Cornbread with Hot Peppers

Small pickled tabasco peppers that I use in my chili. Buttermilk, bacon grease, and a very hot cast iron skillet. My grandmother's cornbread recipe. Goes good with the spicy bean soup I made again today.

Granny’s Cornbread

For this recipe you’ll need an 8-inch cast iron skillet and some bacon grease. I keep a little jar of it in the fridge just for making cornbread. Oil will do in a pinch but it won’t have as much flavor.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. The trick is to stick the cast iron pan in the oven for a few minutes to let it get hot and then add about a tablespoon of bacon grease and get that hot so when you pour the batter in you get a sizzle. That is what makes a nice crust.

Dry ingredients:

1 cup yellow corn meal

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder (heaping)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Wet ingredients:

2 cups buttermilk (approx.)

1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients together and mix the egg and buttermilk together and then combine. You don’t want to stir it too much, just make sure everything is mixed together well; the batter should be fairly thin, almost like a pancake batter.

Pour into blazing hot cast iron skillet and bake at 450 for 23-25 minutes until cooked through and browned on top.