Eatin' cornbread every day

Back where I come from, you pretty much eat cornbread every day. It goes with anything that is being cooked up for dinner, most likely.  In the part of East Tennessee I was raised in, as well as other parts of the South, cornbread is NOT sweet. Since moving to Colorado, I have learned that this is a very specific taste preference by region and it is not necessarily divided down the Mason-Dixon line. Some folks who hail from southern regions put a little sugar in their cornbread and some do not. Same up north. But, whether you DO or you DON'T, one thing is clear: You are adamant that your way is the best way. (For more on cornbread and its regional peculiarities and origins, click here.)

So, my non-sweet cornbread recipe is basically a couple of cups of cornmeal, about a cup or so of buttermilk (just see how much you think works), about a third cup of Crisco, and an egg.  This all gets stirred up and poured into a skillet coated in Crisco that has been sitting in a hot oven (350 or so).  You bake it for about 25 or so minutes, till brown and crusty on top.   My husband's step-grandpa used to run a knife around the edge of the cornbread and flip his cornbread about two thirds of the way through the baking process to crust up both sides. I have never been brave enough to try that.

The old sayin' is "Where I come from the tea is sweet and the cornbread is NOT."
With that cornbread and tea, you might serve a big pot of soup beans with onions and chowchow. But we can get to that later...