Cornbread
Skillet cornbread, barely sweet, baked in hot beef tallow so the edges fry. Sour cream and buttermilk both, for a tender crumb that holds together.
- Serves
- 8
- Total
- 45 min
A hot cast iron skillet with fat in it, batter poured straight in, and the edges start frying before the oven does anything. That's the difference between skillet cornbread and cornbread baked in a tin.
Beef tallow in the pan, not butter. Butter browns and burns at this heat; tallow takes it, and beside smoked meat it tastes like it belongs there. Salted butter goes in the batter, where it can't burn.
Sour cream and buttermilk both. The buttermilk is the acid that makes the baking soda work, and the sour cream is fat and body. Together they give a crumb that's tender without being crumbly, which is the usual failure of cornbread.
Barely sweet. A tablespoon of sugar rounds the corn without making it cake. If you want it sweeter that's a legitimate preference and a different recipe.
If it's not right
- Pale edges, no crust: pan wasn't hot, or not enough tallow in it.
- Dry: overbaked, or too much cornmeal to buttermilk.
- Tough: overmixed.
- Crumbles apart: cut too soon. Give it the ten minutes.
Ingredients
Method
-
Oven to 425°F with a 10-inch cast iron skillet inside it. The pan heats with the oven.
-
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
-
Whisk the buttermilk, sour cream, eggs and melted butter in another bowl until smooth. The sour cream needs a little work to loosen.
-
Wet into dry, stirring only until it comes together. Lumps are fine; overmixing makes it tough.
-
Pull the hot skillet out, add the tallow, and swirl to coat. It should shimmer and move like water.
-
Pour the batter straight in. It should hiss at the edges.
-
Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.
-
Rest 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out.
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