Nannie Logan’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 Cornbread 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 making Nannie’s cornbread because it is the perfect cornbread for dressing and Thanksgiving is just a few days away. It is almost a cake like consistency and if you like cornbread and biscuits in your dressing, this recipe will allow you to skip the biscuit making.

Cornbread is very controversial and every family has their own recipe. I need to fully disclose- Nannie never measured anything and my mom is one of seven girl in the Logan clan, so with all the grandchildren running around, Nannie didn’t have time for one on one cooking instructions. So after playing around with the proper ingredients, this is the recipe I have come up with that is the most like hers.

Many people like to preheat their skillet with shortening, however nothing is scarier than pulling a screaming hot iron skillet filled with shortening or oil out of a 450 degree oven and trying to fill it with your mixture. 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. It works! Also, when I say a COLD cast iron skillet, I mean a skillet right out of the cabinet, not preheated.

Nannie always had a pan of cornbread with a big pot of white half runner green beans. That is the meal I remember most in her house. And I can promise you those were the best green beans I have ever had.

1 1/2 cups Cornmeal Mix
3/4 cup Rising Flour
1/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk

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