Family Recipes

Grandma Moseley's Cast-Iron Cornbread

The recipe that started everything. A California farming family's cornbread, perfected over three generations in the same cast-iron skillet.

By Chef Chris Moseley • April 18, 2026 • Jump to Recipe

My grandmother never measured anything. Not flour, not buttermilk, not the bacon grease she'd pour into that black skillet that was older than anyone could remember.

"You'll know when it's right," she'd say, tilting the bowl to show me the batter. "It should look like wet sand at the beach."

I was seven years old, standing on a step stool in her Sonora kitchen, and I thought that was the most useless cooking instruction I'd ever heard. Thirty years later, I realize it was the most useful.

The Skillet

That cast-iron pan had been in the family since before my grandmother was born. My great-grandmother brought it from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl migration. It had never been washed with soap — just wiped clean and re-seasoned with lard, then later with bacon grease, thousands of times over decades.

The seasoning on that pan was essentially a geological record of my family's cooking history.

"A good skillet doesn't just cook food. It remembers every meal that came before."

What I Changed

When I went through Le Cordon Bleu, I learned the science behind what my grandmother did by instinct. The bacon grease in a screaming-hot skillet creates a Maillard reaction on the bottom of the cornbread before the batter even sets. That's the crust. That's the whole point.

I added one thing she never used: a touch of honey. Not enough to make it sweet — Southerners will fight you over sweet cornbread — but just enough to deepen the caramelization on that bottom crust.

She would have called it heresy. I call it evolution.

The Recipe

Cast-Iron Skillet Cornbread

Three generations of California farming family wisdom, with one small heretical addition.

Prep10 min
Cook25 min
Serves8

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 3 tablespoons bacon grease (divided)
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven. Preheat to 425°F. Let the skillet heat for at least 15 minutes — it needs to be screaming hot.
  2. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs, honey, and melted butter until combined.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined — a few lumps are fine. Overmixing makes tough cornbread.
  5. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add 2 tablespoons of bacon grease and swirl to coat the bottom and sides completely.
  6. Pour the batter into the sizzling skillet. You should hear it hiss. That sound is the crust forming.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Let it rest in the skillet for 5 minutes. Brush the top with the remaining tablespoon of bacon grease. Cut into wedges and serve warm.