Southern cornbread for Yankees

For years, my friends have been trying to get me to use cast iron, but I've always found it too heavy. Then Julie gave me extremely detailed instructions on how to cook with cast iron (including the intricacies of bacon drippings) and I found an adorable little 6-1/2" skillet by Lodge. I've been making frittatas for the past few months with a small pan that fits in my toaster oven, so I figured I'd try the same with my cast iron skillet, to boost the iron content of my breakfast. However, Cook's Illustrated says that it's best to cook a few things before trying eggs in Lodge's cast iron skillets.

I have a thing for Southern food, so when I saw that Cook's Illustrated provides recipes for "northern" and "southern" cornbread, I had to try making the latter, just to check what I've been eating all these years - I didn't think the cornbread at Dallas BBQ was that sweet.

The recipe calls for heating oil (or preferably bacon drippings) in the skillet while mixing the rest of the ingredients. I tried it in the toaster oven, but before I'd finished mixing even the dry ingredients, I noticed popping and hissing from the toaster. I frantically turned off the power, and ran around opening windows and exhausts - and moved the skillet to the oven. It went without a hitch there, although I was nervous that I'd overfilled the pan.

Turns out I have been eating northern cornbread all these years. The first bite tasted terrible, because I wasn't expecting a dry polenta. Once I got used to it though, I could see eating it with barbecue chicken or maybe as the crust of a chicken pot pie. Not having any of those in the house, I had it with a slice of smoked cheddar. I'll definitely be making more of this.