Memaw’s Cornbread

If you are from the south, then you grew up eating cornbread at almost every meal. I had two grandmothers Memaw Young and Nannie Logan. They were both excellent cooks and had very different recipes for cornbread. Memaw’s is more traditionally southern, more of a “poor man’s bread” with no eggs or flour, just White Lily cornmeal mix and buttermilk. Today I am cooking Memaw’s cornbread, but I promise you there is room on your table for both. Tonight’s menu was fried potatoes and pinto beans and Memaw’s cornbread is the perfect side for this dinner. I will showcase Nannie’s cornbread in the near future, I promise!

Cornbread is very controversial and every family has their own recipe. I need to fully disclose- I have changed Memaw’s original recipe. Here is the change: she always heated shortening up in her oven in a cast iron skillet, while she was preheating it. I have also done this many times. I have burned myself repeatedly and a few times seriously (try pulling a heavy skillet of scalding shortening out of a 450 degree oven). And here is the thing- sometimes it would fall right out of the pan and sometimes it would stick. So I read a food blog a couple of years ago and the girl swore by shortening smeared on a cold skillet. She promised it would fall out of the pan every time. So…I tried it. Can you believe, it falls out of that dang pan every, single time. Side note: when I say a COLD cast iron skillet, I mean a skillet right out of the cabinet, not preheated.

I have fond memories of the menu tonight.- it was my dad’s favorite meal, and my Papaw Young’s favorite meal, and it is Jay’s favorite meal, too. When we sat down to eat, Jay said, “This was Dado’s favorite meal”. Dado is Jay’s dad and he did love to eat, especially good southern food. I was so nervous meeting him for the first time. Jay told me his favorite meal: pinto beans, fried potatoes, fried okra and cornbread. So of course, I cooked exactly that for him that night. Whoever said the way to man’s heart was through his stomach was referring to Dado.

I have never had wine with cornbread and I am not going to start now. An ice cold glass of tea is the perfect pairing. Of course these days, I take a lot less sugar in mine. The best thing about cooking Memaw’s Cornbread? I get to cook it in her cast iron skillet. You can see from the picture the years of use from this treasure. And one day soon, I will get to pass it on to Logan. I am excited to see the recipes she makes in it.

Memaw's Cornbread

Two ingredients and a cast iron skillet.

Ingredients

2 cups White Lily Cornmeal Mix
2 cups buttermilk (this is approximate, you need a thick cake like batter)
1 tbsp shortening

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, In a bowl, mix the buttermilk and cornmeal mix and pour into a COLD cast iron skillet smeared with shortening. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes.

I have always made this in a cast iron skillet so I would highly suggest one!