Kids’ Kitchen: Old-Fashioned Cornbread

We just finished reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. It was such a great book about a boy growing up in the Ozark Mountains in the 1930s. His mother cooked some of the meals I grew up on in rural Tennessee. When Billy, the boy in the story, talked about eating cornbread it made me think of the cornbread my grandmother used to make every Sunday for our family’s dinners. She would make it in her iron skillet before church and cover it with a tea cloth to await us at dinner time. I loved to crumble my piece into my pinto beans and top it with stewed tomatoes. It was a Southern delicacy.

So, for our Where the Red Fern Grows book club, I thought it would be fun to teach the kids how to make traditional old-fashioned cornbread. The kids enjoyed mixing the ingredients and listening to the sizzle of the cornbread as it was poured into the skillet. And, of course, the most fun was everyone got to try old-fashioned cornbread. (We even made homemade butter to go on top.)

Old-Fashioned Cornbread Ingredients

Print Recipe

Old Fashioned Cornbread Recipe

A savory Southern cornbread made with simple ingredients.

Course

Side Dish

Cuisine

American

Keyword

cornbread

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Passive Time

5 minutes

Servings

pieces

Ingredients

• 3 cups self-rising cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp oil or butter

Course Side Dish Cuisine American Keyword cornbread Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Passive Time 5 minutes Servings pieces Ingredients 3 cups self-rising cornmeal 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1 egg 1 tsp salt 3 Tbsp oil or butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a cast iron skillet, add enough oil to cover the bottom. Slowly tilt the skillet until the bottom and sides are covered in oil.
3. Place the iron skillet on the stove and heat the oil while preparing the cornbread mix.
4. Mix the cornmeal and salt in a bowl.
5. Whisk the egg and the buttermilk together in a separate bowl.
6. Combine the dry and wet ingredients.
7. Add approximately 1/2 - 1 cup of water until the consistency is easily stirred and thin enough to pour into the skillet.
8. *Adult Job* Slowly and carefully add the cornmeal mixture to the skillet. Be careful not to splash the hot oil when pouring. The cornmeal will begin to sizzle. This is creating the crust of the cornmeal which is my favorite part.
9. *Adult Job* Place the hot skillet (use oven mitts) into the heated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Cornbread is ready when it is beginning to turn brown on the top and a toothpick can be cleanly removed from the middle.

Recipe Notes

Most of this recipe can be prepared by a child. Our book club has members between ages 5 and 10. However, the skillet will be very hot and heavy. An adult will need to help when moving it to the oven.

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