Grandma's Crispy Crust, Moist Skillet Cornbread
This is my grandma's crispy crust, moist skillet cornbread using simple ingredients to include cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs, and bacon grease or shortening. Grandma's tips and tricks on achieving a crispy crust and moist center are the keys to cornbread success. Eat a slice slathered with butter, dunk in soup or chili, or use it as the cornbread in your holiday cornbread stuffing or dressing.
Servings: 8 slices
Ingredients
- 14 g (1 tbsp) bacon grease or pork fat substitute with shortening
- 42 g (3 tbsp) shortening or lard
- 240 g (2 cups) self-rising yellow corn meal substitute with self-rising white corn meal
- 8 g (2 tsp) baking powder
- 3 g (½ tsp) salt
- 420 ml (1¾ cups) buttermilk or substitute listed below
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
- In a 9"-10” skillet, add bacon grease and shortening (or lard). Place skillet in oven and preheat to 500°F (260˚C)
- In a large bowl, add self-rising corn meal, baking powder, and salt. Stir until well combined.
- Make a well in the center of the corn meal mixture. Beat eggs in a small bowl and add them along with the buttermilk to the corn meal mixture. Use a fork and mix just until combined, no more. Allow the batter sit for 10-15 minutes without disturbing it allowing time for the corn meal to soak in some liquid.
- Once oven has preheated, use oven mitts to remove the hot skillet. Swirl the grease around in the skillet to coat it well. Pour half (~2 tbsp) of melted grease into the batter. Give the batter a quick stir and pour batter into the hot skillet. The grease will sizzle when poured into the batter and when poured in the skillet.
- Return skillet to the oven. Reduce temperature to 450˚F (232˚C) and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately invert the cornbread onto a serving plate (the crust softens at is sits in the skillet). Cut it into 8 pieces like a pie. Split and serve hot slathered with salted butter. TIP: It's best eaten immediately as the crust softens once wrapped to eat later.
Video
Notes
Serving Suggestions:
Cornbread is best eaten the day it’s made as the crust softens once it’s enclosed in a sealed container or bag. You can make this cornbread ahead of time and use it for your holiday cornbread stuffing or dressing. Serve it as a side with New Year’s black-eyed peas. It’s fantastic with soup or chili any time of year.
Buttermilk Alternatives or Substitutions:
The acid in each of the following options when added to milk creates the buttermilk reaction and mimics the buttermilk tang.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can easily use one of the following options…
-add 1¾ tablespoons of any vinegar OR lemon juice to 1¾ cups of milk,
-fill half of 1 ¾ cup measuring cup with sour cream OR plain yogurt and fill the rest with milk or water,
-add 2¾ tsp of cream of tartar to 1¾ cups milk.
Personal note, I always have Greek yogurt on hand and rarely buy milk. I almost always just mix ½ Greek yogurt with ½ water or milk to get a buttermilk flavor and texture for my cornbread, weekly biscuits, pancakes, waffles, and weekly bread maker sandwich bread. Good and cheap!!