Finally Learned to Cook...

 ... At an age when my metabolism has taken a nap!

I was thinking of my mother today when I turned out the perfect skillet of cornbread. I've made cornbread maybe 10 times in my life, but only a few times has it come out so wonderfully. You know cornbread is good when you can just eat it solo right out of the skillet.

Mama (and my sister) could make cornbread like this without even thinking about it. Of course, they both swore that they made their best cornbread when it was meant to go into the holiday dressing. I didn't even learn to cook decently until I was close to being 50. That's coming from someone in a family where even the fellows all can cook.

The first time I made something really good was done on a whim. I wanted some pinto beans, and my sister wasn't feeling up to cooking. My oldest brother happened to be visiting at the time. When my sister came down and tasted the beans, she did a doubletake. She gave my brother a spoonful to taste. He looked at her, then they both looked at me. I was sure they were going to drag me for messing up a pound of pinto beans.

Nope. The first thing one of them asked was where I learned to make the beans so well. You know I was glowing with joy. I told them I'd read the instructions on the bag. And that was the day they both learned that there are instructions on the bag.

For a long time after that, I cooked a lot of beans - pinto beans, mostly, but I also learned to make decent navy beans. The thing is, any kind of bean or stew-like dish in our family goes with cornbread. If you don't have cornbread to go with the beans, we all become Smokey from "Friday".

I slowly learned to cook some of the things that had been staples in our home. I learned to fix what we think of as Mama's Texas Bean Stew (pinto beans, ground beef, and a host of seasonings and secret ingredients); I can do baked chicken pretty well, and I do all the fish, pork, and veggie-based recipes. I learned fast how to make hot water cornbread, too.  But the cast iron skillet cornbread was my stumbling block.

Cornbread isn't hard to make, but it can be tricky to make it perfectly. "Perfect" means like my mama. It means a tender center with a crispy crust and a buttery, melt in your mouth crumb. Very, very tricky.

Even now that I know the hacks for Mama's cornbread, I don't always get it right. Any little variation in the alignment of the stars can ruin it! 

I long ago posted the quick recipe on the sidebar and added to the Sidebar Recipes page:

I did not share my hacks though. Until now. Ready?

• Always get your lightly oiled cast iron skillet sizzling hot before pouring the batter. I heat the skillet at 450F (not 400 as in my recipe above) & test the sizzle with a drop of water. (Turn the oven down to 400F for baking.)
• Always let the batter rest. A couple of hours at minimum but overnight in the fridge is best. 
• Always add the baking powder last. Even if you rest the batter overnight, don't add this ingredient until just before you are going to pour the batter.
• If you forget & add the baking powder beforehand, that's not a disaster, but... it's just better not to.
• Let the rested batter come to room temp (about 65-70F) before adding the baking powder. Gently fold it in and don't overmix the batter.
• Before pouring the batter, add a little more oil.
• When the batter is poured, add some small and random pats of butter around the top of it.

Like I said, there will be times when your bread is better than it is at other times. I have never learned the trick to getting it just right every time...

If you luck out, you will get what I do on the best of days:

As I told my family, I wouldn't have been such a skinny minnie when I was younger if I'd known how to cook!

Peace

--Free