Cornbread

You can use olive oil instead of butter, but make sure it is hot when you add it to the batter. And sugar? Save that for corn muffins or cake…sugar has no place in cornbread

The great thing about not adding sugar to cornbread is that it can be done silently. It never is, but it can be.

Stone ground white cornmeal is best, and cornbread should definitely not be sugared.

I like a little sugar in my corn bread, whatever your grandmothers say. So sue me.

I have never seen full fat buttermilk in a grocery store. There was no such thing when buttermilk was a byproduct of churning butter, because churning causes the butter to separate out. It's possible to make full fat cultured buttermilk by adding a small amount of the cultured low fat buttermilk usually sold in stores to whole milk and letting it stand at room temperature until it clabbers to the desired degree. I usually prefer stone ground corn meal for cornbread.

I cherish my memories of Thanksgivings with generations of family recipes on the table and my grandmother’s cornbread dressing in the center. One of the proudest days of my life was when she tasted mine, nodded, and said I was in charge from then on of making the dressing. That being said, she would rise from the grave, flyswatter in hand, and give me the thrashing I never got in life if I dared put sugar in cornbread. If you want a cake, make one. Don’t put it in your dressing.

Adding sugar to the cornbread is a matter of preference and where your family comes from. I'm from Texas and we have debates among our own family as to whether you should add sugar or not. Most of the family prefers a little sweetness. There's no right or wrong. Its just a preference and it can be good both ways.

Change the butter to bacon grease, melted in the skillet while preheating the oven, and drop the sugar.

I disagree that you shouldn't put a little sugar in cornbread. The small amount in this recipe really brings out the sweetness of the corn, and it is still savory and nothing like cake. I loved this recipe, and I have made many versions of both Southern and Northern cornbread.

For what I think is the ideal cornbread recipe, refer to "The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook", Jean Hewitt, 1971. Only one egg, 2tbs oil, 1tbs sweetener which we leave out. Cooked in a sizzling 10" cast-iron skillet comes out just right, (not like a sweet, raised cake.) We have used this since 1977, our old NYT cookbook falls open to the recipe page.

I see the anti-sugar cornbread folks are proselytizing again. Sugar has every right to be in cornbread. Cornbread is not uniquely yours, and a majority of cornbread served on the west coast of the United States--from school cafeterias, to buffet restaurants, to finer dining establishments--is sweet. You can leave it out, but don't criticize a recipe for leaving it in. And, if you're leaving it out, recognize that the texture of the end product will certainly be different.

Suggest you heat the oiled pan in the oven, then add the wet batter and listen to it sizzle. Never used sugar, or flour.

I've made a very similar recipe, ratio-wise, many times, but with whole wheat flour instead of white, half the butter, and half the sugar. Also olive oil instead of butter; and maple syrup instead of sugar (just 3 tablespoons). Also, without any sweetener at all, but generally I do prefer Yankee cornbread (lightly sweetened). I've also used 1 cup of yogurt with 1 cup of applesauce, instead of the buttermilk. Great results. If you stick to the basic ratios, you can switch things to your taste.

This recipe made excellent cornbread that got raves at my Thanksgiving dinner, and no, it is not too sweet. I do wish all the know-it-alls who troll this site thinking they’re the final word on all things culinary would leave off on the “cornbread with sugar is not real cornbread” nonsense; there are many ways to make a standard dish like cornbread and they’re all perfectly fine, depending on your tastes. If the sugar bothers you so much, find a recipe without it and stop haranguing everyone.

Use oil or bacon grease, heated in the skillet as you preheat the oven and then added to the rest of the ingredients. Then the pan is already greased. And leave out the sugar if you live south of the Mason-Dixon line