Southern country boy supper

[UncleEd]

Corn bread, corn bread, corn bread, Pshaw!

As a city boy, give me Gonnella bread from
Chicago and now replicated by the Publix
bakery as well as a few national companies
like Wonder Bread.

The original is great, the Publix is very good
and other imitations are OK.

Most BBQ places I've seen in the South serve
up plain white breads or so-called Texas Toast.
Never see corn bread.

 

[Skeet 028]

No we weren't rich that little churn was given to us as a gift. We had a small mom and pop store and one winter the farmers couldn't get their milk to market. Mom talked to the local farmers and she got milk from them and gave it and butter) to local families. We had 3 farms inside town. Was about 1958. Never saw so much milk...or snow either. We kept the milk cans out in the snow. We did have plenty cream and butter. Still got some of those butter molds. First time I ever saw horse drawn sleighs in the middle of town

 

[Rpg]

When I was a lad, mom often served us white rice with warm milk and sugar. It was easy, inexpensive and a holdover from lean times.Good stuff.

Rice gruel with dried, shredded pork and thin sliced green onions is a common breakfast staple in Asia. Called ‘congee’ . It’s usually offered at dim sum restaurants.

 

[BC38]

No we weren't rich that little churn was given to us as a gift. We had a small mom and pop store and one winter the farmers couldn't get their milk to market. Mom talked to the local farmers and she got milk from them and gave it and butter) to local families. We had 3 farms inside town. Was about 1958. Never saw so much milk...or snow either. We kept the milk cans out in the snow. We did have plenty cream and butter. Still got some of those butter molds. First time I ever saw horse drawn sleighs in the middle of town

The "rich" comment was meant as a joke.
The implication was that po' folks had to crank the churn by hand...
Guess I needed to add a couple of emojis...

 

[BC38]

Corn bread, corn bread, corn bread, Pshaw!

As a city boy, give me Gonnella bread from
Chicago and now replicated by the Publix
bakery as well as a few national companies
like Wonder Bread.

The original is great, the Publix is very good
and other imitations are OK.

Most BBQ places I've seen in the South serve
up plain white breads or so-called Texas Toast.
Never see corn bread.

Funny but we have a local chain called Texas Longhorn BBQ around here, and they serve "Texas" corn bread with their BBQ.

What makes it "Texas" cornbread? It has whole kernels of corn and bits of green & red bell peppers baked into it.

It's pretty good, but I prefer plain old (slightly sweetened) cornbread myself.

 

[Skeet 028]

The "rich" comment was meant as a joke.
The implication was that po' folks had to crank the churn by hand...
Guess I needed to add a couple of emojis...

No I knew what you meant. Mother in law made butter with an old barrel churn.Wife had to work it as a kid too. We had a lot of share croppers in our area. They all made butter and bread . Best turkey I ever had came out of a wood cook stove. My wife and I had one for a year or two in the 70s. Father in law and I found it on the street thrown out. Took us just a few minutes to load that sucker up. Only burned beech and hickory in that thing.Had a friend weld me up a new water tank for it out of stainless. Father in law had him make him a still. Lots of stills where I lived.

 

[BC38]

...We had a lot of share croppers in our area....

My grandparent's owned half of the 200 acre family homestead, Grandpa bought half the farm from Great Grandpa. He also owned a 1/5th share of the other 100 acres - his 4 sisters owned the other shares, but Grandpa worked the whole 200 acres.
But 200 acres wasn't enough to support a decent sized herd of polled Herfords so he share cropped another 200-300 acres of other people's land. He would cultivate and harvest a hay crop on their land, and give them half the hay as payment for using the land. He got half the hay crop and use of the land as pasture for his herd.

...Father in law had him make him a still. Lots of stills where I lived.

Grandpa did a lot of different things over the years to earn a buck. Mostly he raised cattle and hay to feed them, but there were times when beef prices were way down and he raised hogs and corn feed them instead. Later in life he also bred and trained gaited horses. Fox Trotters and Tennessee Walkers. He also did some trucking - hauling logs, some actual logging, and for a time, when I was little, he even had his own home-built small sawmill and milled lumber.
But he never ran a still. That would have gone against his beliefs and convictions. He believed alcohol was destructive and wanted nothing to do with it.

 

[Skeet 028]

oh he didn't sell hooch. He made his own. Small Still. I had a fuel Alcohol license and made some very strong stuff. A friend had a very large fuel Alcohol still. I got 20 gallons from him. Father in law put some in oak kegs5 gallon kegs. Turned out ok. He made wine wwhich was wine for short time then turned to vinegaar. I got him a fermentation lock and could make some fair wine then. Another thing I helped him do..we grew some tobacco(lot of work BTW) He huuuung it dried then made bout 50 pounds of chewing tobacco. I never really chewed but he made twists with molasses. he stripped the leaves into thin strips and braided them. He had a mix of blackstrap molasses and one made round Baltimore called King Po-te-rick(spelling?). I guess if I was a tobacco chewer it was ok. Stored it in crocks with tops from his terrible wine making. We made about 50 lbs. He gave most of it to the local fox hunters. They were almost all share croppers with a fox hound or two. They'd turn 'em loose of an evening and listen to 'em run an ol fox...sitting in the back of their trucks chawing and talking. Father in law was raised by an ol Southern horse thief(grandfather) who stole 'em from the yankees and sold 'em to the southern gummit. He died in the flu epidemic of 1919 at 93 yo. My wife is the 6th female of her family with the same first name dating to well before the Revolution. FIL never knew his father who was killed by a log falling on him when he was 6 months old in 1899. Family history