After a lot of research on corn bread I found out that the sweet cornbread you find is more of a New England thing where the salty or spicy corn bread is more of a southern tradition. Although my friends from New Orleans tell me it depends on what house your eating it at. So I found a really good basic corn bread recipe with a nice texture and room to play. For my dinner I made the basic recipe but I will include some ideas and additions to make this a more flexible recipe. Enjoy.

Makes enough for 8 with plenty left over.

For the basic mix:

2 cups of white corn meal
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of kosher salt
2 eggs beaten
2 cups of buttermilk
2 TBL of shortening

Making the basic mix:

Sift all the dry ingredients together (corn meal, baking soda, kosher salt, and dry addon’s).

Now whisk together the eggs, and buttermilk, then add to the dry ingredients. Melt the shortening on low in the microwave and pour on top of the mix.

At this point you can add in any of the wet addon ingridients from below

Mix well (I like to use my Kitchen aid Stand Mixer for the mixing it gives you a fluffier well mixed batter)

Pour into a 9×13 well greased baking pan and bake at 450 F for about 20-25 mins. be sure to check it at about the 15-18 minute point. It should be slightly golden but still soft.

Addins (untested but will be soon):

Spicy cornbread:

Dry addins: 1 tsp celery salt, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp paprika.
Wet addins: 2 seeded and finely diced serrano peppers

Sweet cornbread:

Dry addins: 1 TBL granulated sugar
Wet addins: 1 TBL honey or corn syrup

Just for the fun of it:

You can add in a pureed pear to either of the addon recipes its a subtle but sweet addition that can compliment spicy foods, or sweet desserts. (NOTE: if you add in a pear take out 1 TBL of the buttermilk so the mix isnt to liquidy)

Feel free to post a comment or any additions you’ve tried.