Sweet Corn Bread

You forgot one vital Metric Conversion... degrees F to degrees C

I might just try this recipe this weekend :)

For future reference -

Farenheit to Celcius:
(Farenheit - 32) * 5/9 = Celcius

Celcius to Farenheit:
(Celcius * 9/5) + 32 = Farenheit

where the * is the symbol for multiplication.

One suggestion for the coarse gritty corn meal is to soak the corn meal in the milk at least an hour before baking. Mix milk and cornmeal, let sit on the counter an hour, them add the remaining ingrediants and bake as normal.

Who is the person(s) that is posting anonymously? Are they a chef or a know-it-all?

Just some one who's not interested in extending the Blogger hegemony by subscribing to an account.

Blogger hegemony?

What about MovableType/TypePad?

LOL, it'd be so, um... professional, if you'd referr to the Temperatures in Rankine and Kelvin

I made a small Excel doc that converts temperatures by specifying a numeric temperature, and a unit from a droplist.
The file can be downloaded from here
I used the same function in a document I made earlier where I wanted to find an enthalpy value from a table, so interpolation and other stuff was key in that doc, and had to be made in specific units.

I can design a complete document if you'd like to include conversions for each kind of unit (mass, distance, etc.)

Or just use Google. Search for "3.5tsp to ml" and you'll get "2 US cups = 473.176475 ml"

Try it!

It works for most unit conversions.

I make cornbread using a puree of canned corn mixed with half and half to replace the liquid portion. To me, it adds sweetness and a more "corny" flavor to the cornbread.

In regards to conversions... I like to go to www.onlineconversion.com to get all my unit conversion needs...

yo home dog that some serious cookiin yo

By no means do I claim to be a great cook or engineer, but I have a question about sweet cornbread. I was raised in the south and we never sweetened our cornbread (which we ate every day). I was introduced to this practice when I moved to California. Which is more popular? Sweet or unsweetened? Have you ever made mexican cornbread?

Oddly enough... I grew up in the South as well (Alabama) and now live in California. We always had sweet cornbread growing up, and now I'm stuck with horrible, crumbly arid substitues here in California.

My mom always uses the old Albers Corn Meal recipe, before they changed it. I don't remember it exactly, but instead of oil, it used butter or shortening that you cut in to the corn meal with a pastry cutter prior to adding the other ingredients. I never remember it being gritty. I can post/email it if anyone wants.

I just posted my favorite corn bread recipe:

http://www.aquick.org/blog/index.php?p=49

and remember homes, true cornbread should always be made in a cast iron skillet well greased!

Grew up in the South. No sugar. Use white corn meal, baking powder, and maybe soda, buttermilk (preferred) or milk and egges. Need to pre-heat the shortening or oil in your cast iron skillet at 450 degrees F. When skillet is hot, pour into other mixed ingredients, stir and pour back into skillet. Cook about 20 minutes until down. Has a "crust". Eat with turnip greens and black eyed peas. Ummmm.

Your recipe is similar to what we would use for corn muffins.

Albers has more than one cornbread recipe... the one on your box was the more traditional, less sweet version... The BEST version can be found here: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=29718

More sugar, more calories but that's what makes it GOOD!

Enjoy!
Weasel359

i grew up in the south too, TN and still there.. the best corn bread here is made with corn meal, 1 egg, cup of sweet milk, about 1 tbsp of flour, and bacon grease and salt. heat your bacon grease in skillet in oven pour a little of it in your mixture and stir, then pour all in skillet and bake until brown at 450. now thats cornbread!!

Did you try adding a little honey? It not only makes the flavor more interesting, but also (I think) blends the cornmeal, softening the "grit", and making the bread/muffins more moist.

And...there's no equal to cast iron anything (wish I had more), but another good cornbread pan is a dutch oven (esp. when used to cook at a campfire).

I'll preface this by saying I love the site and I check it often for ideas and because I love what you do. Keep up the good work.

While I am sure your recipe tastes good, I think that it would be more appropiate for corn muffins than corn bread.

I got my recipe from my "adopted" mother in Eastern Ky. Her cornbread is my favorite. Unfortunately, her measurements are not as accurate as what are typically posted on your site. I don't know where the idea of sweet cornbread came from, but imagine that it did not emerge from the working class families of eastern ky or the south in general. To make this unsweetened cornbread, I reccomend the following:

heat oven to 450 deg F.

heat enough lard in a cast iron skillet to cover the bottom of the pan when melted with a thin layer of oil about 1/16" - 1/8" thick. Get skillet hot over medium heat while prepping the rest.

3 parts cornmeal (white, never yellow)
1 part self-rising flour

mix the dry ingredients then add milk until all the dry ingredients are no longer dry and a paste has formed. Add a little cold water and stir to loosen up the paste a little. pour/scrape the mixture into the hot skillet (be careful of the hot oil). Immediately put the pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top has golden brown color and a knife can be inserted and removed clean.

There are a variety if consistencies of corn meal try using a finer ground corn meal for less grit.

Also, have you tried using corn flour instead of corn meal? That would make it very smooth instead of gritty.

Try leaving out most of the sugar and adding about 125 grams of finely grated parmesan cheese. It worked for me, I found the original recipe simply gave me a slightly gritty cake :-(

You can pulse the cornmeal a few times in a blender to tone down the whole grain "crunch" a bit. I also use unsalted butter instead of oil for the fat. Buttermilk as the liquid also adds a bit of flavor that can't really be pinpointed in the end. You just taste a bit of difference and complexity. You should add some baking soda to balance out the acidity of the buttermilk.

The cast iron skillet makes for a nice brown crust on it, giving an outside crunch to contrast the inner moisture.

I heat the skillet up on the stovetop a bit, butter it, continue to heat it until the butter hits the smokepoint and then pour the batter in before throwing the whole thing in the oven.

I never pay too much attention to the time, because I usually cook by temp or appearance. I do a toothpick check just as the top starts to brown and it's usually just right.

For these "basic" foods, there's often close cultural or family ties to how it should be prepared and recipes and methods vary greatly. I generally refrain from criticizing anyone's version as right/wrong because there's a pretty good chance that some other food I make is "wrong" to someone.

To me, the goal is to understand what's going on with the ingredients and methods to go into the kitchen and end up with what you like on the plate, whether it matches anyone else's idea of appropriate or not.

For instance, where I come from, we eat more walleye than just about anyone and I grew up with tater sauce being heresy on walleye. The "proper" way to prepare is to batter fry and adorn with strawberry jam.

I tried a slightly modified version of this recipe the other night, and it was a big hit. It really turned out great! I substituted 1/3 cup of melted, unsalted butter for the 1/3 cup of oil. As suggested by someone earlier, I also soaked the corn meal in the milk for one hour beforehand. It came out a little bit sweet (which I like), and absolutely no grittiness at all.

my cornbrean always turns out crumbly. we had cornbread at Famous Dave's restaurant and it was moist and solid. Does anyone have their recipe? (I, like you add extra sugar)

...substituting plain yogurt for all or part of the liquid is a long time family favorite variation here in the florida keys---as deep south as it gets-geographically speaking.

'soaking' meal in the yogurt also works to reduce the grittiness, although this is part of why we choose to use coarse meal.

Here's an easy one for corbread:

Coat a cast-iron skillet with Crisco (about 1 tablespoon should do)

Put skillet in oven and crank it up to 450-degF. When the temperature is reached you will remove the skillet briefly.

Mix the following:

1 cup self-rising corn meal
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

After mixing, remove the skillet and pour excess grease into mix. Place empty skillet back in the oven for 5 minutes to reheat skillet.

Remove skillet, and pour the mix into it. It should sizzle!!! That's the trick to getting stick-free cornbread.

Put the mix back in the 450degF oven for 20 minutes or until brown.

Remove and let it sit for two to three minutes before cutting into pie slices.

Famoud Dave's cornbread recipe is rather easy to find hun! Here ya go! http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/breads/quick/famdavecrnbrd.html

The link to the Famous Dave Corn bread recipe above is not like the one you get in the restaraunt. I made that recipe tonight, taking out the spicy spices and peppers, to try and make it more like the normal muffins. The flavor was very close, but the muffins were VERY dry and crumbly... the altered recipe needs a bit more oil or melted butter, maybe even egg. Anyway..best of luck.

ok the corn bread look sgreat but i like the table more then anything. The table makes cooking so much easier. :)

I also use Albers (white) cornmeal. I do not, however, strictly follow the recipe on the box. This is how I prepare my cornbread muffins:
1-1/2 cup plain cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 or 6 heaping tablespoons sugar (depending on taste)
1/4 cup Crisco Oil
1 large egg
1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cup whole milk
Crisco Shortening

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Liberally grease 12-cup muffin tin with Crisco shortening & set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar). In a large measuring cup put Crisco oil, egg, & enough milk to fill cup. Stir briskly until well mixed. This mixture should be slightly yellow-looking when mixed properly. Now pour this in with the dry ingredients & stir until well-blended. You may add more milk - a little at a time - as needed to make a very smooth yet NOT too runny batter. Pour batter into muffin tin. Let filled muffin tin sit on counter for about 6-7 minutes BEFORE you place it in the oven. This will give you very pretty peaks on your muffins once they have baked. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check muffins after 20 minutes of baking. Muffins should be a pretty shade of medium brown when done.

I know this may sound a little bumpkin, but where I am from in the midwest a lot of locals use Jiffy cornbread mix. I just add some canned cream corn, honey and butter for sweetness. Also nice to use in tamale pie.

Thanks for the wonderful website!

I am new to this website; Love It! I also love all of these postings. This is great way to pass my time here at work. I love to cook and here is an addition to the last comment using Jiffy Mix.

I use 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix; follow the directions and then add 1 small can of creamed corn & 1 jalapeno pepper - minced. The bread comes out naturally sweetand moist; from the creamed corn I would guess. Yummy. It pairs well with homemade black bean soup, garnished with chopped green onions & Mexican table cream. COLD BEER! I'm otta here...

Seattle, WA

Are you kidding me? You need to pass your time at work by reading recipies??? Please tell me you aren't working for me.. ..or the Govt...

Have a nice "Labor Day" holiday.. ...you've earned it..

You know, people, let's keep the obnoxious cracks out of this forum. If you want to be critical of someone, there are plenty of other opportunities (if that is how you chooose to approach life). I wish I could search the internet at work, too, but the job that offeres that opportunity probably doesn't pay enough to live on. There are tradeoffs to everything. So, let's get back to cooking, eh?! And some politeness would be nice.

I am looking for a recipe for cornbread that includes creamed corn, sour cream and Jiffy Cornbread mix. It is an old recipe from my grandmother and I can not find it anymore. Any ideas? Your help would be greatly appreciated!

LORI: I think it goes something like this. one and one half boxes of jiffy , 2 eggs, i 8 oz can creamed corn, 8 oz sour cream, one stick melted butter. mix all together. place in buttered 9x 13 pan and bake at 375 for about 45 minute. but i can't remember if it also calls for condensed milk. the reason i'm on this site is that i'm trying to confirm my memory for the same recipe! A

My mother-in-law gave me this recipe. It is:

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
8 oz. sour cream
14 oz. can creamed corn
1 stick melted butter
1 cup frozen corn, unthawed.

Mix all together and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

You have to watch it, oven temps vary and it's easy to overdo it and then it's dry. I just cook it until it's cracked on top and still moist in the middle. I use a 2 qt. casserole sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, rather than a 9x13 pan.

I just tried this, and it turned out great. For anyone who's reading this far and thinking of making a double recipe, count on a 30 minute cook time. At 20 minutes, in a 13x9 pan, there was still raw batter in the middle. At 30 minutes, it was perfect.

Unfortunately, I have recently discovered that I am allergic to corn. I really missed grits so tried it with millet instead with reasonable results. Has anyone tried to recreate a corn bread recipe using millet? If so, please be so kind as to share it with me.

I get my milk or buttermilk to room temp and then soak the cornmeal for awhile before mixing everything together. That tends to minimize coarseness.

I like to use corn flower instead of wheat flower for better flavor and texture. I also prefer butter to the oil or if you want it really good use bacon drippings. this is the way the original corn bread was made.

I went to the link provided here for the better version of the recipe that was posted and I don't have a membership.
Could it be posted here instead?

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=29718

Great site by the way.

There is nothing more debated (other than one's fried chicken recipe or pecan pie recipe) than a cornbread recipe. I am a true southerner who was brought up with the knowledge that cornbread was being made by Native Americans long before the first Europeans settled the Americas.

"The earliest cornbreads were called "pone", from the Algonquin word "apan", and were a simple mixture of cornmeal, salt, and water." (Found on the web)

My daddy grinds his own cornmeal still to this day. It is made from white corn, not yellow corn meal. In fact, only hickory cane corn is the seed that should be used to make cornbread. This is hard to find, as so many of the seeds today are genetically altered. Shame on Monsanto!

Cornbread is supposed to be gritty! Real cornbread is supposed to have a "bite" to it or a "grit". It does not have sugar in it, but is served with local sorghum molasses and/or honey (which you got from the bee hive in a tree), or homemade blackberry jam.

If it has sugar in it, it is called a Johnny Cake, according to those of us who live in the South. If you put sugar in your corn bread, then it is not corn bread, but corn "cake". [u:f9379cf658]Corn Bread does not have sugar in it.[/u:f9379cf658]
The original recipe was made with the meal itself... there was no sugar available in the woods.

You use bacon grease to grease your cast iron pan (which is only used to make corn bread and nothing else); get it smokin' hot and pour part of the hot grease into the bowl with the batter. Immediately stir the batter and put it in the hot pan. It has to sizzle when you put it in.

There is no flour in corn bread. We purists know how it is to be made. If you come to my table and eat my corn bread, you will never, ever go back to the sweet junk again. It is supposed to be crunchy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth delicious on the inside. You dissolve the baking soda in buttermilk before adding it to the meal.

One never, ever uses soap on their corn bread pan. You just wipe it out and it is ready for the next meal.

If you cannot get fresh ground meal in your neighborhood, order it from a mill. If not, White Lily or Martha White make a fairly decent corn bread mix which could be used in a pinch. The mixes contain flour, but they are certainly better than Jiffylube.

Please do not insult corn bread by putting sugar in it. You are doing a disfavor to yourself and your family.

Hoe cakes (a.k.a. corn cakes) are made with either milk or hot water from a tea kettle. They are fried on top of the stove and look like pancakes.

I came here looking for a recipe for sweet cornbread because a coworker has raved about corn bread with strawberries I'm assuming like shortcake.

But I just read the last comment by lutie to which I must respond... bite me!

There will be sugar in my concoction.

And while I'm offending. I sometimes have down time at my job that allows me to surf the internet and it pays well.

I cannot have milk. Has anybody ever tried making corn meal with almond milk instead of dairy milk?

BTW, the native Americans made all their bread by grinding the flour, mixing it up with whatever other ingredients they used, rolling the dough into small balls or cakes, and dropping it into rapidly boiling water or fat, and then scooping it out and eating it right away. They did not let bread "stand" because it started to taste like crap very quickly as it cooled off but was delicious when newly made.

So the idea that an older recipe is "the real thing" gets invalidated because there is always a still older recipe that came before it. I don't add sugar to cornbread, but I use maple syrup either in it or on it.

Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix - Copy Cat recipe

Makes: 6 muffins.

When a recipe calls for a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, here’s a copycat recipe you can make at home.

This recipe is equal to one 8.5 ounce box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix.

Makes 8.5 ounces (equal to 1-box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix) Makes 1-1/2 cups of mix. Makes 6 corn muffins.

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow corn meal
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well with whisk. Whisk in vegetable oil and mix until dry mixture is smooth and lumps are gone.

2. If another recipe is calling for a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, add the above mixed ingredients to that recipe.

3. If you wish to make Corn Muffins, continue with instructions below.

4. Preheat oven to 400F.Combine above mixture with egg and milk. Mix well. Fill muffin tins 1/2 full. Bake 15-20 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

Does anyone have Dunkin Donuts recipe for corn muffins?

I have tried many cornbread recipes, This is my favorite for sweet corn bread: 1- box betty crocker butter recipe yellow cake mix (18.25oz), 3 eggs, 1-cube butter melted, 1-1/4 cups milk, (or 1-1/2 cups buttermilk), 1 heaping cup cornmeal, 1- teaspoon baking powder. bake in 9x13 oiled glass dish for 30 min, oven temp:350 degrees. (You can use 1/3 cup of oil instead of butter and is just as good).

I have tried several different brands of corn meal, some gritty some not so gritty. I have settled on Indian Head brand which seems to be a finer grind. <br>I am from the South (North Carolina) and appreciate both sweet and no sugar corn bread. To me, they are completley different entities each with their own pros and cons. I treat the two as a fine wine, you have to pair them with what you are cooking! Also, wouldn't dream of using anything other than a cast iron skillet in the oven, the crust this method produces is part of what corn bread is all about to a Southerner.

try the jiffy mix! not gritty.

preheat your oven, then

double the milk--for which you should sub buttermilk if you can--light. light result. mix your egg(s) into the milk well with a fork, then add in the "jiffy" till just incorporated, just a few stirs. let rest for 10 minutes or more, then with rubber spatula gently transfer the now lightly risen batter into

an iron skillet in which you have melted butter in your preheating oven:
for 1 box, melt half a stick (4 oz.) in an 8 inch skillet
for 2 boxes, melt 1 stick in a 10 or 12 inch one

it is delicious. it is southern. you will gobble up every crumb. it is wonderful with everything and if you are ever lucky enough to have a leftover serving, butter the cold top and reheat in the oven till it's warm and you will never have a better breakfast.

you'll love it.

i love your site.

PS bake this cornbread about 10 minutes longer than the jiffy box instructions call for, like, 20 minutes for 1 box, 30 for 2. the top should be quite golden brown.

While an engineering student at Lehigh, I often had lunch at a diner sort of place just off campus. Posted on the wall was a sign that offered:

Around here, pie are round and corn bread are square.

Right now I'm abroad in rural SE Asia and the other Americans and I recently were struck with a serious craving for cornbread.

We managed to get cornmeal brought by a friend, but we are lacking in some important cooking implements. Thais do not use ovens, or cast-iron anything.

What we do have is a basic frying pan, a gas powered stove-top and a charcoal fueled ceramic bucket-shaped thing which they use for grilling fish and meat. We have made regular bread successfully by putting the risen dough inside a large ceramic pot and cooking it briefly over the charcoal fire. However, we are now at a loss for how to approach the cornbread challenge. Does any one have any ideas?

"muffin tin" substitute inside the clay pot/oven?

I've made a lot of variations on cornbread, and generally speaking, Southern Style corn breads tend to be salty and have little or no flour vs corn meal. In New England where I live, there is something called Great Northern cornbread. This is best made in a cast iron skillet. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or 205C. In a large sized mixing bowl whisk 1 cup of stone ground corn meal such as Indian Head, or Bob's Red Mill, with 1 cup of unbleached white flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Melt 1/4 pound of unsalted butter in a cast iron skillet. Leave the skillet on the stove on low heat while you mix the wet and dry ingredients. Pour the melted butter into a second mixing bowl, whisk in 1 cup of milk, and 1 egg. Add the liquid mixture to the dry, turning the mixture over with a rubber spatula until fully mixed. Pour the batter into the warm skillet. It should sizzle as the batter flows in. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean from the bread. Lay a dinner plate upside down on top of the warm cornbread 10 minutes after it come out of the oven, and invert it over while keeping your hand on the plate. The bread should easily pop out of the pan ready to serve.

Agree wholeheartedly. I grew up in East Texas and SW Arkansas and this was the way my mom and both my grandmothers made cornbread and one of them was from Southern Louisiana.

As for the cast iron skillet used only for cornbread, it is also used to cook bacon or fatback in order to keep the seasoning flavor in the pan. My mother got her cast iron set from her great-aunt who had ordered it out of a Sears catalog in 1898. When I left home to go out on my own, she gave me her cornbread skillet which is now well over a 100 years old and still making great cornbread.



Don't get hostile, there nothing wrong with putting sugar in it but some folks call that corn cake and not corn bread. Cornbread is just one of those things that how you grew up eating it (if it was good to you) is how you consider it to be right. My mother made corn muffins in the little corn shaped muffin pans and she always made those with sugar. I think she used the Jiffy Mix as mentioned elsewhere and used sour cream and creamed corn.

Go ahead, experiment, you can't succeed without failing a few times when you go out on a limb and that is part of the fun. I think that is one of the things that draws a lot of people to forums like this. Its the trying that is fun and when you make a change that works write it down then crow about it on these forums.

A lot have people have mentioned the differences in sweetness of the cornbreads/ corn/ cornmeal. I would like to say that I have lived in many very different corn producing regions, all corn is different. Where I live now the corn is so sweet this year I can hardly eat it, other years it has been very plain. These factors such as corn variety, soil, moisture, all change the flavor of the starting product. So, if someone wants to use sugar, they might not have the best corn/ cornmeal to start with, or maybe they tried some that was made with super sweet corn/cornmeal and believe thats the best way.

Lutie....do get a life! The first person who initiated this discussion forum specifically looked for a sweet corn bread recipe. You did not have to be hostile toward him/her or anyone who does indeed add sugar in their corn bread (which apparently, is called corn cake rather than corn bread). I bet if one digged in your life, you'd be filled with millions of imperfections; have experimented plenty (and if you ar elucky, hopefully it's just not with your corn meal). If you ar egoing to be this kind of a pissy self-righteous b...tch, cloe your computer and dont ever advance one mor eword in ant forum. We don't like negative, up my ass kind a people like you.

As for this forum...great ideas on corn bread recipes and variations. Ignore the likes of Lutie....she needs a real happy life!

Don't worry about Lutie, Southerns are the worst cooks anyway. Dry, gritty cornbread, unimaginable pig parts, mushy vegetables and too much lard & salt. Folks are doing them a favor when they improve their recipes.

I am currently living in Poland and I needed to make cornbread for the school I am teaching at. I was able to find a very fine corn flour that I am trying with this recipe. I was struggling to find all the ingredients here but thankfully I stumbled across your recipe and it has everything I have. Plus you already converted everything. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! This was a BIG lifesaver.

for everyone having issues with conversions, this page
covers it all; temperature, volume, weight, whatever you
need. for everything in life, not just cooking

http://www.metric4us.com/calculator.html

I'm still no closer to understanding how I'm supposed to alter this recipe on the back of the Jiffy Corn Muffin box, but I've learned enough to get me through dinner tomorrow night. So thanks for that, all of ye above.

However, I'm a little disappointed in how you all are conducting yourselves. Because everybody else seems to think it's important to tell you their personal background, I'll offer that I've lived in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas (only briefly as to the latter) my whole life. I've never left. It's not a fancy fairy tale where people sit around drinking tea on front porches all day every day – we just do it when the weather is tolerable (less often than you'd think). But we do tend to care very deeply about our traditions. I fear some of you may have misinterpreted Ms. Lutie's tone perchance. I understand – I run into ladies like her every day where I live (Jackson, MS). You think she's talking to you like you're a child, maybe the child of a lady at church she doesn't care for, and she's telling you how dumb your mom is for adding sugar or using a store-bought mix. That might be exactly how she feels saying it. The truth is, it's nice to think you're so right about something it might as well be in the Bible. Around here, we'll preach about anything, but food plays a big part of our religious practices too (don't call any southerner on a Sunday at 12:15 p.m. because she's either at Popeye's or Picadilly's).

And yes, southern food is saltier, because we like decadence in our flavor. It does have too much lard, because most of us can't afford to eat richly often – and we don't mind a few extra pounds to love. And most of the food that makes us feel the most comfortable grew out of some of the strongest and most resilient spirits to ever live in the South (that is, slaves, not the soldiers who actually ended up learning to cook on the cheap from the former after the Confederacy fell). But feel free to refine the recipes if you like. To be perfectly honest, Lutie's recipe just doesn't sound like much fun to me, but I like lots of ingredients and lots of sugar. I'm planning on using honey myself.

As for you all getting so heated over a stranger preaching about her "right" way, forgive me for saying you should stop being such a wimp. Dozens of people have come onto this forum and contradicted the others' "right" ways of cooking frickin cornbread. Calm down, children. Are you truly so offended? Over sugar? That a strange lady living thousands of miles away and not remotely interested in coming back to this site would tell you that adding sugar to cornbread is a dishonor to your family - what, are you gonna cry? Jeez.

Here's a bit of advice. If you get so mad you find yourself attacking the keyboard with your fingers, knocking into a few extraneous collateral keys and misspelling all of your rage, stop – and then hold down backspace. Come up with something useful, that will add to the value of the conversation, and then hit period.

And now I'm done preaching. And I'll never come back to this site. Why do a few rude apples always spoil the bunch?

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. :D

I've tried many cornbread recipes, but I keep coming back to the Albers recipe. It's my favorite. Thanks for posting it.

Whatever the problem with F to C conversion, I liked the concept of giving the broad chart of heating. This will help us to bring the various color on the bread. Nice recipe. Regards, ALex

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup White or Yellow Corn Meal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted