Kathryn Tucker Windham
  • Home
  • KATHRYN'S WORK
    • PHOTOGRAPHY
    • BOOKS
    • TELLING STORIES
    • AWARDS
  • Biography
  • VIDEOS
  • OUR STORIES (Blog)
  • Contact Us
  • Purchase Prints
  • NEW 8 x 10 Prints

The Cornbread Controversy

2/26/2017

32 Comments

 
Picture

​(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)


If we hadn’t messed with the climate, this would be just the right time of year to make cornbread.  Cornbread goes with all the seasonal foods---chili, soup, stews, collard greens, butter, sorghum syrup and so on.


I believe my mother made the best cornbread on the planet.  She was adamant about the recipe too.  Anyone who knew my mother knew her mantra was “no sugar in the cornbread.”  


Mother had a running controversy with another storyteller on the west coast who insisted on sugaring her cornbread.  The woman would taunt my mother with articles and recipes that praised sweet cornbread.  To every correspondence from her friend, Mother would write on the back of a postcard, simply, “If you want cake, make a cake.  Love, Kathryn” 


Of course, Mother could whip up a batch of corn muffins without ever so much as glancing at a recipe.  As she got older, I realized the best cornbread-maker in the universe might not be around forever, so I asked her to show me how to make it.  And she did, while I watched and wrote down every step.  


I still have to pull out that recipe when I want to bake a skillet of cornbread.  The paper is grease-stained and growing limp from age and use.  I suppose it’ll eventually turn to paste, but maybe by that time, someone else will want to know how to make proper cornbread, and they will write it down.

32 Comments
Patricia C Ledbetter
2/26/2017 01:55:01 pm

I must be using too much oil.I use 1/4 to 1/3 cup. My grandmother used bacon grease melted in her iron skillet then added to the batter. I think vegetable oil comes up short compared to bacon grease though I use it, too.

Reply
Judy Moore
2/28/2017 11:04:51 pm

I agree with the bacon grease!

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:11:20 am

Bacon grease works well too. It's just that most of us don't keep it around anymore. Remember when it used to sit on the stove in its own canister?

Reply
Dilcy
10/22/2018 01:43:34 pm

Bacon grease is by far the best, but how often do we see grease cans on people's stoves anymore?!

Reply
Ronda Charping
2/26/2017 06:11:05 pm

Dilcy, thank you for sharing. Cornbread had always been a favorite of mine. When you love the taste of it you will est it cold or hot, with butter or syrup or sorghum or in milk. Cornbread was the first thing I was taught to cook. When I was a girl we didn't have such fancy things as measuring cups and spoons. Measures were given in a handful or a pinch. I remember mother writing on a scrap of paper what ingredients it took to make cornbread. She had a teacup that substituted for a measuring cup. I was so proud of my first pone of bread!
I may make some tomorrow, just to see if I still can....

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:14:20 am

Let us know how it turns out, Ronda!

Reply
Dilcy
10/22/2018 01:44:54 pm

Ronda, it's cornbread weather again. Better get that teacup out!

Reply
David Dumas link
2/26/2017 06:26:26 pm

Your Mom was right. NO sugar. We have my wife's grandmothers iron skillet 🍳 that she made corn bread in. If it could talk...

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:16:03 am

The older the skillet, the better the cornbread, David!

Reply
Sue Draime link
2/27/2017 03:17:49 pm

Thank you for sharing this about a great lady from Thomasville, Alabama and Selma,Alabama my hometown. I loved to hear and read your mom's stories and books.

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:16:36 am

Thank you, Sue.

Reply
Susan
3/12/2017 07:57:23 pm

I just wanted to tell you that I love cornbread and I loved your Mother

Reply
Bishop
2/27/2017 06:26:19 pm

I need that recipe. My mama felt the same way about cornbread. I never make cornbread, hardly ever eat it. Maybe I will now with this recipe. Yum!

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:17:33 am

Bishop---I'll bet Wanda could make some good cornbread!

Reply
Ken Baker
2/27/2017 06:31:58 pm

I had the pleasure to have listened to Miss Kathryn on Alabama Public Radio for many, many, years. One day my wife and I called her and asked her, in-person, a question about some of the details of a story she had shared. She was such a Gracious Lady and we cherish that short time speaking with her. I would make her cornbread recipe any day and I'd bet it is the world's best. Thanks for sharing it.

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:18:33 am

Thank you for your nice comments, Ken.

Reply
Becky Cook
2/27/2017 07:10:11 pm

My mama made the best cornbread ever (in my opinion) and her cornbread dressing was fabulous. She passed away 2 years ago and I have boycotted cornbread dressing ever since. If I can't have Mama's, I don't want any. My mama did put a dab of sugar in her cornbread, but not enough that it tasted sweet. I've tried to make it, but my cornbread is terrible.

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:19:32 am

Try this recipe, Becky. I'll bet you like it!

Reply
Susan Caryl
2/27/2017 08:25:47 pm

According to my grandmother, corn bread has no sugar, but Johnny cake is made with the same recipe plus sugar. Just make sure you don't confuse the two!

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:20:20 am

Thanks for the clarification, Susan!

Reply
Gail
2/27/2017 08:44:52 pm

I have one of her cookbooks!

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:21:06 am

Hang on to it, Gail. They are rare!

Reply
Rose Clark Koch
2/27/2017 10:18:46 pm

I will look through things of my Daddy and Mother for notes and pictures from Katherine. She and my Dad John Clark had a mutual admiration society.

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:22:32 am

Yes they did, Rose. She thought the world of your daddy.

Reply
Dan Monroe
2/28/2017 05:37:51 am

Amen to no sugar! My grandmother used bacon grease as she heated the skillet. On the rare occasion she would mix a handful of cracklings into the batter (which was indeed mushy).

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:24:12 am

Your grandmother knew what she was doing, Dan, and I'll bet she knew the difference between mushy and thick!

Reply
Kathy Morrow
2/28/2017 09:01:39 pm

Your mother made great cornbread. Of course no one should ever add sugar to cornbread.

Reply
Dilcy Windham Hilley
3/1/2017 10:24:46 am

Thanks, Kathy.

Reply
Pam Cook
3/29/2017 02:24:02 pm

Dilcy, how many eggs? Love you!

Reply
Dilcy
4/7/2017 03:20:29 pm

Just one, Pam! I love you too.

Reply
Brenda
10/22/2018 01:02:17 pm

Dilcy, I miss your mama!

Reply
Dilcy
10/22/2018 01:47:56 pm

I miss her too, Brenda.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    We welcome YOUR comments on our blog posts. You will see a "comments" link at the top and bottom of each page. Feel free to join in! 

    Want to get alerts when new posts are added to this Blog? Visit and "Like" our Facebook page and you will see the new posts there when they are added!
    Click here to visit the new Kathryn Tucker Windham Facebook Page.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Photo Courtesy of Ted Tucker

    RSS Feed

Picture
Photo Courtesy of Ted Tucker
"Some people are important to intellectuals, journalists, or politicians, but Kathryn Tucker Windham is probably the only person I know in Alabama who is important to everybody."      

​–
Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. 
CONTACT US

​Dilcy Windham Hilley
Email:
[email protected]

© 2023 - Dilcy Windham Hilley.  All rights to images belong to the artists who created them.

Site by Mike McCracken [email protected]
Picture
  • Home
  • KATHRYN'S WORK
    • PHOTOGRAPHY
    • BOOKS
    • TELLING STORIES
    • AWARDS
  • Biography
  • VIDEOS
  • OUR STORIES (Blog)
  • Contact Us
  • Purchase Prints
  • NEW 8 x 10 Prints