Name: Cornmeal Cakes
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: SouthernUS & Canada
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) cornmeal; 1/2 cup (2½ ounces/71 grams) all-purpose flour; 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon table salt; 1 1/2 cups whole milk; 3 tablespoons bacon fat , divided

Why This Recipe Works

Cornmeal cakes are delicious on their own with butter or alongside (or crumbled into) Southern-style collard greens. Adding a little flour in the stir-together cornmeal batter made our cornmeal cakes light and tender. We found that pan-frying them in bacon fat gave the cakes lightly crisp edges and infused them with plenty of smoky pork flavor.

Before You Begin

We prefer the flavor bacon fat adds to these cornmeal cakes, but you can substitute vegetable oil for the bacon fat, if desired. The batter will thicken slightly after sitting in step 1.

Instructions

Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk in milk until no lumps remain. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon bacon fat in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Using ¼-cup dry measuring cup, portion 4 evenly spaced scant ¼-cup scoops of batter in skillet.

Cook until edges of cakes are set and first side is deep golden brown, about 1½ minutes. Flip and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, about 1 minute longer. Transfer cornmeal cakes to prepared rack. Repeat with remaining bacon fat and batter in 2 batches. Serve.