From the Church Cookbook: Skillet Cornbread and the Pan That Made It

In a lot of Southern kitchens, there is one pan that never goes in the cabinet. The cast-iron skillet stays out on the stove, because it is always about to be needed, and more often than not what it is needed for is cornbread.

Cornbread is the plainest bread there is, and that is its glory. Cornmeal, buttermilk, an egg, a little fat, and heat. No yeast, no rising, no waiting. It was the bread of people who did not have time to wait, and it became the bread everyone wanted anyway, served alongside greens and beans and stew, crumbled into a glass of buttermilk, or eaten warm with nothing but butter.

The skillet is not a detail. It is the whole secret. A good cast-iron pan, heated screaming hot with the fat already in it before the batter ever touches it, is what gives Southern cornbread the one thing that separates it from every soft, sweet, cakey imitation: a deep, crackling, golden crust around a tender middle. The sizzle when the batter hits the pan is the sound of that crust being born.

A note on sugar, since it starts arguments. Traditional Deep South cornbread has little or none. Some cooks add a spoonful, some would never. This recipe leaves it out, the old way, but the choice is yours and nobody at the table will check.

Skillet Cornbread

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons bacon grease or vegetable oil (for the skillet)
• 2 cups stone-ground cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions

1. Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven and heat the oven to 450°F. The skillet heats while the oven does.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter.
4. Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until combined. Do not overmix; a few lumps are fine.
5. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add the bacon grease or oil and swirl to coat; it should shimmer.
6. Pour the batter into the hot skillet all at once. It should sizzle.
7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and the edges have pulled slightly from the pan.
8. Turn it out of the skillet onto a plate so the crust stays crisp, and serve warm.

Cut a wedge while it is still hot enough to melt butter, and you will understand why the skillet never goes back in the cabinet. The crust gives way with a faint crackle, the inside is tender and faintly sweet from the corn alone, and the whole thing tastes like it belongs next to something cooked low and slow.

That is the point of cornbread. It was never meant to be the star. It was meant to make everything around it taste like supper.