10/22/2015 Southern-Style Cornbread Recipe - Cook's Illustrated
Southern-Style Cornbread
PUBLISHED MAY 1998
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
We wondered if our Southern-style cornbread recipe
(white cornmeal and no flour or sugar) might have
something to learn from our Northern-style cornbread
recipe (yellow cornmeal, fair to generous portions of
flour and sugar). Combining the two recipes to come up
with a happy medium, we used yellow cornmeal for
potent corn flavor, adding a small amount of sugar to
enhance the natural sweetness of the corn. We started
with cornmeal mush (moistening the cornmeal with
some water first) because cornbread that started with
some mush had the most corn flavor we'd tasted yet, and it also produced a fine, moist
crumb.
INGREDIENTS INSTRUCTIONS MAKES ONE 8-INCH SKILLET OF BREAD
4 teaspoons bacon Unlike its sweet, cakey Northern counterpart, Southern
drippingsor 1 tablespoon
cornbread is thin, crusty, and decidedly savory. Though
melted butter and 1
teaspoon vegetable oil some styles of Southern cornbread are dry and crumbly,
I favor this dense, moist, tender version. Cornmeal mush
of just the right texture is essential to this bread. Though
1 cup yellow cornmeal,
preferably stone ground I prefer to make cornbread in a preheated cast-iron
skillet, a 9-inch round cake pan or 9-inch square baking
2 teaspoons granulated sugar pan, greased lightly with butter and not preheated, will
also produce acceptable results if you double the recipe
and bake the bread for 25 minutes.
½ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder 1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat
oven to 450 degrees. Set 8-inch cast-iron skillet
with bacon fat (or vegetable oil) in heating oven.
¼ teaspoon baking soda
⅓ cup water(rapidly boiling) 2. Measure 1/3 cup cornmeal into medium bowl. Mix
remaining cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and
¾ cup buttermilk baking soda in small bowl; set aside.
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10/22/2015 Southern-Style Cornbread Recipe - Cook's Illustrated
1 large egg, beaten lightly 3. Pour boiling water all at once into the 1/3 cup
cornmeal; stir to make a stiff mush. Whisk in
buttermilk gradually, breaking up lumps until
smooth, then whisk in egg. When oven is preheated
and skillet very hot, stir dry ingredients into mush
mixture until just moistened. Carefully remove
skillet from oven. Pour hot bacon fat (or melted
butter) from the skillet into the batter and stir to
incorporate, then quickly pour batter into heated
skillet. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and instantly turn cornbread
onto wire rack; cool for 5 minutes, then serve
immediately.
RECIPE TESTING
Getting the Batter Just Right
1. If your mush looks
like this, it is too
firm; work in a
tablespoon or two of
hot water to loosen it
before adding the wet
ingredients.
2. If the water is not
hot enough, the
starch will not
gelatinize, the batter
will be too thin, and
the mush will not
form.
3. The mush should
be like soft polenta:
thick enough to give
the batter body, but
pliable enough to stir
wet ingredients in
easily.
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