Southern Skillet Cornbread (No Sugar)
Whole cornmeal, buttermilk and one egg poured into a smoking-hot cast-iron skillet of bacon fat, so it sizzles into a crisp, brown crust. No sugar, a little flour, and ready in 45 minutes.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Cornbread is America's oldest bread argument. Two of the earliest American cookbooks already split on sweetness. Amelia Simmons's "American Cookery" (Hartford, 1796) makes its "Johny Cake, or Hoe Cake" from Indian meal, milk and a little wheat flour, with a variation that adds "salt, molasses and shortening" (Project Gutenberg:). Mary Randolph's "The Virginia House-Wife" (1824) makes "Corn Meal Bread" from cornmeal, butter, eggs, milk and yeast, with no sweetener at all (Project Gutenberg:). Today the line is usually drawn North and South: America's Test Kitchen describes its Southern skillet cornbread as having neither sugar nor flour, savory enough to sit with the main course, unlike sweeter Northern versions. Southern food writer Sheri Castle's recipe for King Arthur, adapted here, is "skillet-born, sugar-free, and bacon-blessed". Why the South stopped sweetening is DISPUTED (see Rules).
🇺🇸 This one is American
Whole cornmeal, buttermilk and one egg poured into a smoking-hot cast-iron skillet of bacon fat, so it sizzles into a crisp, brown crust. No sugar, a little flour, and ready in 45 minutes.
🇺🇸 The original
The original is succotash: corn and beans cooked together, the Three Sisters of Native American farming with squash beside them. See the Three Sisters Succotash recipe.
📖 Myth check: Should Cornbread Have Sugar? The North vs South Fight → 📖 Origin story: Where Did Parker House Rolls Come From? →
Why it works the kitchen science
A screaming-hot skillet
Batter hitting fat that has heated with the oven fries the outside instantly, giving the crisp, brown, almost crackly crust that defines Southern skillet cornbread.
Buttermilk and soda
The acid in real buttermilk reacts with the baking soda for lift and gives the tang that stands in for sugar; King Arthur calls fresh liquid buttermilk essential to the recipe.
🧰 You'll need 6 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Put the bacon fat in a 9 to 10-inch cast-iron skillet, set it in the oven and heat the oven to 450°F. Let the skillet heat at least 15 minutes, until the fat shimmers.
- Step 2
Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Step 3
Whisk the egg and buttermilk in a second bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid, and stir only until blended; a few lumps are fine.
- Step 4
Pull out the hot skillet with a thick oven mitt, swirl the fat up the sides, and pour in the batter. It should sizzle and pop.
- Step 5
Bake about 25 minutes, until the top is golden and the center springs back when pressed.
✓ What it should look like - Step 6
Turn the cornbread out onto a board or rack so the bottom stays crisp. Cut into 8 wedges and serve hot.
Southern Skillet Cornbread (No Sugar)
Serves 8 · one 9 to 10-inch round · 45 min total
- 1/4 cup (50 g) bacon fat
- 1 1/2 cups (245 g) whole-grain cornmeal
- 1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups (340 g) buttermilk, well shaken
Equipment: Oven, 10-inch cast-iron skillet, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowls, Whisk
Method
- Put the bacon fat in a 9 to 10-inch cast-iron skillet, set it in the oven and heat the oven to 450°F. Let the skillet heat at least 15 minutes, until the fat shimmers.
- Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Whisk the egg and buttermilk in a second bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid, and stir only until blended; a few lumps are fine.
- Pull out the hot skillet with a thick oven mitt, swirl the fat up the sides, and pour in the batter. It should sizzle and pop.
- Bake about 25 minutes, until the top is golden and the center springs back when pressed.
- Turn the cornbread out onto a board or rack so the bottom stays crisp. Cut into 8 wedges and serve hot.
Adapted from King Arthur Baking, "Skillet Cornbread" by Sheri Castle (updated July 15, 2022), as written for one 9-inch skillet (we call it 8 servings). America's Test Kitchen's "Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread" is linked for comparison (it uses no flour and toasts the cornmeal first). King Arthur Baking. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Make-ahead (ours): whisk the dry ingredients together Wednesday and keep them covered. Bake Thursday while the turkey rests; cornbread is best within an hour.
- No bacon fat? Use butter, lard or vegetable oil, or a mix.
- If you want it sweet, whisk 2 to 4 tbsp sugar into the dry ingredients. You will be starting an argument.
- A 10-inch skillet gives a thinner, crustier round; a 9-inch one a taller, softer one.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Southern cornbread never has sugar. Disputed: ATK and King Arthur's Sheri Castle make it with none, and Mary Randolph's 1824 Virginia corn meal bread has none, but Simmons's 1796 johnny cake already had molasses, and plenty of Southern cooks sweeten theirs.
- Sugar crept in because cornmeal lost its sweetness to modern milling. Disputed: repeated on food sites (search summaries only) with no source we could check.
- Sugar was too expensive for Southern cooks. Folklore: a common explanation in search results, without sources.
- No flour allowed. Disputed: ATK uses none; King Arthur's Southern recipe uses 1/2 cup so the coarse whole-grain meal holds together.
- It must be cast iron. Folklore: cast iron holds the heat best, but any heavy ovenproof skillet works.
- White cornmeal for the South, yellow for the North. Folklore: widely said, not sourced here.
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