Daisy's Kitchen

Pine Knot General Store & Café  

Harold’s Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

“The skillet has never seen dish soap. Harold considers dish soap in a cast iron pan a moral failing. He is not wrong.”
— Harold

 

 

Harold has made this cornbread in the same cast iron skillet since 1974. He brings it to the Pine Knot on cold mornings without announcement. It is gone within twenty minutes. Earl eats the crusty bottom piece and leaves the rest. This has been happening for fifty years and nobody has said a word about it.

 

Serves 8 - Prep Time -10 minutes - Bake Time - 20–25 minutes

 Ingredients

4 tbsp bacon grease — 2 tbsp for the batter, 2 tbsp for the screaming 

hot pan

1½ cups yellow cornmeal

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar — Harold uses exactly one tablespoon and considers anyone who uses more to be making cake

1¼ cups buttermilk

2 eggs

2 tbsp butter, melted

 

Method

​

Heat the skillet — this is the most important step

Place your cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 425°F. The skillet must be in there the whole time the oven heats. Harold would put this step first even if it weren't the first step.

⏱  10 minutes preheat — skillet in the whole time

 

Mix the dry ingredients

In a large bowl whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Harold uses one tablespoon of sugar and considers anyone who uses more to be making cake, not cornbread, and they should say so.

Mix the wet ingredients

In a separate bowl whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. The remaining 2 tablespoons of bacon grease are for the hot pan. Don't mix them up.

Combine

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. A few lumps are fine. The batter should be thick but pourable. Harold eyeballs it. You probably can't eyeball it yet. That comes with time.

The crucial moment

Remove the screaming hot skillet from the oven using proper oven mitts — Harold uses a folded feed sack which is not recommended. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of bacon grease and swirl to coat. It will spit and smoke. This is correct. Pour the batter immediately into the hot greased skillet. You should hear a satisfying sizzle. If you don't hear a sizzle the pan wasn't hot enough and Harold is disappointed.

Bake

Return immediately to the 425°F oven. Bake for 20–25 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick in the centre comes out clean. The bottom crust should be dark, crackling, and magnificent.

⏱  20–25 minutes at 425°F

Rest and serve

Let the cornbread rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges directly in the skillet. Serve warm with good butter. Earl will eat the crusty bottom piece and leave the rest. Plan accordingly.

⏱  5 minutes rest

 From Harold:

•  The skillet goes in the oven while it preheats. This is not optional. A cold skillet makes a sad cornbread.

•  The bacon grease in the hot skillet is what makes the crust — that dark, crackling, salty bottom crust that Earl eats first and pretends he didn't.

•  Never use a baking dish. Never use a muffin tin. Harold has opinions about people who make cornbread in muffin tins and none of them are kind.

•  Never wash the skillet with soap. Rinse with hot water, dry on the stove, rub with a little bacon grease while it's still warm. That is all.

“If it doesn’t sizzle, start over.” — Harold