The Zone official Thanksgiving Thread

#276
#276
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
My perfect Cornbread (for dressing)

For one large skillit and one large end pan of dressing, (we do two pans so I double it 4 cups cornmeal etc, for two LARGE cast iron skillits. )

2 cups of cornmeal
1 cup of self rising flower
(my addition to my grandmother's recipe is sage. She did add sage a couple of times as apparently that was the way she did long ago, but my mom wasn't a fan of sage, so she normally omitted it, I loved it with sage though)
Get fresh sage or no sage at all. Should be velvety, mince it as fine as you can I probably went sage heavy this year 1/4 to 1/3 cup....makes it damn near mouth watering scrapple flavor. Some may prefer less sage if your not sure maybe start with half that.
Mix these dry REALLY well by hand or whisk...I might also add some black pepper or not....no idea amount just judge.

After that is mixed well in a big tub, add 2 eggs, and this is key Half a cup of wesson vegtable oil. my grandmother always swore it had to be wesson vegtable oil and so that's what I do. This is double the amount of oil you use if your just making cornbread for cornbread sake. (1/4 cup) It makes it stay more moist since you're baking it twice.

Add buttermilk and keep mixing let it sit and thicken and more buttermilk mix, let it sit again, add more buttermilk. You want it to be semi liquid it should pour and not be paste. No idea amount you just know when it's kind liquidy but not completely liquidy, and not pasty. I dunno this is a once you know you know thing.

cast iron should be in oven at 450.... with lard or crisco etc rubbed into pans should just start to smoke a bit when heated up.

when it gets to temp pour mix on the pan in oven or on stove it should sizzle.....put it back in oven and set to 425

20 minutes or 25 minutes depending on size of pan...bigger pan needs less smaller pan that is going to be thicker needs more. I use the biggest cast iron for this because I want as much golden brown as possible crust for dressing. the reason for high heat etc, is to make that perfectly brown undercrust and golden brown top....it will look like a picture.

This is damn fine cornbread......I dunno If I will share the dressing secrets.. but this cornbread is the shizzle.

My grandmama on my mom's side had her mom die when she was 6-7 and she had to cook for her dad and 7 brothers in middle jawjaw on a VERY rural backwoods farm (mules) pretty much from that point on. the woman could shame the best chef, but she never measured much of anything we had to literally have her put in ingredients by judgement then we put it in measuring cups to figure out ratios. For me making her dressing is a near spiritual activity.
Click to expand...
Oh and if you really like that buttermilk flavor get the buttermilk flavored cornmeal it won't be too strong...
 
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#277
#277
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
My perfect Cornbread (for dressing)

For one large skillit and one large end pan of dressing, (we do two pans so I double it 4 cups cornmeal etc, for two LARGE cast iron skillits. )

2 cups of cornmeal
1 cup of self rising flower
(my addition to my grandmother's recipe is sage. She did add sage a couple of times as apparently that was the way she did long ago, but my mom wasn't a fan of sage, so she normally omitted it, I loved it with sage though)
Get fresh sage or no sage at all. Should be velvety, mince it as fine as you can I probably went sage heavy this year 1/4 to 1/3 cup....makes it damn near mouth watering scrapple flavor. Some may prefer less sage if your not sure maybe start with half that.
Mix these dry REALLY well by hand or whisk...I might also add some black pepper or not....no idea amount just judge.

After that is mixed well in a big tub, add 2 eggs, and this is key Half a cup of wesson vegtable oil. my grandmother always swore it had to be wesson vegtable oil and so that's what I do. This is double the amount of oil you use if your just making cornbread for cornbread sake. (1/4 cup) It makes it stay more moist since you're baking it twice.

Add buttermilk and keep mixing let it sit and thicken and more buttermilk mix, let it sit again, add more buttermilk. You want it to be semi liquid it should pour and not be paste. No idea amount you just know when it's kind liquidy but not completely liquidy, and not pasty. I dunno this is a once you know you know thing.

cast iron should be in oven at 450.... with lard or crisco etc rubbed into pans should just start to smoke a bit when heated up.

when it gets to temp pour mix on the pan in oven or on stove it should sizzle.....put it back in oven and set to 425

20 minutes or 25 minutes depending on size of pan...bigger pan needs less smaller pan that is going to be thicker needs more. I use the biggest cast iron for this because I want as much golden brown as possible crust for dressing. the reason for high heat etc, is to make that perfectly brown undercrust and golden brown top....it will look like a picture.

This is damn fine cornbread......I dunno If I will share the dressing secrets.. but this cornbread is the shizzle.

My grandmama on my mom's side had her mom die when she was 6-7 and she had to cook for her dad and 7 brothers in middle jawjaw on a VERY rural backwoods farm (mules) pretty much from that point on. the woman could shame the best chef, but she never measured much of anything we had to literally have her put in ingredients by judgement then we put it in measuring cups to figure out ratios. For me making her dressing is a near spiritual activity.
Click to expand...
So 2 eggs instead of one, and 1/2 c oil instead of 1/4. Is the increased oil the only adjustment when you’re making cornbread for dressing? Plus I guess adding the minced sage.

My mother made the driest cornbread on earth. When I was a kid, I was secretly convinced that she was trying to kill me. So I’ve never had a good feel for just regular cornbread. I don’t want anything like Yankee cornbread or corn cake with that sweet glop in it, but I wouldn’t mind it being a bit more moist.
 
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#278
#278
VolNExile said:
So 2 eggs instead of one, and 1/2 c oil instead of 1/4. Is the increased oil the only adjustment when you’re making cornbread for dressing? Plus I guess adding the minced sage.

My mother made the driest cornbread on earth. When I was a kid, I was secretly convinced that she was trying to kill me. So I’ve never had a good feel for just regular cornbread. I don’t want anything like Yankee cornbread or corn cake with that sweet glop in it, but I wouldn’t mind it being a bit more moist.
Click to expand...

The two eggs would be always the recipe for dressing or not. The extra wesson oil is the biggest thing for dressing to keep it moist that and not being stingy with buttermilk. Though honestly if you just eat this as cornbread it won't be too oily, it's fluffy. Generally we only added sage for dressing, but to be honest it's so damn good with it, I'd add sage anytime I wanted to show off it just adds a bit more savory. Kinda gives it a hint of sausage flavor even though there is none, just because most breakfast sausage has sage. But for some people black pepper, fire, and the wheel are too progressive so depends on the crowd.
 
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#279
#279
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
Native Americans were at Thanksgiving too. Don't buy into the woke hype. Many Early settlers got along with Natives, and even looked out for each other. There were bad settlers, and there were bad natives....and there were good settlers and there were good natives. I.E. people. My mom's people were at both Jamestown and Plymouth....
Click to expand...
True. And it’s why there are so many people with native blood running thru their veins.
 
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#284
#284
happy-thanksgiving-funny.gif
 
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#285
#285
Prepped all day, yesterday. “Dry brining” is not a term I’ve heard before. I do season the bird and let it sit overnight before roasting.
 
#298
#298
vol445 said:
True. And it’s why there are so many people with native blood running thru their veins.
Click to expand...
Welp After they massacred my ancestors parents at Jamestown, the two sons took it personal and helped them massacred the Powhatan tribe right back. (note the Powhatan's started that, they considered them to be friends, when they surprised teh settlement and massacred many of the people) They thought the Jamestown settlers would be easy picking, and didn't understand many were veterans from the 80's year war and etc. Anyway, after that they suddenly had wives with first names only no last names, and moved to the Carolinas. Their skin tone changed dramatically. Pretty sure they took war brides from the defeated tribe....which the natives were used to as that was their practice when they attacked each other. I.E. while I am sure the Native women were not happy about events they accepted it likely as many of their mother's had probably come from conquored tribes. History isn't pretty, it just is. But their children would be Revolutionary War heroes.
 
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