Scrumptious Cornbread…

Everybody’s cornbread is different it seems.  Dad’s cornbread can be kind of dry and he uses low fat buttermilk.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s good, just not as good as Helen’s, Mrs. Florene’s, or Charlie’s wife. Helen’s cornbread is like cake.  She adds a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the batter and it rises very high like biscuits.  It is so soft and fluffy. Mrs. Florene’s cornbread is rich and heavy – the Bavarian style buttermilk making it very fattening and filling.  Charlie's wife’s cornbread is very crunchy on the outside and on the crust.  I like this and she has the better cornbread of the four.  The best cornbread I have ever tasted was my own mother’s when she was allowed to cook.  Mom would get the iron skillet and oil smoking hot.  The batter would sizzle so loudly when she poured it in that you could hear it throughout the house.  This made the cornbread soft on the inside and very crunchy on the outside.  I wonder if she could still make it?  I will have to get her over to my house out of under dad’s ever watchful gaze and let her try!