Southern Buttermilk Cornbread
February 24, 2006 by Andrea 
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Filed under Breads
I grew up on my mother’s and grandmothers’ Southern cornbread, and I’m devoted to it. Southern cornbread has no sugar and is cooked in a cast iron skillet, which renders a lovely crunchy crust. You can eat it by itself with butter or apple butter, or you can eat it with beans or chili and spoon either on top of a slice.
This is another recipe that I’ve played around with. Many cornbread recipes call for 1 cup cornmeal and 1 cup all-purpose flour. However, all that extra flour seems to detract from the corn flavor in my opinion. So I split the difference and I like the results.
Equipment
mixing bowl
9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet
Ingredients
1-1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1-1/4 cups buttermilk (see instructions for making it below)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil (or bacon drippings if you happen to have any)
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Stir together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in mixing bowl. Add the beaten eggs and the buttermilk, stirring just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Do not overmix.
3. Add vegetable oil to the cast iron skillet and place in the hot oven for 3 to 4 minutes. You want the skillet hot, but you don’t want the oil to start smoking.
4. Remove hot pan from oven. Make sure that the pan is thoroughly coated with the oil, bottom and sides, then pour the excess oil into the batter and stir. Pour batter into the hot pan.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
Notes
If you do not keep buttermilk on hand (I usually don’t), you can make your own using white vinegar and milk. The ratio is 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of skim milk (minus 1 tablespoon). So for this recipe, I use about 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 easpoon of vinegar. About 10 to 15 minutes before you make the cornbread, put the vinegar in a liquid measuring cup. Add skim milk to the 1-1/4 cup line and allow it to sit at room temperature.
Now this is REAL cornbread!!! This is exactly the way my grandmother taught me to make it way back when… I always use a cast iron skillet and bacon drippings. I put a dollop of bacon drippings in a 10″ cast iron skillet and place in the oven while it preheats. When the oven is preheated I pull the skillet out, roll the grease around to coat the inside well and pour the extra into the batter and stir in before put the batter into the skillet. You know the skillet is right if you hear sizzling when the batter hits the hot skillet. Hmm good stuff!!!