My Grandmother's Recipe: Grandma’s Cast Iron Corn Bread

by Ali M.

I grew up with my mother, making her mother’s, who was making her mother’s, cornbread. It probably went back further than that, and now it’s me who is making it! 

It’s a simple affair. And that is its beauty. In the days of cast iron pans, it always went, the one with the most cast iron cookware when they died, wins. Now you don’t see so many cast iron pans, but in my family they are passed down to the next generation. If you’ve used a well seasoned cast iron pan for cooking or baking, it’s hard to go back. Seasoning a pan is a story for another day. This story is all about the corn bread. My mother and grandmother did it by ‘feel’, they didn’t use measurements at all. Cornbread is forgiving that way, so feel empowered to play a bit with the measurements to get things to your liking.

You need … 

• 375ºF oven preheated
• 4 tablespoons fat of your choice … butter is the easiest

Put butter in your cast iron pan (preferably 8”-9” with some depth) and let the butter melt. It will permeate the rest of the ingredients when they’re added.

Combine these dry ingredients:

• 2 cups cornmeal & flour (you can combine in whatever manner makes 2 cups; I always go higher on the cornmeal for a heavier bread)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar

Combine these wet ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (more if needed)

Hand stir the dry and wet together (don’t over mix).

Pour into the prepared cast iron pan. 

Bake about 30 minutes.