The Best Spices and Add-Ins for Cornbread: Jalapeño, Garlic, Herbs and Cheese

Plain cornbread is just cornmeal, a leavener, eggs, fat, dairy and a little salt and sugar, which leaves plenty of room to make it your own. Jalapeños are the add-in both recipes here share, with cheddar in one and garlic powder in the other. Two things to know before you start: jalapeño heat swings wildly from pepper to pepper, and wet add-ins can turn the crumb soggy. Herbs like rosemary and basil come down to taste, not tradition.

At a glance

Jalapeño: the classic add-in

Both recipes put jalapeños in the batter. Grit’s jalapeño cornbread uses a 4-ounce can of chopped jalapeños with a cup of grated cheddar and a can of cream-style corn.⁴ Magnolia’s skillet cornbread uses ¼ cup of chopped, drained pickled jalapeños and marks them optional: “If you’re spice-averse, simply skip the jalapeños.”⁵

Heat varies. In a 2016 study, researchers tested fresh jalapeños from ten suppliers one pepper at a time and found “a very high degree of variability within a given supplier.”¹ Peppers from the same supplier can differ widely, so taste a sliver before you decide how much to add. For steadier, more predictable heat, dried jalapeño powder is another option.

Moisture matters. USDA data put raw jalapeños at 91.7 grams of water per 100 grams.² Both recipes use drained or canned peppers, so drain chopped fresh or brined peppers and pat them dry, or they’ll loosen the batter. If you’re adding a lot, cut back slightly on the milk or buttermilk, going by feel.

For smoke as well as heat, see chipotle powder.

Garlic: savory depth

Magnolia’s recipe seasons 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of cornmeal with ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.⁵ Garlic powder spreads evenly through a batter, while fresh garlic, finely minced or cooked first in the butter, gives more bite. For how the two differ, see garlic powder vs. garlic. If a batch turns harsh, see too much garlic powder.

Cheese: richness and savory depth

Cheese isn’t a spice, but it’s one of the most common savory additions. Grit’s recipe uses 1 cup of grated cheddar.⁴ Parmesan brings a lot more savory punch, with several times as much free glutamic acid, the compound behind umami taste, as cheddar.⁶ Hard cheese adds salt too, so trim the salt in the batter if you’re adding a lot.

Herbs: rosemary and basil

Neither recipe uses herbs, so think of these as options, not tradition.

• Rosemary. Rosemary leaves are pungent and slightly bitter. The University of Delaware’s extension service groups rosemary with bay leaf, ginger and sage among the strong or dominant flavors,³ so start small, especially in a recipe that didn’t call for it. Finely chopped fresh or crumbled dried both work; see dried vs. fresh rosemary and, if it takes over, too much rosemary.
• Basil. Dried large-leaf basil tastes warm, sweet, aromatic and mildly pungent, and the same Delaware fact sheet puts basil among the medium-strength herbs. Fresh basil loses much of its aroma in a hot oven, so it shows off better in an herb butter for serving than baked in. See dried basil vs. fresh.

The Delaware fact sheet also notes that dried herbs are stronger than fresh, giving ¾ to 1 teaspoon dried crumbled as equal to 2 to 3 teaspoons fresh.³

Two recipes side by side

These are the named sources’ own recipes, not a house standard.

Related

• Jalapeño powder
• Garlic powder
• Rosemary
• Basil
• Best spices for chili