Cracklin' Cornbread
Preheat oven and skillet to 400-425F. Heat a tbsp. or so of bacon grease (cracklins) in the skillet.
Dry ingredients:
1c yellow corn meal
1c all purpose flour
2tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt (and some sugar if you want sweet cornbread)
Wet ingredients:
2c buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tbsp oil
Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then together, then pour into hot, greased skillet. Should be enough grease to "crackle" and make a nice, thick, fried crust. Use cooking oil instead of bacon grease if you don't like it or you're worried about cholesterol. Bake in oven until browned, about 15 min.
As someone mentioned earlier, it's best if you have a dedicated skillet for this. The first couple of times you make cornbread in the skillet, it will stick. But after that, it will pop right out. No need to wash the skillet. I use my dad's cornbread skillet that he got from his mom. Every couple of years she would build a wood fire and burn off the accumulated seasoning on her skillets and start over. The wood fire is for cleaning, seasoning is done with oil.
Jack