
For the October 2004 issue, Saveur sent Carolynn Carreño to cover the extravagant tailgating scene at a University of Mississippi football game. She made her way through sausage biscuits, caramel cake, cream-cheese crab dip, and a pork loin with horseradish-pineapple sauce—all before noon. Yet it was this cornbread that Carreño still considers the standout. As the writer explains, “You can put ‘cornbread’ in quotes, because this is more puddinglike, and stuffed with black-eyed peas, sausage, and cheddar.” The genius behind it? A retired home-ec teacher named Becky Miller Tollison, whose late husband, Edward “Bubba” Tollison, played football at Ole Miss in the 1970s.
Featured in: Breakfast Without Borders
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter, for greasing
- 1 lb. spicy pork sausage meat
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 cup white cornmeal
- 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1⁄2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil
- 8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
- 1 15-oz. can black-eyed peas, drained
- 3⁄4 cup canned cream-style corn
- 1 4-oz. can diced green chiles
- 1⁄2 cup drained, sliced pickled jalapeños, chopped