Cornbread

[warren5421]

The wife likes to use Jiffy Mix for corn bread when she makes a big pot of Navy beans. Any good from scratch cornbread recipes out there. Also does a good wood cook stove make a better tasting cornbread???

[Winger Ed.]

I've tried a bunch of them, but always keep coming back to Jiffy,,, or Martha White's is good too.
They got it figured out.

I think others feel the same way.
The shoppers in our local grocery store are mostly older, and folks that don't eat out much.
The bakery section is always busy selling all the home cooking- flour, yeast, and cornmeal baking kind of stuff.

In the holiday season, rather than keep putting all the little Jiffy boxes on the shelf- they set a pallet of it at the end of the isle.

[Cast10]

Jiffy will be fine! Get your old cast iron skillet out; the BIG one. It may take 2-3 boxes of Jiffy! Get some thick cut bacon. Line the bottom of the skillet with the bacon and pour the mix on top. Place in oven and cook!

[Winger Ed.]

Jiffy will be fine! Get your old cast iron skillet out;

The bacon thing sounds great.

I do 2 boxes, and preheat the iron frying pan or those little corn cob looking molds in the oven.
Take 'em out at full oven temp., and be quick with the pouring.
Ya get a perfect brown crust on the bottom, and it doesn't stick.

[rockrat]

1/2 cup flour
1.5 cups cornmeal (I like stone ground)
2 tbs sugar (optional)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (plus or minus a bit)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 heaping tbsp. bacon grease (about 3 tbsp oil)
2-3 drops vanilla (opt)
Pinch of salt

put bacon grease (oil) in cast iron skillet and heat just shy of smoking. Mix all the other ingredients together, with the milk (or buttermilk) to make batter about like pancake batter. I dump the hot bacon grease in the mix and stir, leaving a little grease in the skillet. Heat skillet back up to shy of smoking and pour batter in skillet. You want a bit of a "sizzle". Bake in a 415 degree oven in upper part of the oven till top starts to brown a bit (25 min or so). Sometimes I turn on the broiler to brown the top just a bit more, but watch it if you do as it will brown quickly.
Take out of the oven and let sit for a minute or so and put plate over top of skillet and turn it all over to dump the cornbread on the plate. I shake the skillet side to side a bit, to make sure the cornbread is loose from the skillet before trying to put it on the plate.
Enjoy
(I like mine with butter and strawberry jam)




This was my Grandmothers recipie (I modified it a bit, stone ground cornmeal and the vanilla thing)

[Hick]

Corn Bread muffins that I make at least once a week: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup corn meal, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tbs Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/4 cups milk, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup shortening (I use Olive oil). Bake in muffin pan at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

[Brass&Lead]

Warning - This might be addictive: Add some creamed corn to the Jiffy cornbread mix.

Jiffy corn bread muffin mix
⅓ cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 (8 ounce) can canned cream corn
Up to ½ cup white sugar – Try less and a bit of molasses or brown sugar instead.
Make it as muffins in parchment paper.

[swamp]

I grew up on cornbread that was only about inch thick and all crust. All the recipes I find are more like a cake than thin and crusty. My mother always made it and I never payed enough attention when she did. Also made great stuffing. Anyone familiar with this type? Always served with black eyed peas.
swamp

[gbrown]

I grew up on cornbread that was only about inch thick and all crust. All the recipes I find are more like a cake than thin and crusty. My mother always made it and I never payed enough attention when she did. Also made great stuffing. Anyone familiar with this type? Always served with black eyed peas.
swamp

The cornbread recipes are usually of 2 types--cake versus crumbly. Difference is the ratio of flour to cornmeal. Cake has a greater amount of flour. Our family recipe is 1-1/2 cup of cornmeal , 1/2 cup of flour. 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder. Mix this together, add 1 beaten egg and 1 cup of milk. While you are doing this, preheat the oven to 400 with cast iron skillet in it with 1/4 cup lard, crisco or oil in it. Pour mixture in it and bake for 15 minutes. Makes a crumbly, crusty pone.
BTW, wife's about to make 3 pones today for Thanksgiving dressing.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

We've always used the Alber's recipe printed on the box.

[Froogal]

If you want REAL cornbread, You need to make your own cornmeal. If you use indian corn, the cornbread will take on a slightly bluish color.

[DougGuy]

This is Chef Sean Brock's Make Cornbread Not War recipe, it's the only one I use now. This is true Southern cornbread, no flour no sugar, this is not corncake.


Ingredients

4 ounces bacon, preferably Benton's
2 cups cornmeal, preferably Anson Mill's Antebellum Coarse Yellow Cornmeal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups whole milk buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Put a 9-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven to preheat for at least 10 minutes.

Run the bacon through a meat grinder or very finely mince it.

Put the bacon in a skillet large enough to hold it in one layer and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently so that it doesn’t burn, until the fat is rendered and the bits of bacon are crispy, 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove the bits of bacon to a paper towel to drain, reserving the fat. You need 5 tablespoons bacon fat for this recipe.

Combine the cornmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder and bits of bacon in a medium bowl.

Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat and combine the remaining 4 tablespoons fat, the buttermilk and egg in a small bowl.

Move the skillet from the oven to the stove, placing it over high heat.

Add the reserved tablespoon of bacon fat and swirl to coat the skillet.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just to combine; do not overmix.

Pour in the batter, distributing it evenly. It should sizzle.

Bake the cornbread for about 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Put a plate over the skillet and flip the skillet over, the cornbread will drop out onto the plate, slide back into the skillet upside down and slice, serve warm from the skillet.



Edit: I use Bob's Red Mill cornmeal and I mix it half and half medium grind and coarse grind.

I use melted butter and bacon fat together to total 1/4 cup instead of 4tbsp bacon fat in the recipe.

I order Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams bacon right from Benton's in Maryville, TN over the phone, it is so intensely hickory smoked that they can send it through regular mail, and it IS definitely the bacon to use for this, chefs are saying Benton's is the best bacon in the US, and I have to agree with them, there's nothing quite like it but you can use the thick cut Applewood smoked bacon in the stores, or use whatever thick cut bacon you like, you just want a lot of fat to lean ratio so it renders enough bacon grease to make this recipe.

[Eddie Southgate]

I use Cotton Picking for white and Martha White for yellow . Use two packs per skillet and 1 egg per pack + use milk instead of water . Shake or two of pepper and salt also . Grease needs to be just before smoking before I pour the mix in . Cook at 450 degrees.

[45workhorse]

Okay NOW I need to make corn bread!

[Nueces]

Some years ago, I spent a month working out a recipe for good southern cornbread, as would have been found on a well run Texas Hill Country ranch of 1850. I ended up about where DougGuy is, but I include a bit of local honey, which still leaves a quite savory bread. Man, it's good.

[MaryB]

Trick with Jiffy for moister and more fluffy is add 2 eggs instead of one.

[shooterg]

Jiffy is cheating ! And besides CORNBREAD don't have no steenkin' white flour or sugar in it ! Hot with home-churned butter on it.

But I am gonna try that bacon thing !!

[Winger Ed.]

JBut I am gonna try that bacon thing !!

Me too. I've been thinking about it a lot.
A variation I might do since around here, bacon is in its own food group and required with every meal.

I get those packages of ends & pieces, chop 'em up, fry it all at once, and keep bags of them handy for adding into other things
without having to cook bacon every time I need it.

That should make a good bottom liner for the cornbread pan, or mix it in all though the mix with a can of corn.
I've tried putting cheese in the cornbread mix too, but it just disappears.

[swamp]

The cornbread recipes are usually of 2 types--cake versus crumbly. Difference is the ratio of flour to cornmeal. Cake has a greater amount of flour. Our family recipe is 1-1/2 cup of cornmeal , 1/2 cup of flour. 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder. Mix this together, add 1 beaten egg and 1 cup of milk. While you are doing this, preheat the oven to 400 with cast iron skillet in it with 1/4 cup lard, crisco or oil in it. Pour mixture in it and bake for 15 minutes. Makes a crumbly, crusty pone.
BTW, wife's about to make 3 pones today for Thanksgiving dressing.

I will give that a try today. Mom always made an extra one for me, so there would be enough for stuffing.
Thanks for the recipe.
swamp

[DougGuy]

But I am gonna try that bacon thing !!

They can send you 4 packs in a padded priority mail envelope, each is about $8 or so, it freezes VERY well I keep it in my freezer here, and you can ask them for 50/50 fat to lean for cooking where you want the grease, you can order more red less fat, two of each, etc... Cost is around $40 for 4 packs in the mail. I have also gotten them to fill up a MFRB and then charge me for how many fit in there think it was 12 or so I forgot now.