Ha! Admit it, you for at least one tiny nanosecond I got you to second guess yourself. No? Hmph! Fine! I still think I did, and you're just too chicken to admit it. Anyway, today we are going to discuss the fine southern delicacy of cornbread!
Cornbread is one of those great dichotomies of life. (I don't really know if that is the correct usage of the word "dichotomy", but durn it sure sounds good in that sentence.) While it is yet another gift to the rest of the world from the South, cornbread has gained more and more popularity throughout the entire US over the past few decades.
Yet...As loved a food item as it is across these great United States, it can also be the source of some of the most contentious bickering ever witnessed by man. I am here to set some things straight. What makes me the authority on cornbread? Quite simply, it's my blog. So Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!
There are two main bones of contention when it comes to cornbread. Should cornbread be sweet? And, what do you cook cornbread in? We'll briefly tackle both subjects in this blog.
Should cornbread be sweet?
No! No! No! Quite simply, southern cornbread should never be sweet. When you get a blueberry muffin or a piece of banana bread, do you add jelly to it? No! These items are already sweet, so you slap something savory, like a pound of butter on them. Cornbread is made for jelly, or apple butter. Since those toppings are sweet, you don't want the carrier to be sweet. Thus, cornbread should not be sweet. The interesting twist to this is that you can have savory with savory. Therefore, a nice, hot, steamy, slab of cornbread, soaked in rich, creamy butter (sorry if I just got those salivary glands pumping) is perfectly acceptable in today's society. Another combination that is quite acceptable...indeed encouraged, is pouring a ladle of hot white beans cooked all day with hog jowl over a slice of cornbread. All of the air pockets in the cornbread act as sponges, drawing the bean juices up, and creating a true gift from God. Just imagine how nasty that would taste if your cornbread was full of sugar. For Shame!
How should cornbread be cooked?
This is another very easy answer. Cornbread should only be baked in a well seasoned cast iron skillet. Any other method borders on blasphemy. It is actually a little known fact that there were eleven commandments handed down by God to Moses. In verse 17b of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, God tells Moses, "If you ever so much as pour cornbread batter in any thing but a well-seasoned cast iron skillet...so help me, Me...I will haul your butt behind the woodshed faster than you can say rubber baby buggy bumpers, and wear you out!" to which Moses replied, "What's cornbread?" The eleventh commandment was quickly stricken from the tablets, and verse 17b ceased to exist.
I happen to have a 12" cast iron skillet that has been used for nearly twenty years of marriage for no other purpose than to turn out the perfect cornbread. If you are worried about corn bread sticking there are two tricks. Firstly, as has already been mentioned multiple times, your skillet should be well seasoned. That means it will be solid black. Not gray. Not rust colored. The seasoned oil that has gotten deep within the pores of the iron will keep just about anything from sticking to the pan. The other trick is to place the skillet in the preheating oven. Then, when ready, pull the skillet out of the oven, pour in a little vegetable oil, and finally the batter. The hot pan will quickly heat the oil, and fry the very outside surface of the the batter, keeping it from sticking to the pan.
Now that I have cleared up the two main bones of contention between cornbread lovers, I wish everyone a huge slab of cornbread soaking in a bowl of hot white beans, and world peace. (Can you tell what I just had for lunch?)
Well, this IS your blog, like you said. I do like "traditional" non-sweet cornbread. But I also like the Jiffy corn muffins too. And that is sweet. Hmmmm.... can't all cornbreads just get along? I think that was the 12th Commandment!
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