Country Cook
I
think that most boys remember their mothers as good cooks.
My mother was a country cook. She prepared things the way
she had learned from her mother. From time to time we had
all of the traditional foods of the country South: fried
okra, fried green tomatoes, baked sweet potatoes,buttered
onions, short pork ribs in smothered gravy (my favorite),
apple and peach pie. Every meal had a pan of hot biscuits.
We always had plenty to eat and Mother created variety by
having a daily menu. Each day of the week had its
specialty. I don’t remember the menu for each day but on
Sunday we always had a beef roast with vegetables cooked
around it. Sunday night we had roast beef sandwiches.
During the week our big meal was at supper because both
Mother and Daddy worked during the day. Saturday was always
fish day. The big meal was around noon with snapper steak
and hush puppies.
Daddy always wanted coffee and biscuits with his meal even
if we had turnip greens. We usually had only one course per
meal. If we had butter beans mother made corn bread and
that would be all. In season she might add one extra side
dish like fried green tomatoes or fried okra but not a lot
of variety per meal.
Breakfast always had eggs with a meat, usually bacon or
ham. Pork sausage replaced the bacon or ham in the winter
when many in the community “ killed hogs.” Of course we
always had biscuits. My school lunch was usually made with
biscuits and bacon or ham left from breakfast.
I remember Mother saying that the grocery bill each week
was about ten dollars. Flour and lard were frequently on
her grocery list. She always kept plenty of “cooking meat”
like fat back and streak-of-lean and a few canned goods
like pork and beans.
Mother could make the best sweet tea. She would pour
boiling water over a tea ball and add a lot of sugar and
then let it steep for a while. The secret was to add the
sugar while the tea was hot. She always placed a cloth over
the mouth of the pitcher while it was steeping. I never
understood why she placed the cloth over the mouth of the
pitcher. When I asked about it. She said that she was not
sure. Her mother always did, so she did too. My
grandmother’s house didn’t have window screens.