Lee Brothers Cornbread

Lee Brothers Cornbread, originally uploaded by hannahcooks.

I have very strong feelings about cornbread. It should not be sweet, and it should not be like a cake (although Nathan loves "corn cake!") but it should also, you know, taste good.

For New Year's Day I made this cornbread and fell in love because a)it's freaking delicious b)the crust on the bottom is gorgeous c)it's the first food that Nathan, James, Jeff and I all shared as a family. (I'm not really sure if you're supposed to feed small babies cornbread but James, at six months, was totally into it.) It does contain a teaspoon of sugar but trust me, even a purist will forgive that teaspoon.

Here's the recipe:
1 tablespoon lard or unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups stone-ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups whole or lowfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 450. Grease a 12-inch cast iron skillet with the lard or butter (or, if you cooked bacon in it and forgot to drain the grease, just leave that in there) and put it in the oven. Melt and cool the other butter.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients (cornmeal-sugar) in a large bowl. Whisk the egg in a smaller bowl until frothy, then beat in the buttermilk. Stir (or whisk, I just whisk it all since I've got it out anyway) the egg/milk into the dry ingredients. Then whisk in the melted butter.

The fat in the skillet should be all melted and sizzling, so hurry and pour the batter in. Return to the oven and cook for 15 minutes. To die for.