After googling, I made my own self-rising cormeal mix (I don't keep that on hand, just regular cornmeal). The only thing this recipe was missing was sugar, my family likes their cornbread sweet so I used a scant 3/4 cup. Before baking, I threw a good portion of butter into the cold skillet and let it warm in the oven as it preheated, then swirled the butter around in the hot pan before adding the cornbread batter. This cornbread was very moist and the bacon fat made it REALLY tasty. My husband liked the flavor the cottage cheese gave to this cornbread, he though I'd added sour cream. Good recipe that is easily personalized.

I made my own self-rising cornmeal based on the ingredients given on a food substitution website. I didn't take it into consideration that there is already a fat in this recipe and used both (the one described in the substitution and on here) which may have caused my cornbread to be overly moist. Instead of buttermilk I used another substitution; 2% milk and lemon juice. I used 2% cottage cheese. I added chopped up bacon and diced roasted red peppers. I do not have a cast-iron skillet so I greased a small rectangular baking dish and baked it for 25 minutes. The crust was a dark brown, but the top was only slightly golden and it was very moist but cooked in the middle. The cottage cheese is great in this recipe. I think I'll try combining this and the "Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread" recipe to see if that hits right in between.

Borderline fantastic! Thanks Pap for reavealing your secret.

Anything with bacon fat must be yummy. Delish!