My Mother’s Breakfasts
My Mother learned to cook as a young girl, but she didn’t have any sweet stories about sitting on a stool in her Grandmother’s kitchen with a wooden spoon. Johnnie Belle and her older sister, Jewel, didn’t have childhoods in the modern sense. They were productive members of a hardworking, small town family in the 1910s and 1920s. Until her tenth child was born in 1931, their Mother, Belle, was either pregnant, nursing a baby, or both, so many of the daily household tasks fell to Jewel and Moma.
Up at four to prepare breakfast and fill lunch boxes for their coal mining Father and an increasing number of siblings, the two girls fried bacon or ham. Eggs and biscuits with gravy, or pancakes also filled the platters. Their food was simple Northern Arkansas fare, without the garlic, herbs, or hot peppers favored by the cooks farther south. The Suppers they learned to cook were based on a fried meat: chicken, pork chops, chicken fried steak, fish or small game from a day’s hunt. Gravy, mashed or fried potatoes, thoroughly cooked vegetables (if available) and cornbread or more biscuits completed the menu. The only seasonings they used were salt, pepper, sugar and bacon fat.
This is the food my Mother cooked for me and my Dad in the fifties in California. She accepted some conveniences such as canned or frozen vegetables, but she never became one of those cooks who starts cooking an entree by opening a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. Over the years she would occasionally add to her repertoire, often treats like the dark moist banana bread she found on our trip to Hawaii.
My favorite foods were the ones she cooked for our weekend breakfasts. When I would walk into the kitchen she would be patiently frying bacon. An almost impossible task because she let me “taste” slice after slice, while the buttermilk for the biscuits warmed to room temperature. When the bacon was done frying, out of sight in a slow oven, she would start the biscuits.
First she put a pan with about ¼ inch of melted Crisco in her second oven warmed to 425 degrees. Then in her wooden bowl, she made a well in the flour and mixed in the baking powder, soda and salt. Adding the buttermilk into the well, she began slowly mixing the dough by pushing the flour from the outside with her right hand while rotating the bowl with her left. This process of pushing became very gently kneading until the dry and wet ingredients were blended, then she removed the hot pan with oil from the oven. Instead of rolling the dough and using a round cutter to shape the biscuits, Moma formed each one by pinching off a piece of dough with her floured hands and flattening it in her left palm. She then folded it over, dipped the top in the hot oil and set it into the pan. The pan went back into the hot oven while she scrambled the eggs.
The eggs were scrambled to my father’s taste. He liked them to cook until they have begun to set, then stirred so they become a white and yellow mixture of textures and flavors not a homogenized pale yellow. When I asked Moma how much longer for the biscuits, she said she didn’t know. “You just have to wait until they are done.” Everything and everyone were always ready and waiting at the table for the biscuits. Moma even had butter rather then the usual margarine to go on them with the strawberry preserves.
Here is the recipe she wrote for me after I was married:
BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
Pour 4 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in flour and put following ingredients in the flour well – 1 tbs. Baking Powder, ¼ tsp. Soda, ½ tsp. Salt. Add 1 cup Buttermilk. With hands knead these in slowly with the flour until a medium firm ball is formed. Gradually knead in more flour until dough can be handled without clinging to hands. Divide Dough in half, then squeeze small lumps from the dough and form into a small circle and fold in half. Place in pan of 1/3 cup melted shortening by dipping in shortening and arranging until all dough is used. Bake in 425 degree oven 15 to 20 minutes.
I’ve never found any other pancakes like my Mother’s. Their texture was unique. They didn’t stand up high and dry, but were thin and very moist. They were so good that I ate them without syrup, just spread with butter. Moma would start serving them to my Dad and me as the second batch was finishing. She would then stay at the stove and cook seconds for us. By the time she sat down to eat, my Dad would be almost finished. So Mama and I would set and talk while she ate her breakfast. Over the years I have adapted the recipe by substituting ½ a cup of whole wheat flour and using brown sugar
BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
1 cup of flour 1 ½ cup of buttermilk
¼ teaspoon salt 1 egg
¼ teaspoon soda 1 tablespoon shortening
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon corn meal
Mix the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
Put the egg in the well and stir in the buttermilk slowly, adjusting the amount until the consistency is right.
Add the shortening now or just before cooking.
Heat a heavy skillet and pour in a little oil. Using a paper towel, spread it over the bottom.
Pour in rounds of batter about 4 inches in diameter.
When bubbles form on the top, flip.
I prefer these with lots of good butter and no syrup. Some thinly sliced fruit between the layers makes them seem healthier.
COCO PALMS BANANA BREAD
Cream: 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of shortening,
Add: 6 ripe mashed bananas and 4 eggs,
Blend in: 2 ½ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking soda.
Do not overmix
Bake in bread pans at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.
Yields 2 loaves
