The National Cornbread Festival + A Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread Recipe

My mom and some girlfriends recently traveled to South Pittsburg, Tennessee for the 25th Annual National Cornbread Festival. We adore small town, local festivals (some other favorites include the Dayton, Tennessee Strawberry Festival, the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Luling Alligator Festival!) and the cornbread festival was certainly a treat.

Here’s my mom’s first time experience at this wonderful Tennessee festival:

About the National Cornbread Festival

I live in Knoxville, Tennessee and in April, I traveled with three friends to South Pittsburg, TN — about a 2 hour drive from Knoxville — for the last day of the 3-day 25th Annual Cornbread Festival. South Pittsburg is located about 20 miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Cornbread Festival takes place every year in April. On this festival weekend the small town of South Pittsburg’s population grows from about 3,000 to a visitor population of 27,000 people. Obviously, it’s a very popular small town festival! Lodge Cast Iron continues to be a major sponsor of this event. Were were honored to be VIP guests of the sponsor and were treated to VIP parking and to the VIP breakfast lounge which included cornbread omelettes made on site to our specifications and bloody mary cocktails on a rooftop deck. This was truly a welcomed treat after our 2 hour drive from Knoxville, but there are tons of food and parking options for everyone.

The Collector’s Lounge

After breakfast, we walked through the kid-friendly amusement ride area to the collector’s lounge where folks were proudly giving talks about their very old and very extensive collections of Lodge cookware, gadgets and doorstops all made of cast iron.  

Tours of the Lodge Cast Iron Foundry

We took a wonderful tour of the Lodge factory. Lodge Manufacturing opens its doors to the public only once a year for the National Cornbread Festival. Visitors are able to take a free tour through the cast iron foundry led by employees of Lodge. We were treated to a fascinating step by step lesson on how and where Lodge Cast Iron cookware is made. We ended up at the Lodge outlet store which was packed with visitors and great prices.

Festival Events

The actual festival site runs about 8 blocks and is filled with food vendors, music, juried arts and crafts and of course the famous cornbread cook-off along with amusement rides filled with kids and laughter.  There is also a kids activity area or “kids’ corner” which is free of charge and full of art activities, bounce houses, games and free popcorn and water throughout the weekend.

The National Cornbread Festival honors cornbread in every form you could imagine.  Besides omelettes we saw and tried cornbread salad, cornbread desserts and every booth has a flavored cornbread pancake for the offering. The festival goes on for several days and includes a 5K, a Miss Cornbread competition, cooking demonstrations, a kid’s 4-H cooking competition, and lots of music.  

There is also a scavenger hunt involving the many vendor and sponsor booths which is a fun family activity and includes prizes at the end.  Just check with one of the festival volunteers to get more information.

Festival Costs

We ended our day with a stop at Cornbread Alley where for $5 you can sample all of the cornbread cook-off entries and even vote for your favorite.

There is a cost of $7 to enter the festival area (preschool children are free) but it was well worth it.  It has very much a carnival atmosphere with festive crowds of people, great smells, tons of music, and lots of cornbread of course.

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread Recipe

Thanks mom! As a kid, I distinctly remember my mom making cornbread in her cast iron skillet — especially to accompany chili for dinner. The crispy, sweet cornbread was always my favorite part of the meal. And while my go-to is just a box of jiffy cornbread mix cooked in a cast iron skillet (which is pretty dreamy and easy enough for my youngest to make) here’s a cornbread recipe from scratch to try yourself (and be sure to check out some of the National Cornbread Festival Winning Recipes):

Ingredients:

• 1 ⅓ cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ¾ cup whole milk
• ¾ cup sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Cook 6 tablespoons butter in an 8-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes; remove from the heat. Whisk the eggs and honey in a bowl, then whisk in the milk, sour cream and browned butter. Add to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the skillet over medium heat until it foams. Remove from the heat and add the batter. Transfer to the oven; bake until the cornbread springs back when pressed, 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes in the skillet before slicing.

(Cornbread Recipe from The Food Network)