The right side dish can take a really good meal and elevate it to amazing, and it's no secret that cornbread is one of those sides. Whether you're serving it with your favorite BBQ spare ribs, a hearty , or using it to replace a classic grilled cheese sandwich alongside a dish of , everyone's excited to see cornbread on the table. While you can definitely make it from scratch, there are so many great store-bought boxed mixes out there that this is one shortcut worth taking -- particularly when you reach for one brand.
In Daily Meal's , there was a clear winner: Krusteaz Southern Cornbread & Muffin Mix. Why? This boxed mix brings everything you expect from a great cornbread, and leaves plenty of room for you to dress it up any way you'd like. The thing that makes cornbread great is its savory sweetness.
Krusteaz mix is not too sweet, and that's important. You can always make cornbread sweeter with a drizzle of honey, but if what comes out of the box is just too sugary to start with, it's difficult to offset that. Krusteaz has a salty, butteriness that stays moist on the inside and browns perfectly along the edges -- this boxed mix is a sure-fire win.
Read more: Take a look at the ingredients listed on some other boxed cornbread mixes, and sugar often comes in near the top. While it's also in Krusteaz's version, it's farther down the list. That means you're given a more savory option that's perfect when it's served alongside something that's already sweet, like .
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