Cornbread Lab
Cornbread: what 250 recipes agree on
Northern sweet to Southern skillet: cornmeal share, buttermilk, fat and sugar.
250 recipes from 92 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical pan, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
250
from 92 sites
Typical flour
250 g
about 2 cups
Oven
400°F
205°C · median of 225
Bake time
25 min
most 20 to 30 min
The typical pan of cornbread
The median of all 250 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 250 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 250 gabout 2 cups |
| Cornmeal shareMost recipes use 120 to 155 g | 130 g |
| ButtermilkMost recipes use 205 to 300 g | 230 gabout 1 cup |
| FatMost recipes use 55 to 110 g | 75 gabout 1/3 cup |
| SugarMost recipes use 25 to 105 g | 55 gabout 1/4 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 60 to 95 g | 85 gabout 1 1/2 large eggs |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 8 to 13 g | 10 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 2.5 to 4.5 g | 3.5 g |
Bake400°F (205°C) for about 25 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Cornmeal share
median 53% · most 47 to 62%
Cornmeal as a share of all the flour. Southern cornbread is often all cornmeal; Northern cake-like versions are half wheat flour.
Each dot is up to 9 recipes. range 25 to 100%
Buttermilk
median 93% · most 82 to 120%
Buttermilk or milk; the acidic ones feed the baking soda and give a more tender crumb.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 43 to 186%
Fat
median 29% · most 21 to 43%
Butter or bacon fat, often heated in the skillet first for a crisp crust.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 6.7 to 80%
Sugar
median 21% · most 10 to 42%
The line between Southern (little or none) and Northern (sweet and cakey) cornbread.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0 to 76% · 7% use none
Egg
median 34% · most 25 to 38%
Egg sets the crumb; more gives a lighter, cakier bread.
Each dot is up to 8 recipes. range 10 to 76%
Leavening
median 4.1% · most 3 to 5.2%
Baking powder, plus soda when there is buttermilk.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 1 to 9.4%
Salt
median 1.3% · most 0.9 to 1.9%
Salt matters more in an unsweetened cornbread.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 0 to 4% · 7% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Sugar. The middle half of recipes use 10 to 42% of the flour weight in sugar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 4.2 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 0.9 to 1.9% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.1 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on cornmeal share and buttermilk: cornmeal share 47 to 62%, buttermilk 82 to 120% for the middle half.
Around the world
244 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 219, French 14, German 11.
No language differs from English on any ingredient by more than chance would explain.
Every language, ingredient by ingredient →The most-reviewed recipes
35 cornbread recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 215, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (35)the rest (215)middle half of all
Cornmeal sharethe most-reviewed recipes 53% vs the rest 53%
Buttermilkthe most-reviewed recipes 93% vs the rest 93%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 37% vs the rest 29%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 38% vs the rest 19%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 38% vs the rest 34%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 4.4% vs the rest 4.1%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.3% vs the rest 1.3%
Most reviewed
- BEST Super Moist Cornbread · lecremedelacrumb.com4.9 from 2,983 ratings
- Mexican Cornbread Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 1,381 ratings
- Cornbread Muffins · onceuponachef.com4.8 from 593 ratings
- My Favorite Cornbread Recipe · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.8 from 458 ratings
- Easy Moist Cornbread Recipe · bakerbettie.com4.4 from 439 ratings
Oven temperature and time
225 of 250 recipes state an oven temperature, and 36% of those bake at 400°F (205°C). The middle half bake at 375 to 400°F. The other 25 do not say.
- 400°F82 recipes
- 350°F53 recipes
- 375°F48 recipes
- 425°F28 recipes
- 450°F11 recipes
- 300°F2 recipes
242 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 25 minutes and the middle half bake 20 to 30 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 400°F for 20 to 25 minutes, with 29 of the 220 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical pan
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Jalapeno Cornbread · spendwithpennies.comcornmeal share 53% · buttermilk 93%
- Easy Cornbread · twopeasandtheirpod.comcornmeal share 53% · buttermilk 93%
- Green Chile Cheddar Cheese Cornbread · twopeasandtheirpod.comcornmeal share 53% · buttermilk 93%
- Homemade Cornbread Recipe · spendwithpennies.comcornmeal share 53% · buttermilk 93%
- Maisbrot (Cornbread) · backenmachtgluecklich.decornmeal share 50% · buttermilk 92%
Most cornmeal share
- Cheesy Cornbread · biggerbolderbaking.comcornmeal share 100% · buttermilk 176%
- Pain au maïs sans gluten · cuisineaz.comcornmeal share 100% · buttermilk 172%
- Skillet Cornbread · daringgourmet.comcornmeal share 100% · buttermilk 150%
Least cornmeal share
- Cornbread aux jalapeño · chefsimon.comcornmeal share 25% · buttermilk 129%
- Fluffy Zucchini Cornbread · melskitchencafe.comcornmeal share 27% · buttermilk 95%
- Cornbread Recipe · bakingamoment.comcornmeal share 27% · buttermilk 95%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 9theviewfromgreatisland.com
- 8delish.com
- 8plainchicken.com
- 8tasteofhome.com
- 7jamiegeller.com
- 6africanbites.com
- 6ichkoche.at
- 6kingarthurbaking.com
- 6thepioneerwoman.com
- 5acouplecooks.com
- 5foodnetwork.com
- 5leitesculinaria.com
In 6 languages: English 219, French 14, German 11, Dutch 3, Italian 2, Portuguese 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 92 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
95% of the 2,717 ingredient lines got a weight. 18% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 223 were left out: 146 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (buttermilk 46, fat 38, cornmeal share 25, egg 21, sugar 7, leavening 7, salt 2), 27 made from a boxed mix, 21 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 17 with a title that names a different dish, 9 duplicates of other pages, 2 too many lines without an amount, and 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.