Buttermilk and Cornbread

[greybeard]

Just a little sugar, not enough that you can taste the sugar, it helps make crunchy crust on bottom.

In the South, cornbread is the pride and joy of many chefs and home cooks alike. Each cook has their own family recipe that they swear by. However, one thing that remains consistent is most southerners would never put sugar into a savory food like cornbread or beans in chili.

However, for some there are exceptions: along with this fried cornbread, my granny used to make a sweet cornbread as an ingredient for her famous dressing.

But to go alongside chili, vegetable soup, or a vegetable plate, nothing beats the classic cornbread without the sugar.

As far as Northerner's, molasses and a reduced amount of eggs go into their cornbread, making more of a cake than a bread.

And there folks, are the real reasons for the civil war.
Vladimir Putin likes sugar in his cornbread tho, as does Joe Biden- so maybe they can start right there and build on it...

 

[Buck Randall]

Northerners make cornbread? My first experience with it was in a college dining hall. I can count on one hand the number of times I've come across it.

 

[greybeard]

If you know who NY chef Bobby Flay is, then you know the answer is yes.

 

[Little Joe]

Good cornbread has just 5 ingredients, cornmeal, buttermilk, salt, black pepper(i like heavy BP), and just a little sugar, cooked in a cast iron skillet with bacon drippings.
I've tried BM & CB, prefer plain whole milk, with chopped onions.
BTW for 65 years I hated buttermilk no one in my family would drink it, but we always keep it for cooking, around 8 years ago I was making CB, for some reason I had a drink, Damn I like it, now I drink more than I use in cooking!!

You were on track right up til you added that sugar, I don't want any sugar in my cornbread. I've had it that way and never cared for it at all. I'm 40 and I've drank buttermilk some in the past, I could take it or leave it then, now I get a craving for it. I've heard them called hoecakes as well. I prefer it fried like that as opposed to muffins or a pan of baked cornbread.

 

[greybeard]

Good cornbread has just 5 ingredients, cornmeal, buttermilk, salt, black pepper(i like heavy BP), and just a little sugar, cooked in a cast iron skillet with bacon drippings.

What is the leavening agent in that recipe?
How does the mixture rise?

That sounds more like a johnnycake or hoecake.

 

[ClodHopper37869]

What is the leavening agent in that recipe?
How does the mixture rise?

 

[Ky hills]

Growing up here in KY, cornbread was and is a common part of a meal, both at home and at a lot of restaurants. My grandmother and also my mother fixed it very often. They mostly made it in the form of cornbread muffins. Sometimes they would fix in iron skillets, which is how my wife does it. Wife is from Oklahoma and she also grew up eating it and fixes it fairly often now.
A lot of the older folks here called it corn pone.
Wife sometimes fixes a variation where she puts jalapenos in the cornbread.
My mother has made what she called cracklin cornbread, after we would have a hog killed, she put cracklins in the cornbread.

 

[sstterry]

Northerners make cornbread? My first experience with it was in a college dining hall. I can count on one hand the number of times I've come across it.

When I was in High School, I went on an exchange trip to North Dakota. At that time, about 45 years ago, the family I stayed with had never heard of cornbread. They also thought it was an abomination to put mayonnaise on a sandwich. Butter only went on bread with meat.

 

[Little Joe]

Growing up here in KY, cornbread was and is a common part of a meal, both at home and at a lot of restaurants. My grandmother and also my mother fixed it very often. They mostly made it in the form of cornbread muffins. Sometimes they would fix in iron skillets, which is how my wife does it. Wife is from Oklahoma and she also grew up eating it and fixes it fairly often now.
A lot of the older folks here called it corn pone.
Wife sometimes fixes a variation where she puts jalapenos in the cornbread.
My mother has made what she called cracklin cornbread, after we would have a hog killed, she put cracklins in the cornbread.

Cornbread is common here as well, we generally have it with beans, peas or soups. My grandma used to make cracklin cornbread and jalapeno cornbread.

 

[sstterry]

What is the leavening agent in that recipe?
How does the mixture rise?

That sounds more like a johnnycake or hoecake.

In this area we use the pre-leavened cornmeal, but only add buttermilk, an egg and some sort of fat (normally vegetable oil or melted bacon fat).

 

[Caustic Burno]

And there folks, are the real reasons for the civil war.
Vladimir Putin likes sugar in his cornbread tho, as does Joe Biden- so maybe they can start right there and build on it...

Just a little sugar, not enough that you can taste the sugar, it helps make crunchy crust on bottom. Google Sam Venable, @ Knox News, several years ago he had several columns about sugar in cornbread, really down on it, till he found his wife Mary Ann put a little in..

My grandma that was born in the 1870's put a touch of ribbon cane in hers.
Best cornbread you ever lapped a lip on.
But she used ribbon cane for everything, grandpa used to put up 365 gallons for the family. With eight kids a Comanche war party of grandkids could go through some groceries.

 

[sstterry]

My grandma that was born in the 1870's put a touch of ribbon cane in hers.
Best cornbread you ever lapped a lip on.
But she used ribbon cane for everything, grandpa used to put up 365 gallons for the family. With eight kids a Comanche war party of grandkids could go through some groceries.

I had to look up "ribbon cane", it is similar to what we here would call molasses only lighter.

 

[ClodHopper37869]

In this area we use the pre-leavened cornmeal, but only add buttermilk, an egg and some sort of fat (normally vegetable oil or melted bacon fat).

No egg, no oil or fat in the batter, bacon fat goes in the skillet, use only whole 3.25% buttermilk not reduced fat buttermilk.

 

[ClodHopper37869]

I had to look up "ribbon cane", it is similar to what we here would call molasses only lighter.

Whats that strong black molasses called, black strap?????

Well I guess I could have googled it.

 

[sstterry]

Whats that strong black molasses called, black strap?????

Well I guess I could have googled it.

Yes.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Gramma put her cornbread in both sweet and buttermilk. for some reason, despite using bacon grease for a lot of cooking we always used melted butter both in the batter and to grease the pan. put a whole stick in while the oven heats so pan gets warm and butter melts. swirl it around so it gets up the sides and pour most of it into mixing bowl with the other ingredients (leave lots in pan and try to get at least one corner for yourself! don't mix too much. pour into buttered pan. we use cornmeal and flour, baking powder, salt, egg and a little sugar.

neighbor made hers in cast iron frying pan and I would switch to that too. for some reason we just used a cake pan unless it was those corn cob shaped muffins in a cast iron mold.

cheese and green chiles, corn kernals, red and green bell peppers can be added too.

 

[Silver]

Not sure what the differences are but we grew up on johnnycake with Roger's Golden syrup and butter.
Sour dough was also a staple.

 

[Ky hills]

Several years ago, my mother got a starter to make sourdough bread and kept it going for quite a while. It was good.
When I was a child, and my grandmother still lived on her own she would make something she called salt risin bread. Not sure if it is really called salt rising and because we are in KY the g gets left off the word or what, but what ever it was it was some stinking stuff, could smell it cooking and long after. I've had a range of what I'll eat thats a lot broader than most folks I know, but thats one thing that I couldn't bring myself to tackle.

 

[simme]

The cold hard facts - If you live in an area that does not enjoy cornbread, collard greens, or fried okra, then you are deprived. Or is it depraved? Either way, you probably need to move to an area that appreciates the finer things in life. Unless you refuse to fit in with those with a better understanding of life in which case you should remain where you are and suffer in silence.

To be clear, sugar is for iced tea - not for cornbread. Cornbread with buttermilk must include chopped onion, salt and black pepper. Collard greens must be cooked with some pork and bacon grease and served with chopped onion and a liberal amount of hot pepper vinegar (the only good and acceptable use of the word "liberal"). Fried okra should have a sprinkle of texas pete or tabasco.

 

[faster horses]

My folks were from Missouri so we ate a lot of cornbread, cook bacon grease on the stove to get it good and hot and add the cornbread batter. Mom liked it in a glass with milk, but tho I tried, I never cared for it.
The discussion about cornbread that I was privvy to was, "White cornmeal makes better cornbread than yellow."
I like yellow.
We eat ours with soups or stew. It's a favorite.