Crackling Corn Bread

By Pete Wells

Crackling Corn Bread
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times. Food Stylist: Molly Rundberg.
Total Time
25 minutes
Rating
4(219)
Comments
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This recipe came to The Times in 2010, part of a Pete Wells’s Cooking With Dexter column about Laura Ingalls Wilder. “She also described cooking and eating as attentively and movingly as any author I know,” he wrote of the "Little House on the Prairie" writer. Inspired, he bought a copy of "The Little House Cookbook,” by Barbara M. Walker, whose recipe for cracklings relies on just pork fat and an optional seasoning. He incorporates cracklings into this corn bread, but cooked bacon is also a worthy substitute for that porky flavor.

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Ingredients

Yield:Serves 8
  • 6tablespoons butter or bacon grease
  • 2cups stone-ground cornmeal
  • 1teaspoon baking soda
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1teaspoon salt
  • 1¾cups buttermilk
  • 2eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2tablespoons cracklings or cooked bacon, drained on paper towels and chopped
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

244 calories; 13 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 361 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the butter or bacon grease in an 8- or 9-inch cast-iron skillet and set over a medium-low flame. Heat until the bubbling subsides.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and gradually stir in the buttermilk. Add the eggs and cracklings or bacon. Stir in the melted butter or grease and pour the batter into the hot skillet. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes, then invert over a plate or cooling rack. Serve warm. The cracklings respond especially well if the corn bread is toasted the next day.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
219 user ratings
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Comments

Randi

This cornbread can be made without the cracklings, bacon, or bacon fat. Brown the 6 T. of butter in the oven when heating the skillet and stir the browned butter into the cornbread batter before pouring the batter into the pan. The resulting cornbread has a nutty flavor from the browned butter and easily gives the version with the pig a run for its money.

timtomwillie

I didn't have any bacon on hand and substituted the cracklings ofr 2 tablespoons of bacon fat and it was delicious

Dave

Where does one get actual cracklings today, unless one butchers hogs oneself? Crackling bread was a big part of my raisin'. We butchered in the fall and winter, and rendered the lard. Cracklings were the fatty bits of connective tissue left after the fat melted out. A handful in a good pone was heavenly. Again, where can one get real crackling's nowadays?

Mary McDowell

I made it without the bacon. Heated butter up in skillet in oven and poured into batter before cooking. Added about a cup of jalapeño cheese and some Truvia for sweetness. Cooked 25 minutes at 400 degrees. This was delicious!

c marvin

You can use almond flour but not almond meal in place of flour addition

Nikeheart

This was pretty crumbly and somewhat flavorless even with full bacon fat. It needs something to smooth it out, maybe a little bit of sugar to balance?

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