Cornbread is a quick bread, meaning it doesn’t contain yeast and requires no time to rise. It has deep roots with the Native Americans and the colonists that settled in the southern colonies. In the south it is a staple in most households and Southern cornbread is not sweet nor fluffy like a cake. Ours is grainier, more dense and made with delicious buttermilk and served with butter. You may be surprised to know that buttermilk has fewer calories and fat than that of milk.
The main ingredient in cornbread is, you guessed it, cornmeal. Cornmeal comes in a few varieties; white, yellow and even blue. Typically cornbread usually uses the yellow, which tends to me the most common variety. Corn is a cheap grain to grow and there is usually an abundance of it, not only here in the United States but in Mexico as well, where Mayans used the grain to make masa for tortillas and tamales. Here in the South, cornmeal is commonly used not only for cornbread but also corn pone, hushpuppies and Johnnycakes, which are actually a Northern dish.
Cornbread can be baked or fried and comes in a variety of forms. This recipe is the baked variety which can be baked in molds, muffin tins, skillets or pans. Continue reading “Buttermilk Cornbread”
The first gravy is a staple in the South, sausage gravy. Here in the South sausage gravy is a standard in most households. It is served not only at breakfast time but lunch and supper too. Sausage gravy is great on mashed potatoes, fried chicken, chicken fried steak and of course, biscuits. If you are like me, I can eat sausage gravy on its own.