When I asked Sabrina Chase for a dish to cook and a book, she had an instant answer. It seems that there is a recurring mention of cornbread in her book, The Scent of Metal. Perfect! And it’s such a versatile side-dish, too. We eat it often here, although our recipe is a bit different. But trying new things is what this series is about. New books, new authors, new food. It’s a delicious combination. Go ahead and pick up a copy of the book, but make sure you set a timer, because you don’t want to get lost in her world and burn your cornbread!
Ingredients
- 2 cups cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat or butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in the buttermilk and beat in the eggs. Melt the fat in a cast iron skillet. Pour fat in the batter and bake in the skillet for 20 to 25 minutes, until risen and browned.
You could easily make this into cornbread muffins just by putting muffin cup liners into muffin tins, or greasing the tin liberally. Change the bake-time to 12-15 minutes, though, and check for doneness with a toothpick. When the (wood!) toothpick comes out clean, they are done.
A minor snag we ran into while whipping up this quick and easy meal was that I didn’t have cornmeal in the house. I have self-rising cornbread mix (NOT jiffy mix, which is terribly sweet) and grits, but no meal. The First Reader ran out and got me some nice yellow cornmeal, eagerly anticipating the dinnertime treat. I always know cornbread will go over well with him. This recipe makes a great, moist, rich cornbread that stands up well to butter. I like it with honey, too. You could embellish this recipe to your heart’s content. I’ve added cheese, salsa, more corn (frozen kernels work great), diced jalapenos, handfuls of crumbled bacon… you could put anything in there. But the First Reader loves it straight up.
You can find the Index Page for ETWYRT here.
