Originally Posted by Greger
"Not cakey but crispy" is perfect cornbread, Jiffy brand cornbread mix is the very antithesis of what cornbread should be. Perfection in cornbread should be able to be taken out of the skillet and tossed around like a Frisbee, hard and crispy on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle. I never really perfected a cornbread recipe.
I have a Southern Living cookbook recipe that uses a cast iron skillet to bake the corn bread in and it comes out crusty and moist in the middle - and it also has a tablespoon of bacon fat, baking powder, and buttermilk in the recipe - just as you state. wink

Contrarian, extraordinaire