My best and most basic recipe for Old-Fashioned Cornbread. Made with finely ground white cornmeal, buttermilk, and no sugar (!), it’s the perfect accompaniment for everything from fried chicken to chili.
There are probably as many recipes for cornbread as there are Southern cooks. Although it’s not strictly a “Southern thing,” cornbread is very widely served throughout the South. It’s so good with a plate of southern-style vegetables like field peas, fried okra, and greens.
So Many Kinds of Cornbread!
There are many different kinds of cornbread. It’s an inherent part of Southern comfort food. There’s the old fashioned buttermilk cornbread like I’m going to show you here. Then there’s corn pone, which is nothing more than plain cornmeal, water, and salt formed into “pones” like thick little pancakes and cooked in the oven. There are also hot water cornbread, corn sticks, corn pone, and corn muffins as well.
And don’t forget about hush puppies! They are essentially cornbread, too.
My favorite of all the different types is what we call lacy cornbread. It’s cooked in a skillet on the stovetop, made from a very thin, light batter that is poured into hot oil and fried quickly to a golden brown. It takes some skill and a little practice to make lacy cornbread.
I have lots of old fashioned Southern cornbread recipes, but this one is my standard and a great one to add to your recipe collection.
— This post was originally published on June 18, 2009. It has been updated with new photos and additional information.
Recipe Snapshot
Cuisine: Southern, Vintage
Cooking Method: Oven
Total Time: 35 Minutes
Servings: 8
Primary Ingredient(s): Finely ground white cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs
Skill Level: Easy
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING …
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The one must: an iron skillet. Mine belonged to my great grandmother.“
— Dixie
“No sugar! My kind of cornbread! Mom never put sugar in her cornbread and neither do I! This is West Texas style! Just give me some red beans and we have a meal with this cornbread!“
— Iris Voorhees
What You’ll Like About This Recipe
- Made from scratch cornbread is rustic, plain, and simple comfort food.
- It’s a classic Southern side dish served with many traditional Southern meals.
- When you see how easy this recipe is, you’ll never reach for a boxed mix again.
- Everything is cooked in one skillet. Less kitchen clean-up time!
Ingredient Notes
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- Finely Ground White Cornmeal — See my cornmeal commentary below.
- Canola Oil or Peanut Oil — Use an oil with a high smoke point.
- Buttermilk — Gives the cornbread a pleasantly tangy flavor with a soft texture, and helps it rise quickly.
The complete ingredient list with detailed measurements is included in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook!
You can see this recipe on pages 70-71 of my cookbook, My Southern Table! Get your signed copy today.
The Secret’s in the Cornmeal
Besides all the different types of cornbread, there is also the matter of the cornmeal itself. Grocery stores throughout the South have lots of different cornmeal products on the shelves. But the most important for making good cornbread is finely ground, white cornmeal. You simply won’t get the same result with yellow or coarsely ground cornmeal.
My favorite brand? Well, it’s Arnett’s hands down. Now, I have no association whatsoever with Arnett’s. They have absolutely no idea who I am. I just happen to like their cornmeal.
A close second to Arnett’s would be Alabama King. It’s also very good and happens to be available through Amazon.
Some other good brands are Hoover’s and Sholar’s. It’s easy to find those brands in the rural areas, but here in North Georgia near Atlanta, I can’t get them anywhere! That’s okay. I just stock up when I make a trip down to the southern part of the state.
One further note: You will notice that there is no sugar in this recipe. In my opinion, there is no place for sugar in cornbread. This is a rustic, savory bread, and sugar just doesn’t belong in there. If I wanted something sweet, I’d make a cake. Cornbread is not cake. Sorry if you’re a sugary cornbread-lovin’ kind of person.
How to Make Old-Fashioned Cornbread
- Add 3 tablespoons canola oil to a 10-inch iron skillet (or for a lighter recipe, coat generously with cooking spray). Place the skillet in the oven, set the oven to 400 degrees, and preheat both the skillet and the oven while you mix up the batter.
Pro Tip
A cast iron skillet makes the very best cornbread. If you don’t have one, I encourage you to purchase one. They’re not very expensive and will last you a lifetime.
- Combine the dry ingredients of cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl.
- Combine the wet ingredients of oil, eggs, and buttermilk.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well. I use a whisk just to make sure I get all the lumps out.
Pro Tip
For a lighter recipe, use 1/2 cup eggbeaters or similar egg substitute and skim or low-fat milk in place of the buttermilk.
- Carefully remove the hot skillet and quickly pour in the batter. Immediately return the pan to the oven.
Pro Tip
Can you see in the picture (step 5) above how the batter has already started to cook around the edges just seconds after being poured into the pan? That’s exactly what you want it to do.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the top and edges are light golden brown.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and let it cool slightly before serving.
Pro Tip
If you don’t have a silicone skillet handle cover, please treat yourself to one! They make it so much easier to handle hot pans. A hot, heavy skillet is much easier to hold onto with one of these than with a pot holder.
Recipe Tips and Advice
- A well-seasoned cast iron skillet is a necessity for nailing the perfect old fashioned cornbread recipe. It makes a delicious, golden crust and a light, moist interior. If you don’t have one, you can use a different oven-safe skillet or a baking dish. Keep in mind that your results will be different.
- Be sure to preheat the cast iron skillet. That step is very important for achieving those delicious crispy edges!
- Use a toothpick to check for doneness. If a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, the cornbread is done.
Storage and Freezing
- Store at room temperature for 2-3 days or a week, well wrapped, in the refrigerator. To reheat, simply put it back in the oven until it’s warmed through.
- May be frozen in an airtight container or bag for about 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.
Variations to Try
- Make “loaded cornbread” by adding shredded Cheddar cheese, bacon bits, and scallions to the batter.
- Give it a kick with shredded pepper jack cheese and diced jalapenos.
- If you simply insist on some sweetness, try a drizzle of honey or syrup on top.
Questions About Old Fashioned Cornbread
No! It’s a common misconception that southern cornbread is sweet. In fact, if you Google “Is southern cornbread sweet?” the first response that pops up (which is from a non-Southern blog, by the way) informs you that southern cornbread is sweeter than northern, which is a load of nonsense! I sometimes wonder if this belief comes from the pre-made store mixes. While we may occasionally add a drizzle of honey to a serving of cornbread, the recipe itself is made without any sugar. To make a long story short – don’t believe everything you read on the internet, even if it’s on the first page of Google!
Even though cornbread is best when served fresh and hot from the oven, you can make it a day in advance and reheat it before serving.
I recommend using a 10-inch cast iron skillet.
Leftover cornbread is great for making southern cornbread dressing or croutons for your salad or soup!
All My Best Cornbread Recipes
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More Southern Recipes You’ll Like
Traditional Southern Fried Chicken
Family Favorite Chili
Southern Style Green Beans
Old Fashioned Copper Pennies
- If you’re craving something tried-and-true Southern, my Real Simple Fried Chicken is the kind of no-fuss, no-frills recipe cooks have leaned on for generations.
- Need something hearty to go with that golden slice of cornbread? My Family Favorite Chili is a meaty, satisfying bowl of goodness with beans, yes, and it’s just right alongside cornbread.
- And if you have a pot of Old Fashioned Southern Green Beans simmered with bacon and onion, then you’re speaking my language. That pairing with cornbread is pure comfort on a plate.
- And for something a little sweet and tangy on the side, give my Copper Pennies a try. This vintage carrot salad is marinated in a flavorful dressing that makes it a staple at Southern gatherings.
Have a question or thought to share?
If you have a question about the recipe or if you’ve made it and want to share how it turned out, I would truly enjoy hearing from you. Just scroll down to leave a comment or add your star rating.
Thank you for stopping by. It means a lot to have you here.
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Recipe
Old Fashioned Cornbread
Ingredients
- ¼ cup canola or peanut oil plus 3 tablespoons (or substitute cooking spray for the 3 additional tablespoons oil)
- 1 ½ cups finely ground white cornmeal
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 large eggs or substitute ½ cup Eggbeaters
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk or substitute skim or lowfat milk
Instructions
- Add 3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil to a 10-inch iron skillet (or for a lighter recipe, coat generously with cooking spray). Place the skillet in the oven, set the oven to 400 degrees, and preheat both the skillet and the oven while you mix up the cornbread.3 tablespoons canola oil
- Combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl.1 ½ cups finely ground white cornmeal, ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, 3 teaspoons baking powder
- Combine the remaining 1/4 cup oil, eggs, and buttermilk in a separate small bowl.1/4 cup canola or peanut oil2 large eggs, 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk to combine and remove any lumps
- Carefully remove the hot skillet and quickly pour in the batter. Immediately return the pan to the oven.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the top and edges are light golden brown.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and let it cool slightly before serving.
Notes
- A well-seasoned cast iron skillet is recommended for the best results.
- Be sure to preheat the cast iron skillet.
- Store at room temperature for 2-3 days or a week, well wrapped, in the refrigerator. To reheat, simply put it back in the oven until it’s warmed through.
- Cornbread may be frozen in an airtight container or bag for about 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
This is the first time I have ever come across the same recipe for cornbread that my family has used for many years. My grandmother was from North Carolina and we still use that same recipe. The only difference is I put an egg in mine and use bacon grease or lard in my pan…cast iron of course. My pan is seasoned for only cornbread and Lord help the poor soul caught using it for anything else! I’m 62 now and my sons all love cornbread so I gave them all the recipe so they could carry on cooking cornbread the right way, because everyone knows you don’t put sugar in cornbread because that makes it cake. Thank you
Thanks for your comment, Toni. We enjoy lots of different forms of cornbread, but this one is my most often used recipe. And I do agree about the sugar!
I have never made good cornbread from scratch and I have tried many recipes and tips. I followed this recipe and the instructions to the letter. It was absolutely delicious, so crunchy and moist, just perfect! Thanks so much!!
That makes me so happy to hear, Cheryl! Glad I could help.
Thank you for the recipe 💕 getting ready to make my dressing for Thanksgiving. I like plain cornbread dressing.
Hope your dressing turns out great!
Hey!
Essentially a good recipe but I don’t use oil. I used melted butter along with eggs and buttermilk. I have a Lodge skillet that I bake the cornbread in. One other thing… this is my little quirk… I use half white corn meal and half yellow …. no sugar either. Have a happy day!
love corn bread and chili! And I love to break up corn bread in a bowl and pour milk on it for lunch! I’m really southern! My mom always made it for us! Now I need to .make. own , Thanks for the recipe! I can’t wait!
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy it. I have quite a few different cornbread recipes on the blog that you might also enjoy. Also lots of cornbread recipes in my cookbook.
perfect with our home ground hickory king cornmeal.
That sounds great!
I have made this recipe twice. and both times the mixture has been very thick. I followed the recipe exactly, with just one change. I used gluten free 1 to 1 baking flour. This flour substitution has never made a difference in other recipes. Could you please advise me as to what I might be doing incorrectly?
If you think the batter is too thick, add a little more buttermilk or even some water. It could be that the cornmeal you’re using is a bit dry or your buttermilk is thicker (some brands are thinner than others). Cornbread recipes like this one are very forgiving and can be adjusted without affecting the outcome.
Great corn bread! I was always taught to use yellow cornmeal, and bacon grease instead. Yours is very good, we both agree on no sugar. I like left over cornbread crumbed in a glass with milk poured on it. lol I know weird, my grandfather was a coal miner, so nothing was wasted at the table.
I’m glad you enjoyed the cornbread! There are so many different ways to make it and some people definitely prefer yellow cornmeal. Just depends on your tastes.
In the oven now!! And a second batch is on the counter waiting for it’s turn to be baked. Recipe was easy, and I like that it’s a long standing recipe ..since 2009! Had to try it! Happy thanksgiving to you all!
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well! Yes, it’s an old recipe and 2009 is when I first posted it online. However, this recipe probably goes back to the 1800s. It has been handed down through many generations of my mother’s family.
I expect this recipe to be great when I make it. My Granny from Tennessee always made her white cornbread in her cast iron skillet completely on top of her gas stove. Somehow she flipped it over to finish the cooking. Was nicely browned and crispy. Served sliced PPE with dollop of butter. Often with Navy bean soup. Sure do miss Granny. Thanks for the recipe!
Kathryn
I do hope you’ll make the recipe and that you enjoy it!
Our Granny from Jackson, Kentucky made it all the time and my Mamaw from Hazard, Kentucky, My Mom got hers from the Hazard version & that’s what I grew up on, Dad loved Milk & cornbread crumbled up in it, I liked that but only on occasion he would eat it everynight if he could, when I met my 2nd Wife from N. Kentucky she made Fried cornbread, sorta like a fried pancake but different, it was good, she also made Yellow cornbread with honey in it, and once in awhile she would make the Yellow in the little boxes, now we mix them all up, each time we have beans or something in need of it, we make a different cornbread each time as we like them all and to keep the Family recipes going with our own, we mix Pinto & Navy beans sometimes with some bacon and others with either small ham pieces, hamhock or 1 big piece of sliced virginia ham, I personally think the hamhocks give it the most really good flavor with the cornbread, I tear up 1 piece in the bowl and 1 buttered on the side hot and fresh from the oven to eat 1st.
My. Granny did cornbread in her cast iron skillet on the gas stove too. I wish now I had paid more attention to her technique, so I could do the same.
I have to order cornmeal, too, so do from Anson’s……and get both self rising & regular, white & yellow………….because use for coating so many veggies. I’m from OK & love reading the similarities that alll of us from the South do. The one must: an iron skillet. Mine belonged to my great grandmother.
I’m not sure I could cook without my iron skillets!
Iron Skillets are a must for good crisp outside on the cornbread and keeping it moist inside, I like mine just a tad burnt on the bottom. I bought a Tiny Cast Iron skillet today, not sure the size but it’s the smallest one about the size for 1 good large egg and now I can make cornbread for 1 whenever I want it as we don’t always eat a full one.
My favorite store quit carrying Hoovers cornmeal so I started searching online and ran across the 2011 05 27 Hoover Mill Tour in Chipley, FL on YouTube!
You have to watch it because guess who makes Arnett Cornmeal? And what’s the difference between Arnett’s and Hoover’s?
: )
As my Mother in Law used to say “THEE Lord have mercy!!! I’m from California but I married a Tarheel so I’m proper Southern by marriage.
I couldn’t have cornbread for a long time, I haven’t made it for anyone else since my husband died and can’t find my own recipe anywhere. The internet is filled with all kinds of strange sugar and baking soda recipes. Just no!! This is as close to how I remember mine as I’ve seen. (Oh! Some of those recipes called for “scallions” too. I never ever heard any proper Southerner call a green onion a scallion!
THANK YOU for preserving a real recipe
Your comment put a smile on my face, Linda! No sugar in the cornbread for me!
You can read all my posts above about the 4 cornbreads we love to make, 1 Yellow one with baking soda & honey, honey is for the sugar replacement, 100x better but never any regular sugar at all, but try the hone once in a yellow recipe, we like variety and mix our cornbread up with this one, the baking soda is an excellent all around health item we use as we both have Kidney disease and 1/4 tsp helps as with many other things, I also add 1 tbsp of ground flax seed to them all, you can’t taste or tell either are in them, the flax helps lower & control Blood Pressure and helps some with Cholesterol and makes these corn breads much healthier for anyone.
We have this plain recipe passed down by Granny & Mamaw from Hazard & Jackson Kentucky and my Mom made it for us growing up Dad could eat it every night with his milk, but we use 4, Fried, this one, Yellow with honey and a dash of Baking soda, and some corn in it, and on occasion the yellow in the box, we like all 4 and we switch them up each time we need cornbread to keep all Family favorites & recipes and what we like all alive and going. we like the Variety as long as we use are good, and they all 4 are, I made the Yellow last week, it’s sweeter, my Wife made this Monday, and I said for Sunday we have Lentil soup, make some fried cornbread for that.
Forgot to mention bacon grease that was heated up in the pan and then the extra poured in the cornmeal mix.
Always put enough bacon grease in a cast iron skillet, enough that at least the corners will be covered when adding the batter put in oven until hot 5-7 minutes. Pour in the batter and bake until you have crispy corners and golden brown center. That’s the way grandma did until she passed at 102 grandpa at 98. It wasn’t the bacon grease that killed them.
This is probably a good cornbread, but it shouldn’t be called old fashioned. It is a modern version. The spray oil, the egg beaters, the skim or low-fat milk? While it’s fine to make changes for health or other reasons, nothing about that is old fashioned. Old fashioned cornbread didn’t have flour either. It was cornmeal, eggs, milk or buttermilk, salt and baking powder or baking soda-if that was available. So call it what it is-a modern interpretation.
It’s pretty close though. My mom just finally gave me a great grandma’s recipe, it must be old as dirt and if you ignore the possible substitutions, the base recipe here is almost identical to it. The ratios and everything is the same. 1.5 cups cornmeal, 1/2 a cup flour, etc. Though I will say my recipe calls for shortening rather than oil, which is more old fashioned i suppose.
Lard or bacon grease. Always in aluminum canister with strainer. Sat next to stove.
Yes I forgot to add to my comments above on other posts that we also use shortening over oil, in blind taste tests which began with our Fried Salmon patties, my Wife always made an old Kentucky family recipe that was very plain and basic, I loved them, tasted like my mom’s which I never got the recipe for, and I thought lets do a blind taste test with famous recipes off youtube and other places, so we chose 6 others to test, she made 3 and I made 3, then I made her recipe. we then blind tested all 7, and we both chose her’s, so I could not figure out why the basic one was best, so we fried all of them in shortening which none of the 6 recipes did they called for oil, all were better than with oil but hers still won out, so it was clearly the shortening which she told me that’s what it was, it gives anything more flavor and we did the same with cornbread, the shortening is a difference maker, but most don’t know or realize this.