Best Cornbread Recipe (from Scratch) (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between southern cornbread and regular cornbread? ›

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.

I recommend using buttermilk in this cornbread recipe for the best texture; it helps keep it soft and moist. If you use just regular milk for this recipe, your cornbread will come out drier than I personally care for, but since cornbread is classically crumbly, you might be able to get away with it.

Cornmeal gives cornbread its classic color and flavor, but too much can make your bread crumbly. Try replacing a little bit of cornmeal with flour. The specific measurements will depend on how much cornmeal and flour is in your recipe, but you should try to have more flour than cornmeal in your batter.

The most common theory is a change in cornmeal itself. Until early in the 20th century, Southern cornmeal was made with sweeter white corn and it was water-ground. When industrial milling came along, that changed. The steel-roller mills used yellow corn that was harvested before it was ripe, so it had less sugar.

As for the best cornmeal for cornbread, either fine- or medium-grind cornmeal is a great choice. Medium-grind cornmeal will bring slightly more texture and grittiness to the batter, which you may or may not want (it's up to you!). You can use fine or medium cornmeal in these extra corny muffins.

Sour Cream can be substituted for milk in cornbread but will need to be thinned. I recommend using 75% sour cream and 25% water. Sour Cream will also change the taste of the cornbread and will add a slight tangy flavor which can be counteracted by using a small amount of vanilla extract.

Butter adds flavor and color, while oil keeps the crumb tender and moist. Brown Sugar: We add some sugar to our cornbread and prefer brown sugar. The flavor combination of cornmeal and brown sugar works so well.

They're not completely interchangeable. Yes, you can swap them in a recipe, but it's not as simple as switching buttermilk for heavy cream/heavy cream for buttermilk. For example, if you're replacing buttermilk with heavy cream you'll probably need to switch out your baking soda for baking powder.

The trick to this perfect cornbread is letting the cornmeal, corn flour, and buttermilk sit overnight; this allows the corn flour to fully hydrate, while the acid from the buttermilk tenderizes the cornmeal, helping to create a tender, almost cakey bread that still retains that slightly gritty texture you expect.

LET the batter sit for 15-20 minutes before baking. This allows the baking powder to activate and incorporate more air.

How can I enhance my Jiffy mix? ›

Yes, but we recommend using an egg substitute, like applesauce. Eggs, or egg substitutes help add structure to the cornbread. Without an egg or substitute, the cornbread may crumble and fall apart easily.

While traditional Southern recipes tend to go heavy on the cornmeal, it seems that when you're using too much cornmeal, there isn't enough gluten to hold the cornbread together. So why go all-in for all cornmeal? Instead, add more flour and less cornmeal, and your cornbread will turn out lighter and less dense.

While both styles generally use the same ingredients -- cornmeal, flour, eggs, and baking powder -- the variance lies in the flavor and texture. Northern-style cornbread tends to be sweeter, moister, and cake-like compared to its Southern counterpart.

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.

Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, throw in the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Give it a good stir to make sure everything's combined. Whisk the Buttermilk and Eggs: In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and those golden egg yolks.

Corn pones are a staple of Southern U.S. cuisine and have been discussed or referenced by many American writers, including Mark Twain.