It perhaps stands in opposition to just about everything most people think they know about Southern food, but true Southern cornbread is not sweet.
Neither is the cornbread fifth-generation Tennesseean Anne Byrn was raised with. Neither is the cornbread she makes in her own kitchen, which is the same that goes into her very best turkey dressing recipe.
And by the way: In the South, it's not stuffing ― it's dressing. Always dressing.
What makes Byrn's so special?
"As my grandmother did, if you have the timing just right when the turkey is out of the oven you get a ladleful of turkey drippings and drizzle that over the top of the dressing," she said. "That is the pinnacle. It doesn't get any better than that."
That's the sort of trick you learn from years spent watching relatives in the kitchen, she said.
"The holidays are a good time to do that," she said. "Just watching, being there and taking notes. People who are older I think are honored when people notice what they're doing, whether that's cooking or sewing."
Like the trick she picked up from watching her mother make creamy but crisp fried corncakes, which her father would relish with white bean soup.
Byrn mimics that crunch and creamy interior by adding lots and lots of buttermilk to her batter. She pours it into a very hot skillet that's also extra big so the batter spreads out along the heated iron and picks up even deeper crunch.
When the cornbread is ready, she flips it out of the skillet so it doesn't steam and then slices it like a pizza. She loves the thin and crispy wedges, even while her husband prefers a fluffier, cakier cornbread.
"Cornbread is deeply personal, and we all have our own take on it," she said. "And that's OK."
But Byrn maintains that her cornbread's crisp crust makes the very best dressing because it adds the perfect textural contrast to the softer breads that make up about half of her recipe.
However, she said, she finds that as she gets older, she prefers to tip the bread balance closer to a cornbread majority for the flavor and structure it brings.
"This brings to mind that dressing is something you can really personalize," she said. "I used to just do a third of cornbread, a third of French bread and a third of soft bread, but the ratios are completely up to you. If you want it to be all cornbread, then make it all cornbread."
And definitely make your cornbread at least a day in advance, she said. That's part of what makes this dressing such a good recipe for "do-aheaders."
Do leave your bread out on the counter to dry. Don't forget dry bread soaks up more moisture, of course. The dryer your bread, the more stock you'll need for your stuffing.
"It's better to err on the side of too much (moisture) than not enough," she said. "We've all had cornbread dressing that's too dry and clumps on the plate and everyone is scrambling for the gravy."
The following recipes and headnotes were contributed by Byrn. Sign up for her newsletter and learn more about her Southern cookbooks at annebyrn.com.
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Black skillet cornbread
The goal is to create a crisp, delicious crust on the top, bottom and sides, so that when you slice this into wedges, you will enjoy cornbread the way it was intended to be, back before Jiffy, before cheese, sour cream and all the add-ins were piled into the batter. Back when crisp cornbread was a daily bread.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or bacon grease) for greasing the skillet
- 2 cups finely ground white cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups whole fat buttermilk
Instructions
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 450.
Place the oil in a 12-inch, cast-iron skillet, and place the pan in the oven while it preheats.
Place the cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Stir in the ¼ cup oil and the buttermilk until smooth. If the batter seems too thick, thin it with a little water or milk. Remove the skillet from the oven when it is quite hot and nearly smoking, and pour in the batter. It should sizzle. Place the pan in the oven and bake until it is deeply browned, about 12 to 17 minutes.
Run a knife around the edges of the pan. Immediately turn it out onto a wooden cutting board, bottom side up. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut it into wedges.
Anne Byrn's best turkey dressing
When the turkey is out of the oven and resting before being carved, you can pop the dressing in the oven. And if you want to make this dressing vegetarian-friendly, omit the sausage and use vegetable broth. This feeds a dozen people. And I haven't forgotten folks who prefer stuffing! It is enough mixture to stuff into an 18- to 20-pound bird. Follow the directions that come with the turkey for stuffing and roasting, by the way. This recipe can be easily doubled; you just bake two casseroles, or bake one casserole and stuff a turkey with the other.
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 2 cups chopped onion (2 medium onions)
- 2 cups chopped unpeeled apple (2 medium apples)
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 pound Italian or breakfast sausage, or 1 pound mushrooms, chopped
- 4 cups crumbled cornbread
- 3 cups crumbled soft bread, such as challah, potato bread, sandwich bread or hamburger buns
- 2 cups crumbled French bread
- 1½ teaspoons dried thyme leaves (or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves)
- 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- About 2 cups turkey or chicken broth
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the onion to a large mixing bowl, and place the skillet back over the heat.
Add 2 more tablespoons of butter to the skillet and when it melts, add the apple and cook, stirring, until lightly colored but not mushy, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer the apple to the mixing bowl with the onion.
Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the skillet. Add the celery and cook, stirring, until it softens, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer the celery to the mixing bowl.
Place the skillet back over the heat and crumble the sausage into it, or add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring to break up the sausage, until it is lightly browned and has cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes, and half that time for the mushrooms. Drain the sausage on paper towels, then add it or the mushrooms to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients and stir to combine.
Add the cornbread, soft bread, French bread, thyme, parsley and eggs to the bowl, and stir just to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour in enough broth to really moisten the dressing. If you need more than 2 cups, add it! Spoon the dressing into a greased 13x9-inch glass baking dish. (If desired, spoon a big ladleful of the roasted turkey’s pan juices from the cooked turkey on top.)
Bake the dressing, uncovered, until it browns lightly on top and is firm to the touch, about 45 minutes. Let the dressing cool 5 minutes, then cover with foil to keep warm.
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