Duff Goldman's Preheating Trick For The Crispiest Cornbread Edges

There's nothing wrong with soft cornbread, but it would make sense if most people preferred the texture to be more on the crispy side more than the mushy side. After all, if you're having cornbread in a bowl of chili, you don't want it to completely dissolve into the soup. So how exactly do you achieve that perfect consistency?

You'd probably guess that cranking up the heat would do the trick, but while this works with baking cookies or cooking eggs in a frying pan, it, unfortunately, might not bode as well with cornbread. Instead of a crusty exterior, you could end up with one that's hard and crunchy while the inside remains raw if the temp is too high. So you might notice a lot of recipes that call for setting the oven as low as 350 degrees but probably not much higher than 425 degrees. However, this can sometimes mean your cornbread won't be as crispy as you'd like. That's where Duff Goldman's hack comes in handy. Rather than adjust his recipe or the temperature of the oven, he uses preheating in a strategic way.

The crispiest cornbreads can be achieved with cultured dairy products, such as buttermilk or sour cream. But with Duff Goldman's tip, you can realistically use any recipe. As he explained in an episode of "Duff: Ace of Taste," the outer texture of the cornbread has more to do with the temperature of the pan than the actual ingredients. "I like to preheat the pans, that way when we pour the cornbread batter in there, the outside of it starts to cook," the celebrity chef explained on his show (via Twitter). "It gets that really good perfect crispy texture on the outside while staying really tender inside."

Goldman specifically sets his oven to 375 degrees, leaving his mini loaf pans inside as it preheats. Others might turn the heat up to 425 degrees and use muffin tins for crispy results. Just make sure to add the oil after, not before, you preheat it in the oven.

If you prefer your cornbread to be borderline crunchy on the outside, there are a few things you can do in order to take the crispiness to the next level. While Duff Goldman used a mini loaf pan in his "Ace of Taste" clip, and such pans are often made from aluminum, a traditional way to bake cornbread is actually to use a cast iron skillet. Because the material doesn't conduct heat very well, the skillet won't lose heat easily either. Once hot, it cooks food evenly, making cast iron well-suited for cornbread recipes. Simply follow Goldman's instructions, but preheat the skillet instead of your normal baking pan.

Without cast iron, however, it's still possible to get crispier cornbread. After you take it out of the oven, shallow fry it in a pan of hot butter. Two minutes on each side is all you need in order for the cornbread to crisp up even further. Just don't put the heat any higher than medium or else the cornbread may end up burning.