Ms. Flo's Cornbread
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Watch & Bake
Meet Ms. Flo. Floris "Ms. Flo" Sorrells grew up in Manchaca, Texas, just south of Austin. Her family lived off their land, and nearly everything they ate was made from scratch. Ms. Flo is featured in our upcoming documentary, RISE.
Watch on YouTube →Ms. Flo's Cornbread
From the kitchen of Floris "Ms. Flo" Sorrells, Manchaca, Texas
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ¼ cup sugar
Wet Ingredients
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup oil
Directions
- Mix the dry ingredients.
- Stir in the wet ingredients.
- Pour into a greased pan and bake at 400°F for 20–25 minutes.
The Little Cornbread Girl
Bring the story home. The Little Cornbread Girl is available now in the RISE ATX shop.
Every purchase supports our work preserving Austin's Black history and oral histories.
Buy the Book →Recipes From Our Elders
At RISE ATX, we preserve the oral histories of our community: the stories, memories, and knowledge passed from one generation to the next.
Recipes are one of the most personal forms of oral history. Most were never written down. They were learned by watching, tasting, and cooking side by side with the people who came before us.
Cornbread is a staple of African American kitchens across the South, and its history runs deep. During slavery, enslaved Black people were given little variety in their food and had to make do with what they had. Cornmeal was often part of their rations, so they made cornbread from cornmeal and bacon drippings, sometimes sweetened with molasses. Over generations, the recipe grew and changed. Today, many families add flour, buttermilk, sugar, or honey, and every kitchen has its own version.
