What Makes a Southern Cornbread Recipe

Anytime you put the words “Southern” in front of a dish, it’s likely to stir up controversy, and cornbread is no exception. It seems like every person I’ve ever known from the South has their favorite way of making homemade cornbread, and every way is different.

The thing that distinguishes Southern cornbread from, say Yankee cornbread, or any other cornbread one is likely to eat outside of the southern states, is that it is savory, not sweet, and it is made mostly with cornmeal.

Northern cornbreads tend to be more cake-like, on the sweet side, with a finer crumb due to more flour in the mixture. Southern cornbread is flavored with bacon grease, and cooked in a cast iron skillet, a perfect side for barbecues, or chili. It also tends to be rather crumbly.

Cornbread Recipe Experiment

With this cornbread recipe, we experimented with all cornmeal, or just three-quarters cornmeal and one-quarter flour. We also experimented with including or leaving out an egg.

Result: Either way works, though the version with some of the cornmeal swapped out with flour, and including an egg, holds together better and is a little more tender.

About this Cornbread Recipe

If southern cornbread is somewhat of a new venture for you, take note of the following with regard to this cornbread recipe:

Sugar is Optional

Whether to include sugar or not in a southern cornbread recipe is an issue for debate. We’ve included as an option a tablespoon which just intensifies the flavor of the cornmeal; it doesn’t make the cornbread sweet.

The choice is yours as to whether or not to include it. (See this excellent article from Serious Eats on why traditional southern cornbread does not include sugar.)

Why Bacon Drippings and Butter

You’ll notice there are bacon drippings and butter in this cornbread recipe. The butter adds needed richness to the bread itself, and the bacon drippings help brown the crust, keep it from sticking to the skillet, and add a lovely bacon flavor to the bread.

How to Make Cornbread with Cast Iron Skillet

Finally, the method that works best with using a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is to preheat the skillet with the fat and then add the batter to the hot skillet. This helps brown the crust and with the pan already hot, the cornbread cooks more quickly.

Need to season your cast iron pan? Check out this guide to seasoning cast iron at Serious Eats.

To my fine readers from our Southern states, how do you like your cornbread? Please let us know in the comments.

Updated December 17, 2018 : Some readers were noticing a metallic flavor in the cornbread, so we tinkered with the amount of baking soda to make sure this recipe was perfect. Updated ingredient amounts are reflected in the recipe.