PSA: I finally tried my aunt's 'secret' cornbread recipe after thinking it was just hype for a decade.

Used her exact method of preheating the cast iron with bacon grease and it came out perfectly crisp, not greasy at all. Anyone have other old school tricks like that for baking?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin_wells461mo agoTop Commenter

Wait hold on with that brick thing though. Did your aunt actually use a regular house brick or like a fire brick? I heard some old timers swear by using unglazed terra cotta or actual pizza stones to absorb heat and keep temps steady, but a regular brick can trap moisture and might crack if it gets too hot. My grandma had a similar weird trick with a clean canning jar full of water in the oven when baking anything with a wet filling, said it kept the inside from boiling over. Anyone else hear about the brick thing actually working or was that just her being eccentric?

james9951mo ago

Grandma always swore by putting a pan of water on the rack below your pie to keep the crust from getting too hard.

murray.gray1mo ago

My aunt used to put a brick in the oven while baking bread. Said it helped somehow, but she was also a little strange.