Finding the perfect cornbread

As a born and bred Appalachian, cornbread resides in the fiber of my being. Yet until a few years ago, I looked to box and packaged mixes to make this staple of my cooking heritage. Growing up I remember my grandmother's cornbread, always made with white cornmeal (she was adamant about using white cornmeal), never sweet and with a twang of buttermilk. When I looked to break from the sweet and unsatisfying packaged cornbreads, the only requirement I had was for it not to be sweet because, to me, that wasn't cornbread. Unfortunately looking through my vast collection of culinary tomes, all I found were recipes including sugar.

Dismayed by the lack of understanding cornbread is bread and not cake, thus not requiring sugar, it hit me. Look to my culinary hero, Alton Brown for the answer. Surely a good Southern boy such as AB would give me what I needed--cornbread sans sugar.

I turned to I'm Just Here for More Food, vaguely remembering cornbread in there from the first scan of the newly purchased book. Lo and behold--cornbread without sugar! What a genius Alton is.

That was circa 2004 and all of these years later my go to cornbread is AB's "Cornbread No Chaser." The only tweak made to it is using buttermilk instead of milk as listed. I prefer the added twang and throwback to my grandmother's style.

In making this many, many times I have found the 15 minute soak of the cornmeal in heated milk to be vital in achieving a light and fluffy texture.

By the way, AB gives the suggestion on page 118, "The key is the cast-iron skillet." And I concur. Make this in a cast iron skillet and you will be especially pleased with the outcome.