Cornbread!!!

Okay, Robin and I have been back and forthing about cornbread, and he thinks it's okay to add sugar. Might as well eat angel food cake with your meal! True deep South cooks know that sugar is what Yankees add to ruin it. For that matter, Joseph has a recipe he claims everyone loves that has a sort of custard layer in the middle.

SNORT!

Good cornbread is made in a heated cast iron skillet. The batter has few ingredients, none of which are sugar. It is not cakelike. It is coarse and semi-dense and moist. If you want sweet, some Southerners will pour molasses over a slice.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

[Robin Garr]

Okay, you are my bestest buddy, and I respect that you know everything that's important to know about food and drink. And I'm only a border Southerner, so what do I know about cornbread?

But I don't think it's a sin to put just a little bit of sugar in yellow cornbread. It heightens the corn flavor.

But I'll agree with this: DON'T MAKE IT TASTE LIKE CAKE! SNORT! ARRGGGHHH!!!

Sugar in cornbread is a Yankee thing!!! Sugar DOES NOT enhance cornbread! Yeast rolls or angel biscuits have to have sugar, but cornbread does not. You've never had good cornbread, I can tell. Buttermilk cornbread is the best, but it's still good made with just plain milk. I love it with bacon grease, but vegetable oil works well, too.

NEVER ADD SUGAR TO CORNBREAD!!!!

[Robin Garr]

Sugar in cornbread is a Yankee thing!!! Sugar DOES NOT enhance cornbread! Yeast rolls or angel biscuits have to have sugar, but cornbread does not. You've never had good cornbread, I can tell. Buttermilk cornbread is the best, but it's still good made with just plain milk. I love it with bacon grease, but vegetable oil works well, too.

NEVER ADD SUGAR TO CORNBREAD!!!!

I like just about everything about your recipe, and the iron skillet is mandatory. Cornbread with custard in it is not cornbread at all. And cornbread with molasses on it is just a sticky mess.

I shall take your advice about sugar under strong advisement ... it certainly does not belong in pizza sauce!

Re: cornbread with molasses: that's a regional deep South treat. Like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of buttermilk.

[Robin Garr]

Re: cornbread with molasses: that's a regional deep South treat. Like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of buttermilk.

<deer in headlights>

As you know, I am a product of my environment, which is South-meets-Midwest-meets-Rustbelt ...

Robin, <g>. I come from Missouri Ozark Mountains hillbilly roots, where my paternal grandparents rode to school on horses and attended one room schools. I know rudimentary rural food, and I love it. (Well, I could pass on brains and eggs... )

[Robin Garr]

Robin, <g>. I come from Missouri Ozark Mountains hillbilly roots, where my paternal grandparents rode to school on horses and attended one room schools. I know rudimentary rural food, and I love it. (Well, I could pass on brains and eggs... )

Hey, are you telling me or the choir? You know I've known you and your stories for 20 years or so! I also know that you ain't no hillbilly any more, you urbane sophisticate, you ...

I was born in Lecompte, Louisiana, raised in Houston, Tx, and migrated to the Pacific Northwest in my pre-teens. I have made cornbread since I was old enough to stand on a chair and mix it together everyday that we had a meal. We always put a spoonful of sugar into our cornbread to (as Chef says) heighten the flavors. Sugar, like salt, are both flavor enhancers when used sparingly. We also added a bit of butter, bacon drippings, lard or oil to lighten the density. Some of our family members added no sugar and some oil, some sugar and no oil, no oil and no sugar. We have all come from (and most of us still live in) the south. We are of African and Native American heritage from which the use of corn (maize) sprang forth in this indiginous staple. You are right that cornbread is a southern concoction, but there is more than one way to make it that is considered correct! This issue is an over the back fence argument between southern cooks looking for bragging rights as making the best cornbread in the county. Other than that, it's a non-issue IMO!

Jo Ann,

Well! We must agree to disagree! NO SUGAR IN CORNBREAD! <g>

I guess this means all you ladies have to keep your fingers out of the mix.

I don't have any hard and fast rules here. I make a few different kinds - some have sugar, some don't. Some have butter or bacon fat, some don't. All - now - have buttermilk (unless I'm out). Sometimes I make cornbread just to make a stuffing with.

My cornbread is better than yours is.

[Robin Garr]

My cornbread is better than yours is.

You make it with soul.

I make it with Debbie Voss' recipe. <g> She is one great Southern cook. Fellow flight attendant from MS. My father's Mexican cornbread is also terrific. Neither recipe contains sugar. What's wrong with reserving sugar for dessert? I can stand a little brown sugar on a baked sweet potato, but that's about it for non-dessert. I also like a baked sweet potato with just butter.

[Robin Garr]

You gave me your father's Mexican cornbread recipe a long time ago, and it looked extremely good. I've still got it around here somewhere ... and you are correct, it has NO SUGAR. Game, set, match. I think you sent me Debbie's, too. Must look in my cornbread files!

Now, sweet potatoes, that's another story. Brown sugar, fruit juice, little bits of pineapple and those stupid little marshmallows? That's just crazy talk.

I make it with Debbie Voss' recipe. <g> She is one great Southern cook. Fellow flight attendant from MS. My father's Mexican cornbread is also terrific. Neither recipe contains sugar. What's wrong with reserving sugar for dessert? I can stand a little brown sugar on a baked sweet potato, but that's about it for non-dessert. I also like a baked sweet potato with just butter.

Southern??

Old rural New England saying "Pea soup and Jonnycake, makes a Frenchman's belly ache"

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonnycake
Then, there's polenta.

Howie, that's fascinating! Thanks for the link!

Karen

Jo Ann,

Well! We must agree to disagree! NO SUGAR IN CORNBREAD! <g>

ABSOLUTELY! As a personal choice. Not a matter of recipe correctness.

I don't have any hard and fast rules here. I make a few different kinds - some have sugar, some don't. Some have butter or bacon fat, some don't. All - now - have buttermilk (unless I'm out). Sometimes I make cornbread just to make a stuffing with.

Absolutely!!
We must have at least a half dozen or so varieties of cornbread that we make. Our cracklin bread has no sugar and no fat. Neither does our hot water cornbread or hushpuppies. It's all a matter of what you're going for in the end.

Now, sweet potatoes, that's another story. Brown sugar, fruit juice, little bits of pineapple and those stupid little marshmallows? That's just crazy talk.

Agree with you here, Robin. It's a SWEET potato. Sweet potatoes and yams are whole foods, which are not enhanced by the addition of sugary edibles, except as a matter of personal taste.

My cornbread is better than yours is.

Is not.

My cornbread is better than yours is.

You make it with soul.

That may be a new record. I don't think that I ever made it to afternoon before without somebody calling me soulless!

[Robin Garr]

That may be a new record. I don't think that I ever made it to afternoon before without somebody calling me soulless!

Actually, I was talking about Karen. I don't recall your soul coming into the discussion.