. Sometimes I use 1 cup stone ground cornmeal and 1/2 cup regular cornmeal. I don't use sugar, but my daughter likes it with sugar in it, about 2 tbsp. I use bacon grease and put a drop or two of vanilla in it sometimes. Love it with strawberry jam on it.