The following recipe for a DIY Sweet Cornbread Mix is from SurvivalBlog reader “St. Funogas”.
This should more properly be called D**n Yankee Cornbread Mix since no self-respecting Southerner would put sugar in their cornbread. Adjust ingredients as needed.
I make this mix in batches large enough to fit a two-quart mason jar, which makes 10 servings in the microwave in a 5” x 7” Pyrex dish, or 5 servings of 8 x 8 cornbread in a conventional oven.
This recipe will work after the grid goes down since the ingredients (or substitutes) will still be home-produced by many preppers.
One quick note about cornmeal: Cornmeal can be made from any kind of corn: field, sweet, and even popcorn. I’ve read, but not yet tried, that freshly-ground cornmeal has a better taste than store-bought since many of the flavor-producing volatile oils are still present. Also, popcorn meal has an extra-special, sweet, nutty flavor.
If you’re not accustomed to using grams when cooking, give it a try. Put the mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and zero it out. Then re-zero after adding each new ingredient. You’ll have four fewer dishes to wash afterward and won’t have to worry about whether the cup of flour is too airy, too packed, or just right.
Dry MIX Ingredients
- 550 grams Flour (4½ cups)
- 550 grams Cornmeal (3½ cups)
- 465 grams Sugar (2⅓ cups)
- 50 grams Baking Powder (¼ cup)
- 1 T Salt
Mix-Making Directions
Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well mixed, then mix it some more to be sure the baking powder is as evenly dispersed as possible. The cornbread mix will be fluffy from the blending process, so after filling a 2-quart jar, so shake it or roll the jar between your palms as it sits on the countertop. This will settle the mix so all of it will fit into the jar.
Cornbread Cooking Ingredients
I use a white plastic lid on the 2-quart jar and have the recipe written with a fine point Sharpie pen, right on the lid.
- 1 egg
- 124 grams Milk (½ cup)
- 2 T Oil
- 208 grams Cornbread Mix (1¼ cups)
Stir the egg, milk, and oil together until well blended. Add 208 grams of mix and stir just enough until blended. Pour the batter into an ungreased 5″ x 7″ Pyrex dish and microwave for 4 minutes. If using a conventional oven to cook, double the recipe and cook in an 8″ x 8″ pan at 400°F for 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. You may need to adjust the time.
Brew some coffee while waiting and top the cornbread with butter as soon as it comes out of the microwave or oven. Enjoy!
STORAGE
The dry mix portion of this recipe will store for several months is kept ina cool dry place. That can be stretched for additional months, if vacuum-packed in jars, using the canning jar lid attachment for a Foodsaver or similar home vacuum-packing machine.
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LMAO!!!
Is it OK if us Yankee’s use molasses?
I’m a Southerner and I prefer non-sweet cornbread, but I love to put some molasses on top of it and eat it for dessert, it sure makes for a delicious treat!
Being an European reader here at Survivalblog, I certainly appreciate St. Funogas reliance on metric measurements.
I love the US, but every time I find an American recipe I’d like to try, and read about cups and tablespoons, I groan in despair… 🙂
Please consider expanding this to a small series!
Daniele
Hey Daniele, it’s an uphill battle trying to get people to try out a metric scale in their cooking. I’m not sure if they’re afraid of grams or just love washing all those extra dishes for the exercise? I converted over after a European business associate read me the riot act when we were exchanging recipes and I’ve never looked back.
I’ll try to remember to put all the Tablespoon ingredients in grams next time. I do on larger amounts.
1 T salt = 17 g
2 T oil = 27 g
Thank you very much St. Funogas!
I first learned of your “metric leaning tendencies” by reading your excellent article about large batch canning and jam making.
About that, please allow me to take advantage of your knowledge on the subject: I would like to get into canning myself, but here in Italy pressure canners are unheard of. At most, people use the water bath method to preserve jams, pickles and tomato sauce. Nobody cans raw meat or processed food like stews, soups etc.
Unfortunately, it was the possibility of preserving those very processed foods that sparked my interest in canning!
So I ask myself: how a pressure canner is different from a common pressure cooker? It’s only about the jar rack that prevents the jars from bumping into each other? If that’s the case, could I use a standard pressure cooker for canning, by simply adding some sort of improvised jar rack, made from metallic wire of some other material?
Thanks to you and to any other kind reader willing to provide assistance on the matter.
Daniele
Hi Daniele,
Here’s the best authoritative I could find to your question:
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/discussions/504-canning-4-amp-6-quart-pressure-cookers.html
It sounds like there is no problem using a pressure cooker as a pressure canner. I can fit 4 pint jars in my 6-quart pressure cooker but it lacks a rack on the bottom like my 4-quart cooker and my pressure canner have. I have a brown bread recipe which I steam cook in a metal mixing bowl inside a stainless steel pot. To keep the bowl off the bottom of the kettle, I used to wire mason jar rings together with one in the center and an outside ring of rings wired to the center one. That worked like a charm and should work in a pressure cooker as well. The thing I do now with that recipe is use a round metal trivet made for keeping hot pots off the counter. That one works fine as well and should work in a pressure cooker. As you said, the main thing is just to keep the jars off the bottom so there are probably a variety of ways to do that, I’ve only tried these two.
Good luck with this project. 🙂
Thank you very much St. Funogas.
Actually, now that you mention it, racks for steam cooking are available here, so I might get one and adapt it to hold jars. Great suggestion!
Best wishes from Italy to all Survivalblog readers and to Mr and Mrs Rawles.
Daniele
St, seriously, you’re the best! Can I have this during my stay??! Thanks for posting this.
Hi K, that all depends on whether you bring Folgers or some REAL coffee when you come. 🙂
St., I would indeed bring the real stuff, I’d ship it to you if I could!
Oh, my gosh. I am salivating just reading the recipe. Love the, “stores for months in a vacuum packed jar.” Thanks, Saint!
Hey Krissy, JWR added the storage information. I’m adding it to my recipe as well. I generally mix up two batches at a time (= 1 gallon total mix) and it would be nice to make one humongous batch and then store it in vacuum packed jars. I go through a lot of this mix since it’s so great with coffee when I first get up in the morning.
Yes, cornbread is tastier when you use fresh-ground corn. If you’re grinding it yourself, toss a handful of heirloom “indian” corn in with the grinding corn to give your cornbread an interesting texture, color and taste. Instead of regular milk, I use kefir or buttermilk to give it extra richness. Can’t wait to give this recipe a spin!
Hey Anna, I’ll have to try buttermilk. This morning I used some milk that was about three hours and fifteen minutes away from having curds floating in it and the cornbread was good that way as well. But the buttermilk sounds better.
I like to use buttermilk in mine too, it makes it have a rich, full flavor. If you make, or can get your hands on, some REAL pork cracklings and mix them in with the cornmeal mix, it makes it taste fantastic too!
I’ve never tried pork cracklings in my cornbread, but occasionally I’ll substitute a couple of tablespoons of whatever fat was rendered off of whatever meat the cornbread will be served with for the oil. You’ve got to catch the oil before it browns, however, or it will overpower the cornbread. I’ll frequently carve off a slab before tossing the roast into the oven so I can gently render it in a saute pan.
I’ve found that slightly moistening the gasket inside the jar lid attachment helps a lot, to get a more consistent suction seal.
Sometimes I have to use 2 lids, (1 right side up (jar), 1 upside down), for some reason having 2 always helps with the sealing. The second lid just comes right out of the sealer attachment. Hope this helps
Oh, Saint… Thanks for this yummy sounding recipe!!! Looking forward to having a fast mix without the fuss. (The suggestions/tip in the comments seem helpful too!)
1979-89, I owned a restaurant business.
My prep-cooks developed a recipe of equal amounts of boxed corn-bread mix and boxed yellow-cake mix.
On the menu, we called it ‘corn-bread’.
*****
I have a theory about managing good people:
* give them a goal, then find something else to do.
They find a way to make me happy!