A friend recently asked me to find him a good cornbread recipe for Thanksgiving this year. Obviously, I couldn’t say no to such a challenge, even though I did just write about corn muffins last month. As a matter of fact, even though I’m a bit of a fanatic about anything made with cornmeal, I didn’t actually have a honest-to-goodness favorite cornbread recipe either. I mean, let’s face it, muffins do not always translate perfectly into bread, and in my opinion, a bona fide cornbread ought to taste a bit differently: dense and buttery, not so puffy, craggy, and….well, muffinlike as the muffins. A nice thick wedge of cornbread should be able to stand on its own at the Thanksgiving table, whether it eventually becomes stuffing or is sliced into thick wedges for soaking up the gravy.
Over the years, I’ve made and tasted a number of cornbread recipes, with varying degrees of success. One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that a surprising number of people seem to like the Moosewood one. Frankly, I find it to be kind of flavorless and dry…maybe because it only uses two tablespoons of butter? True, it’s tricky to get cornmeal to stay moist without using oil (but why bother? butter is so much more flavorful!), but geez…being that stingy with the good stuff just isn’t going to get the job done. So even though it was recommended, that one was not even in the running.
After some recipe-hunting and a bit of experimenting, though, I think I’ve found a worthy contender. It’s a slightly modified recipe from Gourmet, which I fiddled with to be a little more straightforward and savory. I love the use of honey here and suspect its role isn’t accidental - it does a fantastic job at keeping the cornbread moist, while keeping a low profile on the sweetness front. The buttery, rugged crust is tender and eminently dippable. I think it’s definitely worthy of the holiday table. Feel free to experiment with different herbs, too; rosemary and sage would be excellent stand-ins for the thyme.