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.