CORNBREAD PERFECTED
We give you the best recipe
Michael Nelson is one of those satisfying, curious cooks who, when he decides to make something, goes about mastering it.
About 10 years ago, when he wanted to make cornbread, he said to himself “OK, let’s dive deep into this.”
The former engineer and retired former assistant deputy minister quickly learned that there’s a divide in cornbread tastes so deep that Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) once said: “Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as good as Southern corn bread, and perhaps no bread in the world is quite as bad as the Northern imitation of it.”
Nelson tried both persuasions — about 11 variations in all — before coming up with the perfect cross between the two and adding his own Canadian twist with a dash of maple syrup. Along the way, he discovered a meticulously researched six-step method for seasoning cast-iron pans that’s so effective, he brought his mother’s rusty old pan up to a non-stick sheen that’s as smooth as glass. He also learned which kind of cornmeal, available in Ottawa, gives the best “snappy, gritty mouth-feel.”
I tried his recipe, both with all the careful recommendations and more cavalierly, with regular cornmeal and whole wheat flour, and I agree: this is the best cornbread recipe — better with his innovations, but superior even without them.
Nelson says his final recipe is actually pretty basic, but a few things make it great.
“First, there is the satisfying experience of pouring the cornbread into the very hot (usually sizzling) cast-iron skillet,” he says. “You just know that the heat is creating the crust that will caramelize the sugar and create just enough resistance to make every bite a wonderful crunchy bit of work.”
This is the best cornbread recipe — better with his (Michael Nelson’s) innovations, but superior even without them.
5 tenets of great cornbread
1. Butter can be better: “Another variation I’ve tried with the same recipe is to use butter in the skillet rather than oil,” says Michael Nelson. “I actually prefer that because it adds a burnt butter taste to the crust. Problem is that you really have to keep an eye on it as the pan preheats in the oven, or you will be very sad as the smoke detector goes off, the dog howls and you have to clean the pan again before you use it. So I went with the oil version in the recipe.”
2. Sweet idea: “You will likely find that there is not a big maple-syrup flavour in my recipe,” says Nelson. “The syrup is really only there as a sweetener in place of another two tablespoons of sugar. You could certainly add more syrup, but I suspect that it would need to be a fair bit more and might make the batter too sloppy. My conclusion was that a teaspoon of syrup drizzled over top of a piece/cob of the cornbread was a much more effective use of the maple syrup (beyond the amount that is in the batter).”
3. Don’t serve this to Southerners: “The amount of sugar and maple syrup would still make most Southern purists gag,” says Nelson, “but this recipe is also inspired by Northern cornbread tastes.”
4. Same-day serving: Cornbread really is best hot out of the oven, perhaps with a pat of butter melting on top. Nelson says it isn’t even worth eating the next day, but his wife likes it toasted.
5. The pan is key: “Use of a properly seasoned cast iron pan is a part of the fun because the cornbread just pops out of the pan,” says Nelson — plus there’s that satisfying sizzle when you pour the cool batter into the hot pan. Nelson follows the lead of blogger Sheryl Canter when it comes to seasoning technique. (To find her article online, Google her name and “cast iron.”) “Essentially, you use incredibly thin layers of flaxseed oil, baked on at 450-500 F, six times. Not something you do often,” says Nelson. “But I’ve done it, and it produces a nicely non-stick pan.” says Nelson. “The necessary ritual of carefully cleaning your cast-iron pan and adding a tiny skim of oil before putting it away is a reminder of a different time, when such things were part of a daily routine.” Nelson has used his seasoning knowhow to rescue an old, rusty castiron pan from my mother in Nova Scotia: “I reduced it to bare iron in the self-cleaning cycle in my oven, and then applied the seasoning. So I now have my mom’s ancient cast-iron pan as a functioning part of my kitchen.”