There are many many different styles of corn bread. Some have sugar and are known as sweet cornbread. Some contain Cheese, chopped red peppers, chiles, whole corn, creamed corn, and my favorite Jalapenos.

My mother would fry bacon in a cast iron skillet in the morning. She would pour off some of the fat then put the skillet back on the burner to heat. She would then pour the cornbread batter into the skillet which made a lot of sizzle. After a minute or so she would transfer the skillet into the oven to finish baking. The resulting cornbread had a thick crunchy crust soaked in bacon fat that was to die for. In the interest of "not dying" , the recipe below does not use the above technique.

Here is a little general purpose blurb about quickbread ratios from "notes from the foodworld".

"One of the great all-purpose baseline ratios I discovered is for quickbread batter—and these can include any number of finished dishes. Bake the batter in a loaf pan for a loaf, in a muffin tin for muffins, pour it on a griddle and you have a pancake, use it to bind fruit or vegetable and you have wonderful fritters. The backbone of all these items is: equal parts liquid and flour and half as much egg. They also usually contain butter for richness, sugar for sweetness, 1 part each depending on what you're doing with it (for instance you don’t need the butter if you’re making fritters—you cook fritters in fat, they don’t need more). You also need some leavening—I prefer baking powder, about a teaspoon for every 5 ounces or cup of flour. And a good pinch of salt."


Great for breakfast with sweet butter or jam, or with bacon, great for dinner with a bowl of chili or beef stew.

Jalapeno Cornbread

2 ounces all purpose flour (about 1/3 cup*)
6 ounces cornmeal (a heaping cup*)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3-fingered pinch of salt (a teaspoon if you must)
2 ounces sugar (about 4½ tablespoons*)
8 ounces milk
2 large eggs
4 ounces butter, melted but cool
3 - 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced (canned will do in a pinch)
1 ½ cups fresh corn (Once again, canned will do in a pinch)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Combine the milk and eggs and whisk to combine, add the butter, whisking. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring till all ingredients are well incorporated, stir in the jalapenos and corn. Pour batter into a buttered or oiled loaf pan (or vessel of your choice, such as a cast iron skillet) and bake till the interior is no longer wet, about 30 minutes.

Oooh, so many memories of cornbread!

My father was the cook in our family, and he was born in Georgia and raised in Texas.

During the winter, he would cook on our 8-burner, wood burning oven (which also heated the second part of the house). We had "two kitchens" -- one for dad and one for mom. Oy, they were Green Acres.

Anyway, a typical Saturday breakfast was bacon, cold grits fried in the bacon grease and okra, cornbread with bits of bacon and jalapenos, and eggs any style. He also had a pot of beans soaking to make chili for Sunday.

And people wonder why I became such a health nut? I was lucky to survive that food-abuse diet!

mexican cornbread


ratllesnake cornbread with real rattlesnake meats

U GONNA EAT YO' COHNBRED?

I remember that movie. Eddie Murphy got his @ss kicked for not givin the big guy his cornbread. Well if it tasted anything like my granny's then I wouldn't have shared either. IT'S MY CORNBREAD!!!!!

Sounds very yummy BURP! Anna x