Here is the real deal -- trust me I know how to make cornbread.
I tried to make it easy for yawl.

--- 2 cups of self rising cornmeal
--- 1 egg
--- 1&1/2 cup milk
--- 1/4 cup olive oil

That is it !! Don't add anything else. If you use a premium cornmeal that is not self rising, add 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

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Start the oven heating to 450 degrees with the cast iron skillet inside.


Dump your ingredients in a bowl and stir. Stir a lot. (I love my whisk.) After stiring, stir some more. You can't stir too much as this aint like biscuits. I don't know, but believe more stiring to be very important. Don't be in a hurry, have some fun. Hum a tune. I suspect as the oven heats up, time and stirring helps as to rising.

Take the now 450degree skillet out of the oven and spray in some olive oil.
Pour in your well stirred batter and set the timer for 21 minutes.

Don't over cook, don't use the eye test unless your eyes are calibrated. Take out and place on counter. The skillet is 450 degrees, the cornbread is 450degrees and still cooking in the middle. Don't dump as the middle is still cooking. Wait 10-15 minutes before dumping.

The result is great Southern cornbread.

I still keep an old coffee cup with bacon grease in the fridge. Bacon grease was a luxury with Granny and Grandpa. Normally, it was fat back grease from the breakfast of fat back and biscuits. If we were lucky, we got an extra biscuit with apple butter.

Mrs. DST made crockpot roast beef
Carrots
New potatoes
Onions

Superb!!