Southern Side

Buttermilk Cornbread
(Serves 8)

The South wouldn't be the same without cornbread. Our buttermilk recipe is delicious—perfect alongside Black-eyed Peas and Southern-Style Greens.

1 T oil, shortening, or bacon grease
2 C yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 C flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
2 C buttermilk *
1/4 C butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 425. Coat bottom and sides of a 10” cast-iron skillet with oil, shortening, or bacon grease. Place skillet on the oven’s center rack to heat.

In a large bowl, combine the next 5 dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat eggs; stir in milk and melted butter. Add milk and eggs to flour mixture, stirring to blend till you get a pancake-batter consistency.

Drop a tiny bit of batter into the hot oiled skillet—it should sizzle.**  If it does, add all the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, till a toothpick comes out clean.

* Use regular milk if you don't have buttermilk

** If the skillet isn’t hot enough, the cornbread will stick. So if it the skillet doesn’t pass the sizzle test, return it to the oven.

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Tips & Glossary

Basic southern cuisine differs from its Cajun, Creole, and Southwestern cousins in its lack of hot spices. As a result, it's rich but mild—the ultimate in comfort food!

• Crabmeat: meat from the body, legs or claws of numerous varieties of crab. Most prized is jumbo lump from the hind leg. But for crab cakes and casseroles, use regular lump, as well as finback from the body. Claw meat is brown and stronger flavored, though also good for crab recipes. Buy it fresh if you can.

• Greens: typically collard • Greens: a staple in Southern cooking, they're in the cabbage family and include kale, collards, turnip, spinach, and mustard greens. Usually served with black-eyed peas and cornbread to sop up the pot likker.

• Grits: another staple of Southern cooking: coarsely ground corn, cooked as porridge. Once cooked, grits are served plain, baked in a casserole, fried or deep-fried as a fritter. (Think polenta.)

• Pie Crust: store bought crusts are fine. But for the skilled (or more daring) among you, make your own. Here's our recipe—Noel's Pie Crust.

• Yams: a type of sweet potato with an elongated shape and deep orange flesh. A true yam is grown in Africa and Asia is actually quite different from what Americans call yams.