The Great Cornbread Mix Challenge

Hey Y’all.  This is the recap of that time I went into the grocery store and bought 9 different cornbread mixes.  This is my sixth (!)  baking challenge and I wish I could tell you that this was a completely planned out baking activity.  But that is clearly not how I operate.  I think I was in the store to buy Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  One thing led to another and I found my cart filled with cornbread mix, extra eggs and a half gallon of milk.   Then for science, I drove to Whole Foods and picked up two more mixes, and then I went to Trader Joes. And that’s how the great Cornbread Mix Challenge happens. 

Acknowledgments

At this point my family is not phased by this chaos.  My husband saw the bag filled with cornbread and didn’t ask a single follow up question and he ran to the store halfway through the experiment because I almost ran out of milk.   My daughter came inside from playing with her friends early to participate in the taste test.

Cornbread Mix is a Pantry Staple

I do make a lot of things from scratch in my kitchen– mostly because it brings me joy– but my pantry always has a box of Jiffy Corn Mix somewhere. A warm cornbread muffin serves as a perfect complement to so many dinners– chili, black-eyed peas and rice and fried chicken. Even on its own a slice of cornbread is a welcomed addition to any bread basket. Cornbread itself is pretty straightforward to make if you have a stocked pantry.  I especially love this recipe that uses a cast iron skillet to create the perfect crispy edges.   

Some days, it’s just so convenient to pull out a package of cornbread mix things together and like magic, a warm fresh slice of cornbread is available!  The time savings on a cornbread mix is undeniable. During the challenge,  I timed myself during one of the bakes to see how quickly everything comes together.  Measuring the added ingredients, spraying the pan, mixing the batter and pouring it all into a pan took less than three minutes.  That’s incredible!

The Cornbread Mix Challenge Plan

After heading home with nine boxes of cornbread mix, it was time to make a plan! I start at the very beginning, by reading all of the baking instructions on the packages from start to finish. This way I am able to jot down the patterns that start to emerge, note oven temperatures and baking times.  From there I am able to chart out a baking order, so that I can minimize the amount in the kitchen.  For this challenge, I baked all of the cornbread mixes in batches based on oven temperature, I started with the cornbread mixes that baked at 350 and worked my way up the list.

Another decision point: cornbread or cornbread muffins.  I very quickly decided to make pans of cornbread for a couple of reasons 1) scooping out muffins would take too long and 2) by pouring the batter into the pans, I could more easily compare each brand because the pan would act as a control. What was interesting, is that even though the muffins boxes are not all the same size, they all had instructions for an 8x8 pan.   

The only thing I had to consider was the fact that  I only have 4 muffin tin pans and baking that many muffins felt way more intense, than 9 pans of cornbread.  I’m sure this is some sort of baker’s math.

The Rules

1. Follow the instructions! No add ons on ingredients, and following the bake temperature and time frames. This rule is always the hardest one to follow. 
2. Bake all of the cornbread in an 8x8x2 disposable pan.  Cornbread is undeniably better in a cast iron skillet, but I only have two of those.  

The Contenders

Baker’s Notes: 

Since there wasn’t a whole lot of planning before this challenge started,I chose cornbread mixes based on availability at my local (North Carolina) Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.  As I said before my go-to cornbread mix has always been Jiffy.  But on that day in the grocery store  I was immediately drawn to the Dolly Parton Cornbread Mix. Perhaps it was the glitter on the box, or maybe it was the fact that it was called “Sweet Cornbread”.  At the beginning of the pandemic, I listened to a podcast about Dolly Parton and fell even further in love with her.  So as I was contemplating a legitimate reason for need, I realized that there are so many more options than a Jiffy cornbread mix and of course I was curious.

Whenever I bake multiples of the same thing in a short period, I start to notice commonalities.  With cornbread mixes the key themes fell into three categories: 

Baking Temperature

350ºF - Whole Foods; Trader Joes 

375ºF– Dolly Parton’s; Southern City; Krusteauz &  Zatarian’s 

400ºF– Martha White; Famous Dave’s and Jiffy 

This one was the most interesting, because I assumed that  baking cornbread –the baking temperature is typically 375ºF or higher.  Please note that setting my oven to 350ºF to make cornbread felt incredibly wrong and I was so tempted to disregard the instructions. Just felt wrong to bake cornbread that low, y’all.  Both the Whole Foods and Trader’s Joe's cornbread mix bake at 350ºF.  Notably both cornbreads have more of a cake like texture and ALL of the crumbs.  If you like cornbread that crumbles instantly. These are the ones.

Ingredients

The cornbread mix is a combination of the flour, cornmeal and raising agents (baking powder and/or baking soda) salt and sugar.  Yes, sugar goes in cornbread, I’m not going to argue with y’all.  The cornbread mix gets us half way there and for each package the instructions request that you add in some combination of eggs, a fat (oil or butter) and a liquid.   Here are the patterns that I noticed for each category:

Eggs

1 egg: Trader Joes, Dolly Parton, Zatarain’s, Martha White, Famous Dave’s and Jiffy. 
2 eggs: Whole Foods, Southern City, and  Krusteauz.  It wasn’t a surprise to me that the cornbread with two eggs had a bit more rise than the ones without that extra egg.

Fat: 

• Neutral Oil: Trader Joe’s Whole Foods; Southern City 
• Melted Butter: Dolly Parton, Krusteaz, Zatarain’s 
• No Added Fat: Martha White, Famous Daves, Jiffy

Liquids: 

• Milk: Every cornbread mix called for milk.  
• Water:  Famous Dave’s Cornbread calls for equal parts milk and water. 

The Method

There are only two ways to make boxed cornbread: 1) Whisk all of the wet ingredients together before adding the cornbread mix or 2) just mixing it all together.   The Famous Dave’s instructions tell you to stir the mix together with a fork– which feels like the most southern grandmother thing ever.  Yes, I did that, and it was fun. 

The Ranking Criteria

For each cornbread I notated the

• Appearance of the cornbread (color, rise, cracks, crumbs)
• If it was dry or not
• The flavor 
• Cost to Make [mix + ingredients]

The Results 

Alright, are y’all ready to read the reviews?  Here we go: 

Jiffy

Cost to Make: $0.74

Appearance: Brown on the edges, a couple of heat spots on the top; no cracks; clean cut not too many crumbs. 

Flavor: Just sweet enough; the “corn” flavor is fine. 

Is it Dry? No. 

Notes.  I am incredibly biased, Jiffy is that girl in my house.  I will not tolerate any Jiffy slander 🙂 That said, if you want a thicker piece of cornbread, you should buy two boxes.  At $.74 a box, it’s the most affordable option on the list. 

Martha White

Cost to Make: $1.29

Appearance: Edges were brown and pulled away from the pan, even baked on the top; one of the lighter yellow cornbreads (likely they use white corn). 

Flavor:  Not too sweet, not too savory– balanced.  I would use this cornbread to make cornbread dressing. 

Is it Dry? It’s not dry, but it’s not moist either.  

Notes: This cornbread is one that I think would be incredible if it was doubled and then baked in a hot cast iron skillet. 

Krusteaz

Cost to Make: $2.98

Appearance: Even golden brown color across, with a lot of rise! The cornbread has cracks across the surface. 

Flavor:  This is not a sweet cornbread at all! It says “Southern Style” on the box, but Southern here means “Maryland is southern because it’s below the Mason Dixon Line”.  Does that make sense? It makes complete sense to me.  That said, it’s a great cornbread– the crumb structure is open and the flavor leans more savory. 

Is it Dry? Nope.  

Notes:  This is a great cornbread for people who don’t expect to go into diabetic shock when having a piece of cornbread. 

Zatarain’s

Cost to Make: $3.36

Appearance: A deep golden color across.  Not a lot of rise, the crumb is more dense than some of the others. 

Flavor:  Sweet. The honey is a prominent flavor, but in a good way.  

Is it Dry? Not at all. This cornbread is more sticky. 

Notes: This is another cornbread that would benefit from a cast iron skillet to develop a buttery crust to balance the sweetness of the honey.  Overall, it was a fan favorite. 

Famous Dave’s

Cost to Make: $3.13

Appearance: Brown on the edges; good golden color across. 

Flavor: Sweet. So Sweet. 

Is it Dry? Dry is the last word I would use for this cornbread.  If you recall, this is the cornbread that called for milk and water.  I can’t figure out how to best explain this– but this cornbread feels wet. The toothpick came out clean after the allotted bake time, but when I cut the slices of cornbread, the bottoms felt wet.  Not moist, wet. 

Notes:  I’m putting this one in the “make it in the skillet” category. 

Dolly Parton’s

Cost to Make: $3.58

Appearance:  Light gold– like Dolly’s hair; golden on the edges.  A fair amount of rise, no cracks and not a lot of crumbs. 

Flavor: Sweet and buttery. 

Is it Dry? No. This cornbread is the right amount of moist. 

Notes:  When I poured the cornbread mix in the bowl, the sugar in the mix glittered like a grand ole opry costume. {the sequins y’all!]  I knew at that moment that this cornbread is for people who are okay with developing a little light diabetes in the name of southern cornbread. 

Trader Joes

Cost to Make: $3.69

Appearance: Deep Golden Brown; there was a dip in the middle of cornbread, so not an even rise. 

Flavor:  This is the only mix in this experiment that had some corn kernels!  The cornbread has a nice strong corn flavor and is only lightly sweetened. 

Is it Dry? Nope

Notes: I thought I was going to like this one a little more; it was the first that I tasted, and after I got through the entire list, it got overshadowed by a couple of other standouts.  It’s not bad, but I won’t go out of my way to get it. 

Whole Foods 365 Brand

Cost to Make: $4.12

Appearance: Golden Brown, nice rise– cracks developed around the edge of the pan. 

Flavor:  This might be the most savory leaning cornbread out of the bunch. It tastes like buttery corn y’all.  

Is it Dry? Yes and no.  This one crumbles so easily.  Just a pile of crumbs everywhere.  The cornbread itself tastes delicious. 

Notes.  This one needs to be baked at 375ºF in a cast iron skillet to minimize the cake-like texture it developed being baked at 350ºF.   Am I going to Whole Foods for this?  Probably not, but if I was already there, I would grab one. 

Southern City Flavors

Cost to Make: $6.03

Appearance: More brown than golden. Sunken in the middle.  A lot of rise. As you may notice, there isn't a photo. Keep reading...

Flavor: Not great. I suspect that my bag was past expiration– I actually stopped the taste test to check the bag to see if I could find the best before date (I couldn’t). The texture was mealy and it tasted almost fermented.  I ended up throwing that pan of cornbread out.

Is it Dry? Technically no, but there were more pressing issues.

Notes:  This is the only family owned business on this list, so instead of giving a bad review, I will just say that I would probably order directly from their website next time.

My Top 3: 

Recommendations:

1. If you like less sweet cornbread:  Whole Foods & Krusteauz
2. If you want the sweetest cornbread: Dolly’s & Famous Daves 
3. If you’re on a budget:  Jiffy & Martha White
4. If you’re making dressing: Jiffy, Martha White; Krusteauz 
5. Better in a Cast Iron Skillet: Zatarain’s, Famous Daves, Whole Foods, Martha White

Hope Y’all enjoyed this cornbread mix challenge.  Let me know your favorite!