The Big Cornbread Debate

[Jaymes]

I was raised in a Southern family. My grandmother made cornbread in a hot cast-iron skillet to which bacon drippings had been added. This cornbread was never sweet. I always thought that only Yankees added sugar to their cornbread batter.

But lately, I've read where "sweet cornbread" is a "Southern Thang," like "sweet tea."

And recently, a friend told me somewhat rudely that "only you Southerners have to put sugar into everything -- nowhere else in the country is the food so sweet." (Clearly she has not spent much time dining in Vermont.)

So I want to know about sweet cornbread being "Southern."

Is it?

Edited September 8, 2003 by Jaymes (log)

[souljoy]

Hi Jaymes,

Please see my posting for Lady T on this great civil issue of adding sugar to cornbread. Perish that thought. Best cornbread in the world is made with buttermilk, with one-teaspoon baking soda replacing one-teaspoon of baking powder.

Add sugar and you got corn cake, Northern-style. And yes, I make it in a cast iron skillet; an old iron crepe pan is fine too. And the pan should be hot, and yes, bacon dripping is fine, but I use a melange of oil these days, such as sesame, olive, etc.

Again, thanks for the inquiry.