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Old Family Recipes

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Welcome to my recipe section

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I would like to start this page out with My Families Famous White Lightin Recipe but I am afraid it was lost when the last family bootlegger Went to That Great Still in the Sky.



My line is generously sprinkled with stories of Family Stills and I just might add them one day! Until then they are just my memories.

50 lbs. corn
200 lbs. sugar
12 oz. yeast
200 gal. water

Makes there and about the best corn shine any man could want."

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OLD FASHION EGG CUSTARD

4 to 6 eggs*
1cup sugar**
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional
3 cups milk, heated until very hot

Ground nutmeg or cinnamon for garnish, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Adjust oven rack to center position.
Lightly butter (or use non-fat vegetable spray) six (6-ounce) custard cups and set them into a large baking dish. If cooking custards in a metal pan, cover the bottom of the pan with a layer of newspaper to ensure an even temperature on the bottom.
In a large bowl, beat eggs slightly; add sugar, vanilla extract, and salt and beat until dissolved. Mix in hot milk until blended. Pour egg mixture into prepared custard cups. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon.
Bring the water for the water bath to a light simmer on top of the stove; carefully pour hot water into the baking pan to come half-way cup the sides of the custard cups. NOTE: The most common mistake people make in baking a custard is not putting enough water in the hot-water bath.
The water should come up to the level of the custard inside the cups You must protect your custard from the heat. Carefully pour hot waterinto the baking pan to come halfway cup the sides of the custard cups.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until set around the edges but still loose in the center. The cooking time will depend largely on the size of the custard cup you are using, but begin checking at 20 minutes and check back regularly. When the center of the custard is just set, it will jiggle a little when shaken, that's when you can remove it from the
oven. Remove from oven and immediately remove cups from water bath; cool on wire rack until room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
Makes 6 servings (depending on size of custard cups).

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THIS RECIPE FOR TEACAKES CAME FROM
AUNT GERTRUDE GENTRY SUMNER

Tea Cakes
3 1/2 cups self rising flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 sticks butter [not margarine real butter]

Mix by hand all ingredients and knead until sugar does not feel grainy on hands. Work dough well. Roll small pinches in hand. Lay on sheet. Pat down to leave the indent of your fingers on top.
Cook 10 minutes in preheated oven at 375.

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THIS RECIPE IS AT LEAST 100 YEARS OLD
I UPDATED TO SELF RISING FLOUR AND STORE BOUGHT STICKS
OF BUTTER. LJG

These Biscuits
Are Light As A Feather
Self Rising Biscuits
Easy Easy Easy!

2 - 2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
Pre-heat oven to 450-degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, lightly stir flour, Make a 'well' in the center of the flour Put shortening into 'well' Pour milk into 'well'Using clean fingers, gently work the shortening and milk, until you get a liquid cornmeal consistency. Then, slowly begin mixing the milk/shortening liquid into the flour. Work it around in a circle, picking up flour. You are working towards the side of the bowl.
When most of the flour is worked into the dough, stop! Over mixing will make this or any biscuit tough, flat, hard and suitable only for skeet shooting. If the dough is too sticky,dust a little self-rising flour on it, work it in gently. Now, clean off your hands, then dust them heavily
with flour (regular baking flour is fine here).
Pinch off dough into the size of biscuit you prefer (from small to cat-head size, what ever you like best!)Roll the biscuit into a ball with your hands, then place onto a lightly greased baking pan, flatten biscuit slightly. I arrange them on the pan where their sides touch, but
that is a matter of personal taste. The heat must flow up through the pan and the dough, so don't crowd the biscuits or they'll never bake in the center. Baking time...hum...well that's going to depend on the size
of biscuits and how close you put em.
That oven is Hot! So start checking them after 12 minutes...mine usually take about 20-25 minutes.
They are done baking when the tops are golden brown, and the Bottoms too!

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This is the old timey Fudge the kind without marshmallows or cream the REAL kind Mama use to make, remember it was on the back of the Hershey Chocolate tin

Hershey's Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge
2/3 Hershey's Cocoa
3 cups Sugar
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 1/2cups Milk

Combine cocoa, sugar and salt. Add milk. Bring to a
boil, stirring constantly. Cook to 235* degrees(on
candy thermometer( or when when syrup is dropped
into very cold water forms a soft ball that flattens
when removed from water)WITHOUT STIRRING AT ALL!
(stirring makes a grainy fudge. SO does stirring
BEFORE it cools to luke warm).
Remove from heat. Add 4 1/2 tbsp butter and Vanilla.
Cool at room temperature to 110* degrees F.(lukewarm).
Beat with a wooden spoon until fudge thickens and
loses some gloss. Quickly spread in buttered 8-9
inch square pan that has been buttered all over.
Cool. Then cut into about 3 dozen squares.

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This is what we put on our Home Ground Grits and Corn Meal
Your meal is fresh from the mill and in its pure state, it will need to be sifted and baking
powder and salt will need to be added. With the grits you need to wash them, The grits will go to the bottom and the husk will float out . Just do this gently a couple oftimes.
These are not instant grits so it will take 10-15 minutes ST REMEMBER TO SIFT THE MEAL AND ADD SALT AND BAKING POWDER
AND BE SURE TO WASH THE GRITS.

For your cornmeal add 1 1/2 tsp salt. If you use buttermilk, add 1/2 tsp baking soda, or if you use regular milk, add 2 tsp baking powder. Mix all dry ingredients
before adding liquids.You may have to experiment until you get the leavenings right for your taste.

Corn Bread Recipe

1 1/2 cups self rising corn meal*
1 1/3 cups of buttermilk or 4 tblsps buttermilk powder and 1 1/3 cups water
1 egg (beat lightly)
2-3 tblsps hot vegetable oil

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees while heating the well oiled skillet over medium heat. If using buttermilk powder,
mix it well with the corn meal before adding the other ingredients. When the oven is ready, mix all ingredients;
add buttermilk or liquid, if necessary, to make a rather thin, but not
watery batter. Pour the batter into the skillet, place in the oven, and cook until golden brown (usually 25-30)
minutes)
*If you use plain meal, then add 1 1/2 tsp salt. If you use buttermilk, add 1/2 tsp baking soda, or if you use regular milk, add 2 tsp baking powder. Mix all dry ingredients before adding liquids.You may have to experiment until you get the leavenings right for your taste and the corn meal you are using.

Crackling cornbread: Add 2/3 cups of pork cracklings to the mixed batter and cook as above.

Mexican cornbread: To the generic recipe batter, add 1 cup of cream corn, and all the chopped hot green peppers you think you can tolerate. Optional: Add 1 cup of grated sharp
cheddar cheese.
Cook as above.

Grits should be cooked slow and stirred often. After washing them I cover them with water and cook them to a boil then lower the heat to simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes stirring them often. Until you get use to ground grits you may have to add additional water during the cooking process.

Lewis Grizzard in his Grits Billy Bob said First don't fool with no instant grits. The idiot who invented instant grits also though of frozen chicken, and they ought to lock him
up before he tries to freeze dry collards.
Get yourself some home ground grits cook em slow and stir every chance you get.
otherwise you'll have lumps and you don't want lumps.
Salt and pepper and stir in enough butter to choke a goat. Fry some bacon and sausage on the side and crumble that in, and then come on top of that with all
the cheese the law will allow.
Grits Billy Bob ought to not run out of the pot. They ought to crawl. serve hot. Cold Grits Billy Bob are harder than a steel belted radial.

From an old southern saying:
Keep putting that baking powder in your cornbread
cause the South's gonna rise again

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I have always been interested in pioneer cooking and civil(wernt nothing civil about it) war foods. I am very much a pioneer still in that we grow our own vegetables and either can or freeze them. We also grind our meal and grits. We have ground wheat and rye in the past but I do not use enough of that to make it worthwhile. I also milked a cow for a while I loved to churn the butter but the milking idea was just to show my mother-in-law I could do it! Buddy finally told me there was no way I could milk on top an 8 foot fence! I had hand raised my milk cow Robin
and she had horns, if she was in a bad mood she was determined to show me what she could do with those horns. Well that was a short lived experience in my "city girl goes to the farm" lifestyle but I am proud that I tried it. And I have some real neat churns and a wonderful hand
crafted butter mold that Mr. Ebb Rogers made for me. And all I had to do was trapese though the pasture to find the cow, shut the cow up in the milking stall, wash the cows udders, pick myself up off the ground where she iched me, get another milk bucket, wash her udders again, milk the
cow, feed the cow, let the cow out into the pasture, get the milk home without spilling it, strain the milk and seperate the cream, churn the milk, seperate the butter, mold the butter, jug the milk and buttermilk and try to find someone who wanted some, wash all the buckets and
straining cloths and churns, wrap the molded butter, and this just goes on and on. And to top it all this was to do twice a day!!! My husband is an avid hunter and I have cooked all sorts of wild game. I always told my son and husband I would cook anything they wanted but I didn't say I would eat it. I still cook the old timey southern style. I think the table has to swag from the weight of the many dishes, and the more people to eat it the better.
In this space I hope to add some of my recipes and recipes of others I love. Some recipes will be very old some new but all good and cooked the southern way with lots of LOVE.
Hope you will enjoy it,
Jane

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