“This is the most important recipe I have of my grandmother’s,” shares granddaughter DEBORAH S. EBERMAN (Gulf Breeze, Florida). “This one food touches my heart when I think of my grandmother and touches my soul when I think of our huge family sitting around her table, sharing a meal together. Each time we ate it, someone would declare that it was the best she’d ever made,” Deborah recalls. Her most precious memories—holiday dressing, cold winter days with soup, or summer days with wilted lettuce—all involve this recipe. Her grandmother was CLARA LILLIAN VERNON WADE (Fort Smith, Arkansas).
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening or bacon drippings
2 ½ cups cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 heaping teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 ½ cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2 Put the shortening in a 9 × 11-inch pan and place in the oven to warm while you mix the cornbread.
3 In a large bowl mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and sugar together with a wooden spoon. Add the buttermilk and stir.
4 Remove the melted shortening from the oven and pour into the cornmeal mixture. Add the eggs and mix again with a wooden spoon.
5 Pour the batter into the warm pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the center tests done with a toothpick.
MAKES 8 TO 10 SERVINGS.
NOTE: For the perfect cornbread, it’s important to use a wooden spoon and not to overmix. Once you combine dry and wet ingredients, you want to mix enough to moisten but not too much, or the finished bread may turn out tough or dry.