Skillet Cornbread

The other day, a friend asked if I knew how to make cornbread. Of course I do! When I was a young girl, my mother and I- oh, no, wait, I'm a guy. Men who leave the South have a different set of skills: grilling, mowing the yard, repairing the, uh, carburetor? OK, let's face it - I have the skill set of a metrosexual 20-something. I can wear slim, designer slacks, choose a fierce bottle of wine, and wire a set of audiophile loudspeakers in two minutes flat. But the goal of this blog is to shatter that glass ceiling in my kitchen, so why not bake some cornbread this weekend? This particular recipe came from Food Network's website (link at the bottom) and was chosen almost entirely because it involved bacon (and, as we know, a meal with bacon is better than a meal without).

The preliminary steps - and those that make this recipe different from other cornbread recipes - is to cook up some bacon, minced garlic, and jalapeños. These will act as the flavor base in the crusty top of the cornbread since we'll be pouring the cornmeal mix right on top of these and their greasy, delicious juices. Cook the garlic and jalapeños until they've softened and the bacon has browned, but remember that we'll be baking them for almost half an hour. To be honest, you're not going to be able to taste the jalapeño if you use less than the recommended four, so don't be squeamish. The taste of the cornbread itself will far overpower the other ingredients unless you get a bite consisting mostly of bacon, and the bacon grease won't absorb the garlic or jalapeno flavoring because it's, well, grease. We Southerners sure know how to eat healthy, amIright?

We see here combined two separate containers. In the first, cornmeal (my only option was Quaker brand; I guess there's not a lot of competition in Albany grocery stores), baking powder, baking soda (they're different, but no one knows how), salt, and pepper. In the second, buttermilk, two eggs lightly beaten (here's an opening for a joke, but my mind is a barren wasteland), and melted butter. Then mix these two together to form the batter we'll be adding straight into the skillet. It may seem like a lot in the bowl, but it should nicely fill a 10" skillet (the one shown is 12", which the ladies prefer [groan]).

The first picture here is the batter in the skillet before baking, the second 25 minutes later (oven at 450). It came out just right. Insert a knife and if it comes out damp or greasy, stick the skillet back in the oven. Technically, this has been prepared upside down and you can flip it over onto a serving plate, but I'd recommend against this. For one, this top is better looking than the crispy bottom (compare pictures three and four, respectively). For two, a cast iron skillet is heavy and you'll never keep the bread intact while flipping. So cut in, serve, and enjoy. I know cornbread is usually eaten with a meal, but I think this is a sufficient enough amount of work for a bachelor.
Food Network's recipe: Skillet Cornbread