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Cornbread
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- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 4tablespoons butter, olive oil, lard or bacon drippings
- 1½cups medium-grind cornmeal
- ½cup all-purpose flour
- 1½teaspoons baking powder
- 1teaspoon salt
- ¼ to ½cup sugar
- 2eggs
- 1¼cups milk, more if needed
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put fat in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or in an 8-inch square baking pan. Place pan in oven.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix eggs into milk, then stir this mixture into dry ingredients, combining with a few swift strokes. If mixture seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk.
- Step 3
When fat and oven are hot, remove skillet or pan from oven, pour batter into it and smooth out top. Return pan to oven. Bake about 30 minutes, until top is lightly browned and sides have pulled away from pan; a toothpick inserted into center will come out clean. Serve hot or warm.
- OLD-FASHIONED CORNBREAD: Reduce fat to 1 tablespoon, sugar to 1 tablespoon (or none) and eggs to 1. Bake as above.
- LIGHTER CORNBREAD: Separate eggs. Stir yolks into milk, as above, and beat whites until stiff but not dry, then gently stir them into prepared batter after yolks and milk have been incorporated. Bake as above.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Buttermilk instead of milk works very well. And no sugar.
For a gluten free option, use masa harina instead of flour. You'll need both eggs as masa makes a somewhat more crumbly texture. I use half buttermilk and half milk, adding a half teaspoon of baking soda. This makes a really delicious cornbread with a pretty intense corn flavor.
I really like the texture of this cornbread, but it was a little on the salty side. I would probably cut the salt in half next time.
This is a very authentic cornbread recipe, not at all like the typical cake-like recipe. The flavor of the corn really comes through. We love the fact that it has just one tablespoon of sugar. I've made it twice now, and the first time I followed the recipe exactly. In the second version I used grapeseed oil instead of butter, and that came out great too. Next time I will try the Old-Fashioned Cornbread recipe above. Thanks, Mark! We love your recipes!
I am confused on this point as well, one puts fat in pan and not in mixture?
Never, ever, would I put sugar in my cornbread.
I have been searching for a recipe cornbread that doesn't fall apart and is not sweet, and the "old-fashioned" version of this one is finally it! I made it with bacon fat in a heavy ceramic casserole dish and baked it for about 35 minutes. It was perfect! It doesn't keep well overnight though, (it got dry) so freeze leftovers right away.
Substitute buttermilk
I've made this many times. And the most delicious times have been by separating the yolks and egg whites, as the lighter cornbread tip suggests. I'm FOR using the full amount of sugar. My partner is anti-butter (bah), but I found using a .25 tbs butter to 3.75 tbs olive oil works. As with so many of Mark Bittman's recipes, this one is easy and adaptable! I like using half buttermilk and half whole milk. Also, halving the recipe works, throw the batter into an 8in cast iron pan.
Im assuming the fat needs to go into the mixture as well? Recipe is unclear only says to put fat into the pan LOL
When you pour the batter over the hot butter, it bubbles up through, which I like. The holes in the top of the cornbread that is pictured are the result of that.
Made with buttermilk; cut back on the sugar by half, didn't over-mix it. Baked for 35 minutes. Came out moist with a crispy crust. Leftovers wrapped tightly with plastic were still good the next day (not too dry). Next time I make this, I am confident bacon drippings will make it even better.
So don't use them, it's not that hard. As the recipe states: "Only a few ingredients are pretty much fixed: the salt, the baking powder, cornmeal and flour"
Definitely try the "old-fashioned" version - it brought me back to Appalachia where my paternal grandma made it almost exactly like this. She might have gone to zero sugar, relying on all that bacon fat to satisfy. And satisfy it did. The only thing missing was some fried chicken. Then, the recipe as written: Well that would be a trip to my other grandma's house up on Lake Superior in Minnesota where all the Scandanavians settled. Thanks for the memories Mr. Bittman!
This was my fourth cornbread this Christmas and the best so far. I took the advice of several cooks here - less salt, one-fourth cup of sugar and buttermilk instead of milk. It was good, but cakey and still not quite what I want in a cornbread....so still searching.
I also added 1/4 sugar. Don’t need anymore
It's really dense, and using honey instead of sugar makes it taste better. It is nice because it uses similar ingredients to cakes/ cupcakes.
2 cups buttermilk 1 tbs honey
I substitute honey for the sugar and add it with melted butter. Anyone else use honey or other liquid sweetener?
I added 2-3 tbsp of powdered cheddar, added some cut corn and shredded cheddar on top for the last 10 mins, and dusted with red chile powder
Good. Nice consistency. Used 1/3 c sugar. Maybe add a little honey next time. Used darker 8” pan, so baked at 350* for 30 min.
Turned out good. Mix eggs into 1 cup milk. 1 1/4 cups is a bit too much milk. Add liquid as needed. I cut the sugar back to 1 tablespoon and it was perfect.
Delicious. I used buttermilk, quarter cup sugar, and also threw in a small can of mild green chiles. Great recipe and will make again.
3rd time trying this and the first two times I halved it and have used polenta because it's what I have had. It worked great in a 4x4 glass baking pan. This time I did a full recipe as I wanted to try it with frozen summer corn and the amount I had was too much for a half. Delicious and moist, but the corn rose to the top and middle as it baked rather than being incorporated through. I'm not a baker so not sure what that's about. We really like the polenta as it has a nice texture to it.
I use the traditional recipe, sub buttermilk for milk. Add shredded sharp cheddar, chopped jalapeños/ Thai green chillies and this time some shredded curry leaves. I love this recipe as a base. We make it wholly gluten- free by using measure 4 measure in stead of the all- purpose flour.
Years ago I made cornbread using cornmeal milled at home in a small manual grinder. It was lots of work (had to grind it twice), but the flavor of the fresh corn meal was absolutely wonderful. The freshly ground cornmeal had a natural sweetness that I have never encountered before or since.
Made the old-fashion cornbread recipe. Perfection. No sugar. Used olive oil.Thank you, Mark.
Made the old fashioned version with 1 Tbsp sugar and 1 egg after reading so many comments recommending omitting sugar. Pretty tasteless and dry. Not sure if it would be less so with the second egg and more sugar, but I won't be making this recipe again.
Cooks for me in a 10.25 in skillet in 22-25min
New go-to cornbread recipe, after much experimentation.
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