We love cornbread and I have a few different recipes, and just like this Basic Cornbread recipe, they all are basically the same. Cornmeal, flour, a little sugar, baking powder salt and pepper, eggs, milk and oil or butter. Sometimes I’ll make Jalapeno Cornbread, or I’ll make cornbread with buttermilk, or with whole milk.
Because I was serving this cornbread with my Red Beans and Rice recipe from John Besh’s cookbook “My New Orleans” I decided I’d use the recipe in his cookbook that I’ve made many times. It does call for cayenne because the New Orleanians like their food pretty spicy and I added bacon. Love the bacon in it and I used bacon drippings. Oh, also, John Besh’s suggest using white cornmeal as they do in Louisiana. I din’t have enough white cornmeal so I used a cup of white and a cup of yellow cornmeal. Here’s the link for my Red Beans and Rice: https://the2spoons.com/simple-delicious-red-beans-and-rice/.
Here’s the link for John Besh’s cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740784137/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=257043-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0740784137&linkId=377be1fc671e8f7acc141eb1fdf55871.
1 of My Favorites, Easy – Basic Cornbread Recipe with Bacon
Here’s the recipe for this cornbread! Make sure the skillet is so hot that the batter begins to fry when you pour it into the pan.
Basic Cornbread Recipe with Bacon
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp rendered bacon fat
- 1 cup white or yellow cornmeal (I used equal amount of white and yellow)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Put the bacon fat into a medium cast iron skillet (about 9 inch round). Put the skillet into the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cayenne in a large mixing bowl.
- Put the eggs, milk, and melted butter into a small bowl and mix well.
- Pour the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture, stirring until just combined.
- Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour the batter into the skillet. Return the skillet to the oven and bake the cornbread until it is deep golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately!