Classic Southern-Style Spoon Bread

Learn how to make spoon bread from scratch with this homemade recipe! A Southern staple and Kentucky classic, I describe spoon bread as grits meets cornbread in all the right ways. Light and fluffy, this bread dish is the ultimate southern comfort food! Serve hot immediately out of the oven with a large pad of butter.

Spoon bread is one of my favorite things in the world! This is something my mom would make often growing up and we would demolish it! It is so comforting and a perfect side dish (or bread) to serve with any southern dinner recipe.

It is not only a Southern staple but a historic Kentucky staple! Made famous from the Boone Tavern restaurant (named after Daniel Boone who is Kentucky's founding father) in Berea, KY about 45 minutes from where I grew up in Lexington, KY. So it is only fitting that I share my family's recipe that we grew up with - it would be a crime if not!

Unlike skillet cornbread that is sliced after baking and able to be picked up with your hands to eat, Southern spoon bread is more of a souffle-type dish meant to be scooped out and eaten with a spoon (hence the name) and made with a few common pantry ingredients like:

• cornmeal
• milk
• butter
• eggs
• salt
• and baking powder

The base of milk and cornmeal is cooked on the stove for about 15 minutes, until it's nice thick and creamy. Then the rest of the ingredients are added and it is baked off at 350 for 45 minutes, until it's a light fluffy DELICIOUS dish ready to be devoured! This is perfect for serving with any classic southern dish like fried chicken, green beans, creamy mashed potatoes, or honestly just serve with any dinner you make!

Key Ingredient Notes

• Cornmeal - just your run-of-the-meal grocery store yellow cornmeal is what you will need for this. Make sure it is not a cornbread mix or anything, but just straight yellow cornmeal.
• Milk - whole milk is what I suggest using for this for the best flavor.
• Butter - you will need to use melted butter for this recipe - easy peasy!
• Eggs - we will be using whole eggs in this recipe that you will whisk. No separating the yolks and whites and folding in the stiffened egg whites. Nope, my family recipe that has been made for years uses whisked whole eggs making this simple enough for anyone to do!

Step by Step Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large saucepan, add the cornmeal and milk and place on the stove on medium heat. Whisk continually until thick, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Once thick, remove from the heat add the butter, salt, and baking powder. Whisk until mixed.
4. Slowly add the beaten eggs to the cornmeal mixture until everything is incorporated together.
5. Pour into a greased 1 ½ quart baking dish - the whole prep time should take about 20 minutes.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
7. Remove and serve immediately to 6-8 lucky friends or family hot out of the oven.

Because of the eggs, this will bake up and rise to be quite fluffy in the oven, but once you remove it, it will deflate slightly. But do not worry! That is normal and a part of its signature look and style.

And THE ONLY PROPER way to eat it is with a big pad of butter on top of it straight out of the oven! This dish is best enjoyed hot and right away. And all those puddles of melted butter running through it.....BLESS IT! Because of this being best enjoyed hot, this cannot be prepped ahead of time. And while you can keep the leftovers in the fridge for a day or two, it will not hold the same light fluffy texture as it does hot and fresh. I have always made this when I know lots of friends and family are coming over so we can just all enjoy the whole thing right then with dinner - no leftovers to be had!

The baking dish needed: My mom, as well as I now, make Southern spoon bread in the same vintage CorningWare dish every time. Your grandmother or relatives I am sure had a similar floral design on the sides that often were in colors like white, green, and pink. The recipe calls for a 1 ½ quart baking dish - which can be in a couple of different shapes. We have used something deep and square with high sides. But there are also some round quart baking dishes that would work well too. You just need this dish to be more small and deep (more bowl-like), instead of large and thin (more cake and brownie-like). Oh, and you'll need a good whisk to make this recipe too - makes getting all the lumps out super easy!

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