This is not a traditional southern cornbread because it has flour and sugar in it; but is fairly moist. My DH loves this cornbread! It's from an old Boston Cooking School Cookbook - a 1934 reprint of a 1930 cookbook.

Golden Corn Cake

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
2 tbsp shortening, melted

Mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk, egg and shortening. Bake in shallow, buttered pan 20 minutes in hot oven (425 degrees). For shortening, butter, chicken fat or beef drippings can be used.

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For shortening I use either butter or vegetable oil and I usually cut the amount of sugar back to 1/4 cup. Bake in a 9x13 pan.

This is my fav cornbread, which has a fine crumb plus a bit of sugar. I found it in a Middle Eastern cookbook, and its attribution is Turkish. Sorry for the non-standard measurements - I have a kitchen scale just for these oddities.

4 oz flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 oz cornmeal
2 eggs
14 fl oz plain yogurt
3 tbsp olive oil

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix the eggs, yogurt and olive oil, then stir into the dry stuff. Batter should be smooth, but don't overmix. Bake in a greased pan at 425F for 20-30 minutes.

This is odd, but really good. It separates into three layers, corn on top, wheat on the bottom, and a custard-ey layer in the middle. From the Tassajara Bread Book:

Three Layer Cornbread

* 1 cup cornmeal -- (coarse ground works best)
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup white flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg
* 1/4 - 1/2 cup honey
* 1/4 cup oil
* 3 cups milk

1. Combine dry ingredients.

2. Combine wet ingredients and mix together. Mixture will be quite watery.

3. Pour into greased 9" square pan or a cast iron skillet.

4. Bake 50 minutes at 350ð or until top is springy when touched.

This is our favorite basic cornbread:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Perfect Corn Bread

Recipe By : Katie
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow corn meal
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup soft shortening

Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt; stir in corn meal.

Add eggs, milk, and shortening.

Beat with rotary or electric beater till just smooth, about 1 minute. (Do not overbeat.)

Pour into greased 9x9x2-inch pan.

Bake in hot oven (425F) 20-25 minutes.

Corn bread sticks: Spoon batter into greased corn-stick pans, filling 2/3 full. Bake in hot oven (425F) 12-15 minutes or till done.

Source:
"Better homes and Gardens New Cookbook, early to mid 60's."

After trying dozens of recipes, this is our favorite.

Alexa
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Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread from Ina Garten

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease the pan
8 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts, plus extra for garnish, 3 scallions
3 tablespoons seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers
Directions
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don't overmix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking pan.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I think I've posted this before, but this one from Blanchard's is a family favorite:

Blanchard's Caribbean Cornbread
Serves 8

1 cup All-purpose flour
1 cup Cornmeal
2 tablespoons Baking powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) Unsalted butter, at room
temperature
3/4 cup Sugar
4 Large eggs
1 1/2 cups Cream-style corn
1/2 cup Canned crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup Shredded Monterey jack cheese

Preheat the oven to 325. Butter and flour a 9-inch square glass cake pan. Whisk together the flour, corn meal, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. While the mixer is running, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the corn, pineapple and cheese and mix to blend. On a low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until blended well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden brown around the edges and a cake tester stuck in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

I love cornbread. I have two favourite recipes. Depending on how I feel, I will bake cornbread in muffin tins, loaf pans, springform pans or cast iron skillet.

If you don't care for a sweet style cornbread just reduce the sugar.

This recipe makes a very moist cornbread.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Cornbread Muffins
=================
I have a number of cornbread recipes
That I make but this is the most
Tender,
Melt in your mouth cornbread recipe
You can make it in muffin tins, loaf
Pan
Or a springform pan
1 egg
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk, warmed
1 cup cake flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar (increase sugar to suit taste)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Beat the egg, melted butter and the oil until well blended. Stir in the milk. In a separate bowl, blend the cake flour with the cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add to the egg mixture and stir until just blended. This is a very light, loose batter. Spoon into desired pan and bake until golden. If making muffins this will take 15 to 20 minutes to bake. It will take longer in a loaf pan or a springform pan.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Cornbread Loaf
==============
1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
6 tablespoons melted and cooled butter
8 tablespoons melted and cooled vegetable shortening
1-1/2 cups milk
.

preheat the oven to 400ðF. sift into a mixing bowl the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Beat the eggs lightly, add the melted butter and shortening, and stir in the 1 1/2 cups of milk. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and beat together for about a minute, or
until smooth. Do not overbeat. Lightly butter an 8 x 12 inch shallow baking pan and pour in the batter. Bake in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the bread comes slightly away from the edge of the pan and is golden brown. If you wish you make bake the cornbread in a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan or in muffin tins. Increase the
baking time to 45 minutes if using a loaf pan.

Also great baked in a cast iron skillet.

My favorite recipe for a savory (as opposed to sweet) cornbread is from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. He calls it 'Southern Corn Bread'--no sugar, and you use white corn meal. (Whether it's white or yellow isn't nearly as important as how fresh the meal is. Old meal is bitter, fresh meal is sweet.) I use this recipe when I make cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving; a quadruple recipe just barely fits into a 5 quart KitchenAid mixer bowl, and into an 11 x 14 pan. Absolutely delicious. If you have access to freshly ground corn meal, it'll be plenty sweet. So try to buy your meal in a store that seems to have a good turnover of corn meal.

2 eggs, room temp
2 cups buttermilk, room temp
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups white cornmeal (but yellow is okay, too)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven and baking utensil (skillet or 9 x 9 pan) to 450 while mixing batter.

In a small bowl beat the eggs and mix in the buttermilk. In a mixer bowl, mix the baking soda, cornmeal and salt. Pour in the egg-buttermilk mixture and mix well until smooth.

Pour batter into the preheated pan, return to oven for 20 to 25 minutes. It's done when a knife inserted into the center of the pan comes out

whoops, cut off my message. The last sentence should be
"It's done when a knife inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean."

The recipe I use for cornbread:

Sundowner Cornbread

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup unsifted flour
1/2 cup sugar (I use 1/4 cup sugar)
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoon butter

Mix all together just enough to blend. Pour into greased 8" x 8" pan and bake at 425 degree oven about 20 min. Cut into squares. Serve hot with butter. I often use a round 9" x 9" pan.

From: The Complete Yogurt Cookbook by Karen Cross Whyte

Sour cream or buttermilk in place of the yogurt would probably yield similar results.

IMy favorite is exactly the one that cspittell posted....from the exact same cook book!!
After experimenting with a lot of recipes, I have discovered I like one with more flour than cornmeal, and one with a fair amount of sugar, and I also use butter for the shortening. BUT remember your cornbread is only as good as your cornmeal. The stuff in the round box at the grocery store won't be anywhere nearly as good as fresh stone ground cornmeal will be.
Linda C

You guys are great.. Lots to choose from. Seeing as two people suggested the same recipe, that's the one I will try first and bake as muffins.

Linda, I have popcorn and a Nutrimill. Should I grind my own corn?

I don't think popcorn has that "corney" taste that field corn does....

If you are looking for a source of corn for your mill, check out Lehmans.

Here is a link that might be useful: corn

I 1/2 cups Martha White hot rise cornmeal mix
One cup or more buttermilk, depending how thin you want the batter to be.

That's all. Just two ingredients. Just mix it up and pour in a well seasoned iron skillet. Bake 475 degrees for 20 min's

This recipe is delicious.

We've had a lot of great cornbread recipes around here over the years as well as some good ole sweet or not debates, but there are some great sounding ones here. Christy said she's going to make red beans this weekend and while she doesn't eat cornbread, I love it so I'm going to try one or two of these. That one that separates is very interesting, especially since I love custard.

Wow, some of these recipes are great! This is my granmother's recipe. we use fresh mielies (corn) as they grow in abundance in the summer. Out of season we use a tin of creamstyle sweetcorn.
125g margarine
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup corn meal
1 cup self raising flour
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups grated fresh mielies
or 1 tin cream style sweetcorn
Method:
Beat sugar and margarine together. Beat eggs and milk together. Sift corn meal and flour together. Gradually add egg mixture to flour mixture. Add mielies and mix properly. You my have to adjust milk depending on what corn you are using. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 35-40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

OK farosa, you gave it away!! LOL. Do you remember being woken up early in the morning... MIEleeeeeeeeeeees, MIEleeeeeeeeees.

Do you still live so "deep in the south" or have you moved :)

I made cspittell's/ Lindac's recipe last night. I doubled it and made it in muffin tins. I got 20 muffins with very high domes but boy were they good. I also went all "yogurt girl", according to my friend LOL, and ground the cornmeal from organic popcorn. That may be the reason or maybe not but those were the best muffins I've had in a long time.

Arley - I made yours last night - intrigued by the no sugar aspect. Excellent.

Would love to try the one that separates, but don't see coarse cornmeal at Whole Foods.

OK farosa, you gave it away!! LOL. Do you remember being woken up early in the morning... MIEleeeeeeeeeeees, MIEleeeeeeeeees.

Do you still live so "deep in the south" or have you moved :)

I made cspittell's/ Lindac's recipe last night. I doubled it and made it in muffin tins. I got 20 muffins with very high domes but boy were they good. I also went all "yogurt girl", according to my friend LOL, and ground the cornmeal from organic popcorn. That may be the reason or maybe not but those were the best muffins I've had in a long time.

I made the recipe from the link below exactly as stated, except I used organic cornmeal and "organic soft red winter wheat whole wheat flour." I'm mentioning this flour in a different thread here, since I'm trying to start using it more from a friend who grows it.

The recipe turned out very moist, with a tiny bit of crunch, and both sweet and tart at the same time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread from all Recipes