I grew up in Indiana. I grew up on Corn Bread. The only recipe my mother ever made was James Beard's fine corn bread recipe that he got from Jeanne Owens, found in his American Cookery from 1972. Well, I just learned of Edna Lewis' 'The Taste of Country Cooking" from its 50th Anniversary edition, and Edna's corn bread is the only recipe I have ever found that even begins to rival the one found in James Beard. And, yes, I have tried them all, every possible configuration over the years, but Edna's is special. It calls for no flour or sugar (I hate corn bread that is essentially birthday cake!) and uses buttermilk and lard. (I used Fatworks Leaf Lard, which I love.) And instead of adding another tablespoon of lard at the end, I added a scant tablespoon of bacon fat instead. (I got the lacy corners that were promised.) I also used a special yellow corn meal that I got from Kenyon's Grist Mill in Rhode Island – shipped to me in Santa Monica. It is a superior product as well, and certainly contributed to the success of this dish!
Edna Lewis’ Corn Bread (from The Taste of Country Cooking)
Makes 1 – 9”x10” pan
- 2 cups sifted white cornmeal
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon lard
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups sour milk, or buttermilk
1. Sift cornmeal, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs. At this point, set a 9 x 10-inch baking pan in a 400°F oven with the lard and butter added. Pour the sour milk into the cornmeal batter and stir well.
2. Now remove the pan from the oven and tilt it all around to oil the whole surface of the pan. Pour off into the batter what fat remains. Mix well and pour the batter into the hot pan. Cornmeal batter must be poured into a sizzling hot pan, otherwise it will stick.
3. Bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and cut into squares. Serve hot.
Note: Sometimes we would add a tablespoon of lard to the baking pan and return it to the oven to heat. Then we would pour the batter in, forcing the extra fat into the corners of the pan. (When cooked, the corner pieces of bread would have a lacy, crispy edge, and there would be quite a bit of competition for those pieces when it was placed on the table.)
Jeanne Owen's Corn Bread (from James Beard's American Cookery)
½ cup All-Purpose Flour (I use King Arthur®)
1 ½ cup Cornmeal (I use Bob’s Red Mill® – Medium Grind)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3 large eggs — well beaten
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup cream
1/3 cup butter — melted
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a 8-1/2” x 11” inch baking pan, or in a 10-inch Cast Iron Skillet place the 1/3 cup butter from the recipe (+ an additional tablespoon of butter for the pan) in the pan/skillet and melt it as the oven comes to temperature.
Sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder into a large bowl, and whisk the ingredients thoroughly to distribute the baking powder evenly.
Beat in the eggs and milk using a wooden spoon until well-mixed.
Beat in the cream and, lastly, the melted butter. If you have just taken the skillet out of the oven, wrap the handle in a kitchen towel so that you do not get burned.
Pour the batter into the buttered pan or back into the hot skillet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes until lightly browned and it’s pulling away from the side of the pan.
While still hot, cut into squares and serve wrapped in a napkin.
by cgtravers1
19 Comments
Looks so good!! Great job!
Sounds delicious. I’ve never had cornbread that is not sweet, I must try! 🥰
Bacon fat is also good.
It is so good!
I will def try! Thank you!!! Sweet tomatoes (RIP) had amazing cornbread.
I like to fry several slices of bacon in a cast iron skillet, then add the chopped bacon to the batter. I leave a few tablespoons of bacon fat in the cast iron skillet, and while the skillet is still somewhat hot, pour in the batter. It gives the cornbread a crispy, bacon-y crust and great flavor. I will sometimes also add frozen, whole-kernel corn to the batter.
❤️ Miss Lewis. She brought legitimacy to regional Southern cooking, traditional recipes, using local ingredients.
Yum!! Her mac and cheese is incredible too!
oh i have to try this! thanks for posting!
Thank you soooo much for this! I’ve been looking for a good cornbread recipe. I cannot wait to try them both!! 💛
Thank you so much! Anxious to try this. My grandmother never used sugar in her cornbread either.
I love this recipe, I am trying to recreate my mother in laws recipe for my dude and this gets me closer. But I just found out that she used a can of creamed corn so now I am pursuing two recipes because I want both!
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. I’m not southern, but my Hungarian father said his mom made amazing cornbread. I must have her taste for it since I’m the only one in my family that absolutely loves it. For some reason, I just can’t make it right. I will definitely try this!
Sounds like a good recipe.
Growing up in the south, it seemed like everyone’s grandma used the Martha White cornmeal mix (cornmeal with flour and leavening agents) recipe, or some variation of it.
My version is:
2 cups Martha White Buttermilk cornmeal mix
1 egg
1 1/3 cup milk
Half stick of melted butter
Big pinch of salt
Put 2 Tbsp of bacon grease in a 10 inch cast iron skillet, and put it in the oven while it preheats to 450 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into the skillet after the oven comes to temperature. The batter is going to look like it’s deep-frying in the grease, and that’s what you want for a golden brown and crunchy bottom. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
My mom made hers with straight meal only(no flour), and poured hot lard/drippings (that she had coated the skillet with, then heat up to Screamin’), into the batter before adding the eggs. If you didn’t, you’d choke on the DRY cornbread….
Thanks so much for the recipes, can’t wait to try them
I haven’t had cornbread that wasn’t sweet since I was a kid
I grew up in the South. I’ve been making cornbread all my life.
Those recipes are more or less how I make cornbread. Just some thoughts/tips that you may or may not know:
The addition of flour depends on the quality of the cornmeal. If you’ve got good cornmeal with a fine grind, you don’t need the flour. If the cornmeal tends to be a bit dry and faintly crunchy, the flour helps.
I’m always an advocate of cast iron. The seasoning on the cast iron adds another dimension. Plus clean up is easier.
The real secret to cooking good cornbread is to heat the pan (with fat in it to melt) in that 400 degree oven. Always, always pour the batter into a hot pan. It will start cooking around the edges before you get it in the oven.
I absolutely love that this involves *sour* milk which I figure means cooking with slightly spoiled ingredients. I hate that modern cooking relies on everything to be perfect. It encourages waste and, from what I gather from this recipe, would in this case lose a lot of flavor and character.
For those of you who can get White Lily Flour, there are free digital downloads of their cookbooks (14 of them) – oldest dating to 1931 – for various things. You just put in you are ordering (no charge), and you will receive a link to the ones you want to download. You can use other brands of flour/cornmeal, with adjustments, in the recipes.
https://whitelilyflourstore.com/collections/digital-cookbooks