Skillet Cornbread With Bacon Fat and Brown Sugar

I adored my godmother’s cornbread. My godmother, Kitty Pulley, lived on Whites Creek Pike around the corner from our place on Haynes Meade Circle. I’d go over to play with her daughter Aurelia and she’d serve us wedges of cornbread hot from the pan. There was always this mysterious smoky sweetness to her bread, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. But I loved it.

When I was creating this recipe, I started with lard, but ran out. There was some bacon fat in the fridge, so I used that instead. After a bite, I screamed, “Oh my God! It’s Mrs. Pulley’s cornbread! Bacon fat!!! It was bacon fat all along!” Like every good Southern cook, including my granny, Mrs. Pulley kept a crock of rendered bacon fat and stirred that secret ingredient into her cornbread. So go out and buy some good bacon. Pour the rendered fat through a sieve and keep that liquid gold in your fridge. It’ll make this the tastiest cornbread you’ve ever had.