Southern Skillet Cornbread

Put a 20 cm cast-iron skillet on the middle shelf of the oven and heat the oven to 220°C with the pan inside.

💡 The pan preheats with the oven — this is the whole point of skillet cornbread. A cold pan gives you a pale, soft-sided cake instead of a fried, crunchy crust.

Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl until evenly mixed.

In a second bowl, beat the egg into the buttermilk along with 10 g of melted bacon fat or butter.

💡 Keeping wet and dry separate until the last moment matters here: the moment buttermilk meets the bicarbonate of soda, the rise starts and the clock is running.

Check the skillet is properly hot — the oven should be fully up to 220°C and the pan in it for at least 10 minutes.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir with a spoon just until no dry pockets remain. The batter should look lumpy and slightly rough — about 10 strokes.

💡 Beginner's instinct is to beat it smooth. Don't. Over-mixing develops gluten in the wheat flour and knocks the gas out, and cornbread turns tough and rubbery. Lumpy is correct.

Pull the hot skillet out of the oven. Add the remaining 30 g of bacon fat and swirl it — it should melt and shimmer within a couple of seconds.

💡 If the fat does not sizzle and shimmer on contact, the pan is not hot enough — put it back for 5 more minutes. The skillet handle is now dangerously hot; leave a towel over it so you don't grab it bare-handed.

Tilt the pan so the fat coats the base and runs an inch up the sides, then pour any excess into the batter and fold it in once.

Pour the batter into the centre of the skillet in one go. It should hiss loudly and the edges should set almost instantly.

💡 That hiss is the sound of the crust forming. No hiss means no crust — and no reason to have used a cast-iron pan at all.

Level the top quickly with the back of the spoon and get it into the oven within about 10 seconds.

Bake at 220°C for 20–25 minutes, until the top is deep gold, the edges have pulled away from the pan, and the centre springs back when pressed.

💡 A skewer in the middle should come out with a crumb or two clinging, not wet batter. Cornbread dries out fast, so pull it the moment it passes — the residual heat of the iron keeps cooking it.

Rest it in the pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the rim and turn it out onto a board.

💡 Leave it any longer and steam trapped underneath will soften the crust you just worked for.

Cut into wedges and serve hot, with butter melting into the cut faces.