Recipes (three) My Mama Taught Me

Three vintage recipes:

1) CREAMED BEEF, PORK, or CHICKEN

When I was a child, my mother sometimes made creamed chipped beef on toast for breakfast. It was served at Emory & Henry College on Friday mornings, and for that reason, I got up early on Fridays while a student there.

The chipped beef Mama used is not available anymore, locally at least, but at the Boar’s Head deli in South Carolina I discovered pastrami! And later, at my Farmers’ Market in Kingsport, I found whole beef and whole pork sausage. Try adding sirloin steak to your ground beef and loin meat to pork sausage! Oh, my!

Simply make a basic white sauce, add the pastrami or other meat, and after a gentle simmering, adjust the seasoning. You may or may not want to add a little salt or some freshly ground pepper. Remember that salt will continue to transfer into the sauce until the meat and the liquid are evenly seasoned, and S & P can be added at table. I always add parsley or chives, preferably fresh, but a dried herb will do if it is not too old. Bits of green celery leaves are also amazingly simple and good, and if you airdry them on a piece of paper towel and freeze them, voila! The celery adds wonderful flavor.

Another take on the same theme is to use a thin gravy made with your favorite broth. Pork sausage in a chicken- or vegetable-broth roux is delicious on cornbread. (One must brown the flour during cooking for a roux.) Beef sausage in a white sauce is heavenly. Or try a good steak cooked medium rare, rested and sliced, added to a white sauce with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a sauteed mushroom or two! I start this sauce with a canned soup and add milk or cream. This is a version of a supper I enjoyed in a restaurant in Moscow, Russia, and there was no mention of serving bread alongside, much less underneath.

As for chicken, I prefer the dark meat of the thigh, but breast meat is fine if it is not overcooked. I put pieces of chicken into a white sauce, and then add thinly sliced celery, cooked al dente and separately. A Pampered Chef vegetable cooker is perfect for preparing celery in the microwave. This is called Chicken a´ la King in cookbooks. With white sauce, use toast. For the broth version, I prefer rice.

Once you learn to make a sauce, you are golden! Call it gravy or roux or cheese sauce or whatever you wish--a rose by any name would smell as sweet! Oh, dear! Did I mention cheese? 😊

Aunt Martha

January 29, 2024

2) A STAB AT MAMA'S SCRAPPLE: Scrapple is a Southern Thing! Never mind that I made it with her repeatedly--it has been virtually impossible to get "right." Every family had their own recipe back in the day when families butchered their hogs in the late fall every year, and no one wasted anything. This seemingly strange concoction was a culinary marvel when prepared by my mother.

1 cup corn meal or finely ground grits

½ tsp. salt

3 cups cold water

Simmer together, stirring constantly, until you have a thick mush. Caveat: It will stick or burn, and you will be paying close attention as it simmers.

Add 1.25 lbs. (20 oz.) chicken livers, including the blood.

I then used a stick blender to pulverize the raw livers into the mush, and simmered the mixture, stirring constantly, until the livers were thoroughly cooked, about 12 minutes. My mother used beef or calves or pork liver. She certainly never heard of a stick blender, and I think she would have left the liver in small pieces. I may forget that stick blender next time!

I shredded a 1- & 2/3-pound pork roast which I added with the liquid and fat, bought precooked by my favorite grocer-- then simmered the mush down again, stirring constantly.

I added 3 T. dried parsley flakes, though Mama did not,

1 ½ tsps. Morton’s Seasoning Salt to taste, and

a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

I divide the mixture between two loaf pans, lined with parchment paper.

Then I just hope it gels nicely! Mother's always did, after spending the night in the refrigerator. As an addition to a filling breakfast, she cut thin slices, dredged them in plain flour, fried the slices in melted butter until they were a crunchy golden brown, and tasted a piece before adding salt. (This is not rocket science-- unless it is!)

Aunt Martha

December 21, 2016

3) DRESSING FOR TURKEY DAY

This dressing tasted like Mama’s—the closest I’ve ever come—so I wrote it down. The recipe makes a huge amount and can of course be cut in half. We fed 12 people and had as much left over as we used.

-our family cornbread recipe, doubled and baked in a large black cast iron skillet: This used 4 cups of cornmeal, and of course you can make the smaller pan twice.

-2 batches of biscuits using the recipe on the self-rising flour bag

-1 loaf good quality, dense, bakery- bought white bread

-½ loaf light wheat bread

-1 large package Pepperidge Farm white/whole-wheat mix for dressing

Break each type of bread into pieces, place on cookie sheets and dry in a low oven until very crunchy and lightly brown, except of course the Pepperidge Farm, which is ready to go.

Combine and mix together all the dried bread pieces in a huge pot. This recipe makes a LOT.

Using a processor, finely mince the onions:

-about 9 medium yellow onions, or all of a small bag of onions

Cut by hand all the ribs of one full stalk of celery and about 4 more ribs, including some leafy parts. The pieces need to be small, of course.

If you are using dried parsley, add it at this point. I put in about ¼ cup. You may also want to add a tsp. of seasoning salt.

Heat 2 quarts of homemade broth and 1 can of Swanson’s chicken broth. Watch your over-all salt content!

Sauté the vegetables on the stovetop until transparent and tender in 2 sticks of butter. Sometimes I do them in batches in a microwave. Do what works for you!

Break a raw egg (or two) into the center of the bread mixture, add 2 teaspoons of black pepper, and pour the hot vegetables and butter mixture over the eggs. Remember that eggs add texture when cooked. You may prefer to omit them.

Now pour the steaming hot broth over the eggs, which will ensure that the (optional, raw) eggs are cooked lightly as you mix them into the bread pieces.

Lightly mix everything together then let the dressing sit in a cool place for a couple of hours or overnight, so the bread cubes absorb the moisture. You need to be careful not to add too much broth. The dressing should be moist but not too wet. If you later feel that the dressing is too dry, add up to another half quart of broth. You should also taste for salt content and adjust the seasoning. You may add fresh chopped parsley before forming into balls and placing in a buttered casserole dish. In my home, we never cooked the dressing in the cavity of a chicken or a turkey.

Bake at 350 degrees F until brown and crunchy, remembering always that you should do as you please in the kitchen! What happens in the kitchen is a deep secret sometimes. :)

P.S. Mama liked to add chestnuts to her dressing. If I add them, they come in a jar or a can, packed in plain water. She cooked them from scratch; Daddy peeled them and cut them into bite sized chunks. Daddy could not cook, but he loved to help Mama when he could.

Aunt Martha

March 11, 2008