Moss Family Cornbread

Buttermilk, meal, and a cast iron skillet—and not a bit of sugar!

By Robert F. Moss

November 17, 2017

Old-fashioned black skillet cornbread
Old-fashioned black skillet cornbread
My go-to cornbread recipe is my paternal grandmother's, who lived in West Point, Georgia. She wrote it down and gave it to my mother right after she and my father got married, and my mother, in turn, wrote it down for me on a three-by-five index card when I was in my early 20s and was teaching myself how to cook.

To cook proper cornbread, you need to do it in a cast iron skillet. I usually use the 8-inch Lodge pan my mother gave me along with the recipe, though I now have a larger skillet that I use for larger batches. It belonged to my grandmother and it came into my possession after she passed away—a #9 size from the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania. The company went defunct in 1957, but the pan still does the trick.

And, yes, I am in that school of Southerners who insist that there be no sugar in cornbread. It's not corn cake, after all. (I laid out the case why a while back for Serious Eats.)

This recipe makes one 8-inch cast iron skillet of cornbread (about 6 servings). If you have a larger 11 or 12 inch skillet like my #9 Griswold, double the recipe double the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation

  1. 1Place an empty cast iron skillet in a cold oven and preheat to 400 degrees, heating the skillet along with the oven while you mix the batter.
  2. 2Combine the cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
  3. 3In a separate bowl or measuring cup, crack the egg and beat it with a fork. Add the buttermilk and oil and stir to blend. Pour the liquid into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until the liquid is incorporated and the batter smooth.
  4. 4Once the oven is heated, use heavy mitts to remove the heated pan and place it on the stovetop. Add the butter to the pan and swirl or stir with a spoon until the butter is melted and even coats the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into the skillet and return it to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
  5. 5Once cooked, remove the cornbread from the skillet immediately instead of letting it cool. To do so, remove the skillet from the oven (again, using thick oven-mitts) and invert it over a dinner plate. If the skillet is well seasoned the cornbread will slip right out onto the plate. If it sticks, put the pan down on the stovetop, run a butter knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the crust from sides, and invert the skillet over the plate again.