I’m not from the south but my parents and grandparents are from Mississippi, Arkansas and South Carolina respectively.
What you have there sir is “breakfast” cornbread. I eat it with nothing but butter and a glass of whole “sweet” milk. As per my dearly departed grandmother on my father’s side, the proper way to eat it is to crumble it in a bowl with buttermilk, add a drizzle of Alaga syrup and a cup of STRONG black coffee.
“Dinner” cornebread is a en entirely different beast. As listed above, proper dinner cornbread is only cornmeal, eggs, buttermilk, baking powder, bacon drippings/lard and salt, no SUGAR, no FLOUR…..and if must be made in a cast iron skillet with liberally covered with yet more bacon drippings/lard. My 97-year old grandmother on my mother’s side can make it in her sleep whereas I still need a recipe. It’s to be eaten with chili, greens, beans and peas. I like it too with butter and a glass of milk. In the south, many babies’ first meal is cornbread doused with “pot liquor” from either beans or greens, which coincidently per my grandmother, is the “proper” way to eat it. She would only add corn or jalapenos if she was making it to accompany my grandfather’s chili.
Leftovers are frozen and saved to make dressing for the holidays.
