I don't understand why northern people insist on making cornbread sweet. We got some takeout from a place called "Lulu's" in Boulder and though it was touted as down home Southern cooking, the cornbread is like cake.

Here's the recipe for the best cornbread in the world, right off the Clabber Girl Double Acting Baking Powder can:

Southern Corn Bread
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups white cornmeal
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Clabber Girl Baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg

Cornbread was the one dish that I was taught to make by feel and sight rather than by measuring. I recall heating the oven up to about 450º, putting a spoonful of bacon grease in a small cast iron skillet and into the oven to heat up till it looked a certain way. Then take a scoop of this and a pinch of that and get it about that wet and pour it into the skillet to cook for about 20 minutes. Years after Mama died I was surprised to find her recipe so well approximated on the can of baking powder.

I tried to make cornbread in Colorado and it never turned out like I remember it, so I don't try anymore. Cracker Barrel cornbread tastes pretty good, though.