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- This simple recipe stays rooted in Southern tradition, with white cornmeal and no wheat flour or sugar.
- The cast-iron skillet gives the cornbread a nice crust without sacrificing moisture.
- Edna Lewis was an icon of Southern cooking, and she and chef Scott Peacock were a longtime powerhouse culinary duo — needless to say, they know cornbread.
Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock included a similar Southern cornbread in their 2003 cookbook, The Gift of Southern Cooking. Made with stone-ground white cornmeal and buttermilk, it’s moist, savory, and great to have in your pocket any time of year — but during Thanksgiving and the holiday season, you can use it as the base for a delicious cornbread stuffing.
What makes Southern cornbread special?
There are some noteworthy differences between Southern and Northern cornbread styles. Southern recipes typically do not include any sugar or wheat, using white cornmeal, buttermilk, and sometimes bacon fat. Northern-style cornbread is sweeter and cakier, often made with regular milk and a mix of flour and yellow cornmeal. Southern cornbread is also often made in a cast-iron skillet so it develops an extra-crisp crust.
Why use buttermilk?
Buttermilk adds flavor as well as acid, which reacts with the baking soda to help the cornbread rise. Many recipes use regular cow milk instead; both approaches can be delicious, but recipes are usually written specifically for one or the other, so avoid substitutions.
Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen
- If you can, use stone-ground cornmeal: Stone-grinding is an older method of milling that leaves the corn slightly more intact, and therefore more flavorful and nutritious.
- Lewis and Peacock developed the recipe as a perfect base for their cornbread dressing with pecans.
