No, you don’t need to make everything from scratch on Thanksgiving. In this holiday edition of our taste test series, we’re sharing the supermarket staples worthy of your holiday spread. Take a task or two off your plate by substituting boxed versions—we’ve found the best options.
If there is one thing I know to be true in this world, it’s that everyone has a different idea of what constitutes “good” cornbread. Some people prefer it sweet, others savory. Some like buttery, others plain. Crumbly or cakey. Crusty or fluffy. Yellow cornmeal or white cornmeal. The variables are seemingly endless. Perhaps that’s because cornbread recipes date back hundreds of years.
In North America, corn, or maize, has been cultivated for thousands of years by Indigenous people, but the crop took hold in the American South because it would thrive in the South’s hot, wet climate, while wheat would rot. Cornbread, and other cornmeal recipes like cornpone and hoecakes, became a staple in the soul food cannon, and corn is now a major part of the American diet.
We love homemade cornbread—that’s why we’ve developed so many recipes—but on a busy prep day (looking at you, Thanksgiving), a boxed mix can save precious time. Plus, if you've grown up in a home loyal to one brand, its nostalgic taste outshines even the best from-scratch stuff.
We tested eight popular boxed cornbread mixes to find the most flavorful of the bunch, with a just-crumbly-enough crumb. Our testers judged on taste, texture, and ease of preparation, and while debates around the “right” amount of crustiness and grit were fierce, we settled on a top pick that made everyone happy. Here’s our ranking.
Hard No: Bob’s Red Mill
What’s inside: Whole wheat flour and whole grain cornmeal—“both very thirsty ingredients,” according to food editor Shilpa Uskokovic. Because they have the germ and bran still intact, these flours usually require extra liquid to compensate, and, ideally, some resting time to fully hydrate. Instructions on the label require a cup and a quarter of water to hydrate two and a third cups of mix, and they don’t mention any resting time.
The verdict: It's not often that we get a complete and immediate consensus from our taste test panels, but Bob’s Red Mill cornbread was a unanimously negative response. The baked cornbread had the muddy gray-brown color of recycled paper, and its flavor and texture didn’t offer much improvement. Associate cooking editor Antara Sinha noted that it “tastes like health bread,” and senior cooking editor Kelsey Youngman said that it “has a raw flour flavor,” and that each bite “turns into a paste in your mouth.” As our tasters agreed that Bob’s Red Mill scored low marks, associate cooking and SEO editor Zoe Denenberg quietly scraped the rest of her slice into the trash.
Absolutely Anemic: Krusteaz
What’s inside: Like most of these mixes, Krusteaz is made with “degermed yellow cornmeal.” This has nothing to do with gross microbes. To degerm cornmeal means to remove the bran and the oil-based germ—two parts of two parts of the grain that can speed the process of it going bad. This is a normal part of processing cornmeal to make it last longer on grocery store shelves.
The verdict: Krusteaz cornbread showed up to the taste test looking like it was in desperate need of a tropical vacation, which is a roundabout way of saying it was very pale. Its domed center had risen quite high, but when we took a piece out of the pan, the stodgy slice began to fall apart in our hands. Zoe described the texture as “doughy and very clumpy,” even though we had baked it according to package instructions. There wasn’t much flavor—corn or otherwise—to speak of.
Sadly Flat: Martha White
What’s inside: Shilpa describes the ingredients list here (bleached flour, cornmeal, sugar, and oil among other usual suspects) as “run of the mill,” and predicts a serviceable cornbread—“the one you’d crumble up to make stuffing.”
The verdict: The only packaged cornbread mix that required a cast-iron skillet, Martha White’s boxed cornbread developed a crunchy crust, but didn't rise much higher than a pancake. Recipe production assistant Carly Westerfield said it “functionally does not work as cornbread,” because it was so flat, and came out just shy of burned. Dense and gritty, this little cornbread didn’t check many boxes for our testers. Crumbled over a hearty chili, perhaps Martha White would shine, but as a standalone cornbread, it didn’t do much to impress.
Surprisingly Sweet: Trader Joe’s
What’s inside: As Shilpa notes, sugar is the second ingredient listed (following unbleached flour), indicating a sweet cornbread. She also points out the presence of vanilla powder, an unlikely ingredient, and plain “corn,” which is absent from every other boxed mix we tested.
The verdict: Even if you prefer a touch of sweetness, as is common in Northern-style recipes, nobody wants cornbread that is akin to yellow cake. Unfortunately, that’s precisely how most of our testers described Trader Joe’s cornbread. While Kelsey enjoyed the “nice golden crust” around the edge, senior social media manager Esra Erol said it tasted like “crunchy vanilla cake.” Zoe decried it as “Yankee cornbread.” Some testers gave it points for having actual dried corn kernels in the batter, which gave every other bite a satisfying crunch.
Terribly Tinny: Betty Crocker
What’s inside: Betty Crocker’s mix has a bunch of products like “bleached flour, a high percentage of sugars, corn starch, and palm oil,” which Shilpa says all lead to a softer and moister cornbread. In addition to sugar, its ingredients list also mentions corn syrup.
The verdict: Betty Crocker’s cornbread committed the ultimate cornbread sin: It was dry—even with its supposedly moisture-locking ingredients. Flavor? Not too sweet. Texture? Perhaps a bit more cakey than crumbly. Most everything else about this cornbread was just fine, but good lord was it dry. After a few chews, our tasters also noticed a slight metallic aftertaste, which, of course, was not what we’d hoped for. Carly likened it to “chewing on aluminum foil,” likely a result of a leavener made with aluminum.
The Old Standby: Jiffy
What’s inside: As it turns out, “lard” is the fourth ingredient in this mix. Along with the included sugar, Shilpa says the lard is used to help keep this cornbread soft and tender. Lard is a traditional fat component of Southern cornbread, and it has less trans fats than shortening and less saturated fat than butter.
The verdict: A perennially low scorer on our taste tests, we were hoping Jiffy might get a win this time, since cornbread mixes are the company’s bread and butter. Package instructions required us to bake in a muffin tin, so what we actually sampled were cornbread muffins—six, to be exact. Kelsey noticed the muffins had a mellow, sweet and nutty corn flavor and a nice bouncy texture, but that they could benefit from some more salt and fat in the batter. Zoe appreciated that it was mild, so it would please savory as well as sweet cornbread lovers. No, Jiffy wasn’t the star of the show, but tasters agreed it was a serviceable option nonetheless.
Fancifully Flavored: Stonewall Kitchen
What’s inside: With just five ingredients, Stonewall Kitchen’s boxed cornbread has the shortest ingredient list of all the mixes we tested. One ingredient unique to Stonewall’s mix was malted wheat flour. It is just what it sounds like: wheat flour with a small amount of malt added in. Malt is a grain, typically barley in baking, that’s been soaked in water and then dried with hot air (a process called malting) so that an enzyme develops which changes the grain's starch into sugar. In yeasted breads it can aid in the rise, but here, where there’s no yeast involved, it enhances flavor and color in the final product.
The verdict: Stonewall Kitchen scored high on texture. For Kelsey, it was all about the cornmeal grit, which she thought was present enough to be noticeable, but not overpowering. For Esra, it was the lovely browning on top. First bites were a complete pleasure, but follow-up bites saw our tasters furrow their metaphorical collective brow. What was that flavor? Why does it taste like it doesn’t belong? Then Antara nailed it. “This tastes like a blueberry muffin,” she said triumphantly. And she was right—there was a faint fruity sweetness to the baked cornbread. “This is yummy,” Zoe said happily, mid-chew, but in our highly competitive cornbread taste test, another brand swooped in for the gold.
Just Crumbly Enough: Whole Foods
What’s inside: The proportion of cornmeal to wheat flour is what will determine the final grit factor in cornbread. In many traditional southern recipes, cornmeal is the only grain included. Here, Shilpa points out, there’s more cornmeal than wheat flour, based on their positions in the ingredients list, which, she says, could create a heartier texture.
The verdict: The aroma of Whole Foods’ boxed cornbread was the first indication that we might have a winner on our hands. “That’s an actual corn smell,” Kelsey said excitedly, a square of cornbread held up to her nose. Antara made note of the particularly light buttercup yellow color, and an even, just-firm-enough texture. First bites were a balanced mix of satisfyingly springy texture with just enough crumble. Tasters loved the whisper of saltiness in each bite that was tempered by the summery sweetness of corn. It was a close call, but what put Whole Foods at the top was its versatility: It’s delicious enough to munch on its own, but it would be equally happy to play a supporting role to a main course like Thanksgiving dinner, or your favorite bowl of chili. Not too crumbly, not too corny, no grit, and no surprises, Whole Foods cornbread mix is just right.