If your idea of cornbread heaven is a store-bought cornbread or quickie mix,
you may be missing out on one of life's simple pleasures. Even if you've made a pan or two
in your cooking life, here are the mistakes you're probably making with your cornbread.
Cornmeal plays a central role in your cornbread. While white and
yellow cornmeal are the most common types, cornmeal can also be blue or even red.
“I prefer yellow corn cause’ I think it just makes a tastier meal but you can use
white, or even blue if you want...”
But let's stick to the basics for now.
So, should you use white or yellow cornmeal in your cornbread? Martha White says both types
are made from dried kernels of corn and can be used interchangeably in cornbread recipes.
That may be true in some circles, but if you're aiming for Southern cornbread,
it's a big mistake to use yellow cornmeal.
For cornbread that's true to its down-home roots, only white cornmeal will do.
In a column for Southern Kitchen, cookbook author Anne Byrn
lays down the law about making Southern cornbread the old-fashioned way. She advised readers to use
only plain white cornmeal or self-rising white cornmeal when tackling cornbread.
But what if you want a sweeter, cake-like cornbread? In that instance,
it's a baking blunder to use white cornmeal. Instead, opt for yellow,
rich in beta carotene, with more of a corn-flavor punch.
The difference in cornmeal grinds may not seem like a very big deal,
but it impacts the flavor of your cornbread.
According to TasteAtlas, Coarse, medium, and fine-ground cornmeal each differ in taste,
and the finest grind of cornmeal is the least sweet. Still, TasteAtlas advises, it would
be a mistake to use anything but stone-ground cornmeal because of its powerful "corn" flavor.
Stone-ground cornmeal, sometimes labeled "whole grain" on the package,
is coarser than commercial cornmeal, due to the way it's milled. The germ and bran remain intact
in the cornmeal so it doesn't have as long a shelf life as standard, degerminated cornmeal.
In speaking to agricultural experts, Cook's Illustrated found that degermination prior
to grinding corn kernels affects the moistness of your cornbread.
They noted that the germ that's removed has vitamins, enzymes, and corn oil.
While over-the-counter stone-ground brands at the grocery store are great, it’s worth experimenting.
Try looking for other artisan stone-ground cornmeal from specialty sources. Some to look
out for would be Anson Mills, who’s known for its organic heirloom corn, rice, and grains, or
Marsh Hen Mill, which field dries its corn, then hand mills the cornmeal in antique gristmills.
Bon Appetit reminds us that cornbread should be full of texture and these
fancier brands deliver livelier flavor so the texture is apparent in every tasty bite.
Perhaps some people prefer their cornbread dry and crumbly, but
most cooks don't aim for a Sahara-like mouthful of corn dust. You can turn out
a moist and memorable cornbread by adding, trading, or subtracting a few ingredients.
Our Everyday Life suggests adding extra fat to your batter to make your cornbread less crumbly.
Any number of pantry staples will do the trick. Whether the source is from more oil or egg yolks
to melted butter or shortening, all will soften the cornbread's crumb and make it less crumbly.
Eggs are especially effective, because they combine protein, fat,
and moisture, all in one little shell. Another moisture-enhancing strategy
is swapping cane sugar for sweeteners like brown sugar, honey, or corn syrup.
On the other end of the ingredient spectrum, flour, or lack thereof,
can also contribute to cornbread's texture and density. Delishably reminds us that cornbread
should be a bit crumbly, but it shouldn't fall apart before it reaches your mouth.
When you use too much cornmeal, there isn't enough gluten to hold the cornbread together
so it becomes crumbly. That's where adding in more flour comes in. Add more flour and less cornmeal,
and your cornbread will turn out lighter and less dense, not dry and crumbly.
While it may take a little more time, and it's certainly an optional step,
you won't regret soaking your cornmeal before your whole cornbread comes together.
Mountain Feed and Seed Supply's blog lobbies for starting with coarsely ground cornmeal,
and soaking it in buttermilk for a few hours.
If you happen to be way ahead of schedule, you can even allow the cornmeal and buttermilk mixture to
soak overnight. Either way, they say soaking makes the big cornmeal grains more tender,
which in turn, makes your cornbread more moist and tender. And who doesn't want that?
Milwaukee Magazine notes that soaking both the cornmeal and the wheat flour
together in yogurt for 8 hours at room temperature can yield delicious results.
It becomes a firm and tender cornbread with a really interesting flavor.
If you're hard-pressed for time or making your cornbread on the fly, and soaking isn't an option,
all is not lost. The San Diego Union-Tribune says that giving your batter even 10 minutes
of sitting time before the pan goes in the oven will help hydrate your cornbread.
Every cook worth their salt knows that preheating the oven is essential for even
results, but in the world of cornbread, preheating the pan is also a great idea.
And that pan shouldn't be any old brownie or cake pan.
Cornbread purists are immovable on this point: A cast-iron skillet is the best option if you
want results worth bragging about. As The New York Times says, the heavy cast-iron pan does
several things. It retains the heat, gives cornbread a darker color, and adds flavor.
The Kitchn informs us that you can preheat your pan at the same time that you preheat your oven.
If you're planning on leveling up your cornbread with bacon or
sautéed onions or peppers, you can even preheat the pan on the stove.
Chef Sean Brock, founder of the Charleston, South Carolina restaurant Husk and star of the sixth
season of the Netflix series Chef's Table, shared his cornbread recipe with The Splendid Table.
His method entails preheating his skillet in the oven, then popping it on top of the stove,
pouring in the fat, or in his case melted lard, followed by the cornbread batter.
Once it sizzles, back in the oven it goes. The end result?
“That first pan of cornbread that I made, it felt just like eating at my grandmother’s table.”
A rich brown, caramelized crust.
Cornbread can get very personal, and make no mistake, controversial.
There are staunch believers in savory, Southern cornbread,
made with buttermilk and no sugar. There are also those who believe that corn's naturally
sweet flavor only gets better when you add in plenty of sugar — that's the Northern variation.
While sweet or savory cornbread may be a matter of taste as well as heritage,
there's no real way to judge unless you try both.
Garden and Gun insists that Southern cornbread is a fundamental part of Southern cuisine,
and that there’s plenty of sugar in the grain itself. According to them, sugar removes the
tangy bitterness that the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians achieved
with their own cornbread before passing it on to the newly landed 17th-century English colonists.
Serious Eats takes the same stand, believing that sugar and wheat flour have no place in cornbread,
labeling sweet, flour-y variations more like dessert than genuine cornbread.
On the flip side, The San Diego Union-Tribune skips Southern tradition and favors a light
and fluffy cornbread that's somewhat cake-like and sweet.
While perhaps no other part of the world has had
as much of an influence on shaping our idea of cornbread perfection as the South,
other interpretations of this paragon have earned their due.
First, introduce yourself to a regional American favorite: Hello, Tex-Mex cornbread!
Living Magazine says that this spicy iteration was born once cornbread reached the West.
At that point, each region took liberties with the staple. One version,
according to Texas Monthly, is enlivened with green chiles, fresh corn, and cheddar cheese.
In her cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels,
author Crescent Dragonwagon says that the chile pepper and corn is an ancient flavor combination.
She goes on to explain that there's a global array of cornbreads, each one worth exploring.
There’s pan de elote, a sweet and cakelike Mexican cornbread. There’s also broa,
a Portuguese cornbread made with yeast, makkiki roti, an Indian griddled flatbread,
a South African steam-cooked variation known as mealiebrod, and another take on African cornbread,
cush-cush, which is seasoned with spices like nutmeg or cayenne pepper. So,
why settle on just one kind of cornbread? Try several and expand your culinary repertoire.
By now we've established that simple cornbread can be perfection itself.
But don't let that stop you from playing with other add-ins.
One of cornbread's most ever-present allies seems to be bacon,
be it bacon grease or several strips, or both. Some recipes,
according to The Spruce Eats, go beyond bacon, also adding maple syrup for flavor.
Creamed corn also has its faithful advocates. Martha Stewart adds a can of creamed corn,
along with sour cream, to give cornbread extra creaminess. Chef and Food Network
star Alton Brown, also professes his love of homemade creamed corn,
adding a batch to his cornbread, along with buttermilk and other fixings.
Taste of Home also offers tons of takes on the original, including Creole cornbread,
with rice instead of flour, and a few other ingredients including creamed corn,
cheddar cheese, and jalapeños.
When it comes to Thanksgiving,
cornbread is oftentimes like a back-up singer who always hits the right notes.
It's one of those side dishes that everyone reaches for, no matter how full they may be.
Consider serving any of its many varieties, like such Food Network favorites as
buttermilk cornbread, custard-y cornbread, true Southern cornbread, or even cheese cornbread.
But we would be remiss to talk about cornbread without mentioning cornbread
stuffing. For many families, cornbread stuffing is what draws them to the Thanksgiving table.
Needless to say, cornbread stuffing hails from the South, where cooks call it "dressing."
Food & Wine reports that the difference between the two comes down to the way they are each
cooked. Stuffing, in other words, goes inside the bird, while dressing is baked in its own pan.
Soft from the turkey, or crisp from the oven, cornbread stuffing is traditional and celebratory,
and always deserves a spot on the Thanksgiving lineup.
Sure, nothing compares to cornbread, but denying cornmeal its right to full expression would make
you a one-note cook. To call cornmeal versatile is an understatement, so why limit yourself?
Take corn pone, for instance. Though it's difficult to tell the difference between the two,
Virginia Living says it may be the closest kin to cornbread. Still,
if you want to make something truly traditional, it's worth a whirl.
But first, how do you know it's pone? Some cooks define corn pone as having no sugar,
milk, or eggs. Other people believe that it's the shape that distinguishes it.
USA Today reports that johnnycakes, something of a cross between a pancake and polenta,
found its way from the Narragansett tribe to Rhode Island's first colonists.
Corn muffins, corn cakes, hush puppies, spoon bread, arepas — all of these delicious
foodstuffs are made with cornmeal, the very soul of cornbread — and none deserve to be overlooked.
Saveur reminds us that we can use cornmeal in a variety of ways. From elegant cornbread
financiers, to fat onion rings, or even soft polenta or grits, the sky's the limit.
Casting an eye back to cornbread's beginnings, Southern Living says that
centuries ago, the Aztecs and Mayans used corn for tortillas and tamales,
but it was the Native Americans who first made the Southern type of cornbread.
Cornbread's provenance and popularity stems from
both America's early colonists and its prominence during the Civil War era.
It was too hot in the South to grow wheat, so corn became the crop with the mostest,
and once harvested, it could be ground into cornmeal used for cornbread.
Everyone from Native Americans to enslaved people and settlers used corn for just about everything,
even soap. The addition of ingredients such as buttermilk, eggs, and leavening agents,
along with pig products from settlers' farms, all impacted cornbread's taste and texture.
In her book Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook,
author Toni Tipton-Martin says that prior to the Civil War and beyond, Black cooks perfected
cornbread. In all of its permutations, from corn pone, to spoon bread, and hushpuppies,
they perfected it all. Ash or hoe cakes were cooked directly over hot ashes, without a skillet.
Tipton-Martin notes cornbread is among the dishes that has its roots in soul food,
taking its prominent place alongside black-eyed peas, greens, and pork dishes as the foods that
farmers and migrants brought with them when they left the South after Emancipation.
Taking this long and storied history into consideration as you take your first bite
will make your cornbread taste that much better.
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