"Bob Terwilliger" wrote

> To me, unsweetened cornbread seems to go better with Tex-Mex or Mexican
> food than it does with most Southern food.

Works and we are used to it. Then again, have you ever had cracklin'
cornbread?

Here's how it works:

Traditional: Heat skillet (cast iron) and add chopped up pig skin with fat
layer. Put your wire or whatever cover to prevent splatters. Let that
render down for about 20 mins or so until they are crisp. Scoup crackings
out of pan to a drying area (cloth towels in the old days but paper today).
You want about 1/4 cup. Pour off the fat then return about 1/4 cup to the
pan. In a bowl, mix your cracklins, salt, 1/4 cup fat, baking powder, 1 TB
or so of sweetner (white or brown sugar, sourghum, molasis etc), and roughly
4 cups of corn meal then enough water to make a fairly thick batter. Pour
back into pan then bake until done.

More recent and health concious: Heat skillet and fry up a little bacon or
sausage (pork skin still allowed but less likely to be handy). Pour off all
but 2 TB or so of fat from pan and reserve bacon/sausage/cracklins. In a
bowl, mix 2-3TB fat, then the salt, baking powder, 1 TB sugar (or other
sweetner), cracklins or whatever meat you used, 4 cups corn meal, and again
enough water to make a fairly thick batter. Pour in pan and bake.

Very similar recipe, just reduced the fat a bit which can lead to sticking
problems.

> I bet Paula Deen sweetens *her* cornbread -- or even uses those Jiffy
> mixes.

I'm not a big Paula Deen fan though she's got a few interesting recipes that
are 'gen-u-whine'.