Recipe Notes: Southern-style Skillet Cornbread

3 November 2019

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 44.

I have tried various cornbread recipes, both northern and southern styles and one that lies between these two. I haven't developed a real favorite so I am up for trying new recipes. This one is from the Bread Illustrated cookbook and while similar in some ways to other recipes I have used I wanted to give it a chance to become the favorite.

The recipe used a 10-inch cast iron skillet, which I do not have. I do have a 10-inch, oven-safe skillet that should work. At least I thought it would. First, the cornmeal was toasted in the skillet on the stove top. I used Bob's Red Mill medium grind cornmeal. The cornmeal was removed and whisked together with sour cream and milk. The skillet was wiped clean. vegetable oil was added, and it was placed in a pre-heated 450° oven. When the oil was shimmering, the pan was carefully removed from the oven and butter was added. After the butter melted most of the oil/butter mixture was whisked into the cornmeal mixture. The remaining ingredients—sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—were whisked into the cornmeal mixture and finally eggs were whisked in. The batter was poured into the skillet which and returned to the hot oven to bake. The recipe says it should be done in 12 to 15 minutes, I baked mine for 24 minutes before removing it! Total time to prepare was just 70 minutes.

Even with the long baking time the cornbread was not done. The bottom part of the loaf was done but the top was still more like a corn custard than bread. The cornbread tasted okay but I don't think I was  really able to give it a fair tasting because of the baking issue. I am sure the problem was my skillet. A 10-inch cast iron skillet has straight sides so the bottom and top are both close to 10 inches in diameter. My skillet was 10 inches across at the top but only 7½ inches at the bottom due to the sloping sides. This the batter was much deeper than it would be in a cast iron skillet and thus took much longer to bake. Given that I don't have an appropriate skillet I probably won't be trying this recipe again. I do have a recipe I like for southern-style cornbread that uses a 12-inch cast iron skillet, perhaps it will become my go-to recipe.