Blue John, Mush and Milk, and Fern’s Rotten Cake

While I was growing up at home Mom probably cooked a little differently as the years rolled by. All sorts of foods eventually came in mixes and whatnot in place of tins, barrels, or what have you, although it took her awhile to get used to the idea of using a cake mix in place of making it from ''scratch".

For breakfast there was home-cured bacon or ham with eggs, bread or biscuits and gravy or fried potatoes, eggs and gravy, or fried eggs, fried mush and gravy, or toast toasted in the oven (lots of slices all at once) with butter and jam or jelly or apple butter or whatever, eggs (sometimes poached or scrambled) and sometimes potato "cakes" made of left-over mashed potatoes and gravy!

The fried mush we had for breakfast was what was left over from supper. Mom had a three-legged iron cooking pot in which she made a large amount of mush--the main dish which we called Mush And Milk. If some liked it with sugar and cream or just butter: OK; but that was the main part of the meal as a rule and usually a winter meal. The leftovers were poured into a shallow pan and set aside to thicken until it was ready to cut and fry for breakfast.

We always had milk to drink and lots of butter where needed. The only breakfast foods that we bought were oatmeal and corn flakes (which we had a lot of, especially oatmeal). If the oatmeal happened to stick to the bottom of the pan and was a little too done, she would always say she liked it that way and eat that.

We did not use anything but cream on our cereal, but sometimes used the separated milk to make gravy, which we called "Blue John". (I don't how it got the name or if that is the way it is spelled). The Blue John was usually given to the pigs, mixed with some kind of pig-meal. But when hard times came the extra cream was needed to sell to buy staples such as flour, sugar, raisins, and such. But still we did not have to give up using cream on cereal as using just plain whole milk was never thought of.  Of course we had to churn our own butter so that took quite a lot cream too.

Dad and Mom both drank coffee for breakfast, but kids were not allowed to. That was Dad’s belief as his family did not allow kids to drink coffee because it was not "good for kids". I found out a long time later that in Mom’s family the kids drank coffee if they wanted it!

Other foods Mom cooked were vegetables, fruit, meat, and wild greens (which she loved but Dad didn't much care for). She made wonderful homemade ice cream. She made it from a recipe that called for partially cooking some milk, then the thick cream and flavoring were added after the mixture cooled but before freezing. Turning the crank on the freezer was the men’s and kids’ job. The ice was bought in huge chunks and put in a gunnysack to break up into small pieces with the broad side of an ax!  As it was put in the freezer, coarse salt was sprinkled on the ice and then more ice was added. When the "cranker" couldn't turn the crank any longer, it meant the ice cream had hardened and was ready to eat. Mom prided herself that she did not make ice cream with those junket tablets that some folk used. They were just added to the mixture and it was not cooked which made the ice cream have a "grainy" texture.

She made chicken and/or beef and noodles. Chicken and dumplings were a Sunday special, baked chicken and dressing (she raised her own sage and used plenty), breaded tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, lots of beans and cornbread. In the fall after the bean vines had dried up, they were pulled up and stored in a shed and then later "threshed" by tromping on them or however they did it. About all I remember is that after they were out of the shells, there were quite a few "bad" ones and they had to be sorted. So some of we kids gathered around the kitchen table (on request) and were given a cup and a whole lot of beans to sort. To make it more "interesting" we would see who could fill their cup with good beans the quickest. The next day we'd have our beans and cornbread for dinner plus whatever else we had to go with them. Raymomd liked beans so much that Chauncey nicknamed him Beany, which stuck with him a long time until everyone began to think that was his real name.

Mom had a special chocolate cake recipe that she made. It called for cream, butter, and walnuts and was very rich and fine textured, so much so that it almost fell apart. "Uncle John" Gray (who was not a real uncle, just a good friend of family) called Mom's cake “Fern's Rotten Cake” which he thought was The Best.

To tell a little tale about myself: When "helping" mom make a cake, she had me sift the flour and baking powder/soda. After putting papers for sifting I was told to be sure to sift it nine times. After a few years I sorta caught on what the reason was for the nine times thing. It was to keep me busy while she put the cake together. I imagine it was also to make me think that I was really helping.

She made lots of pumpkin pies, especially during corn-shucking time when Dad and the boys would come in between loads for an extra snack. Turnips were seasoned with salt pork and tasted really good; that’s the way Mom fixed them usually.

She made spare ribs and sauerkraut. Usually creamed fresh and/or canned peas, made corncakes sometimes with left-over corn by adding egg, a little milk and flour, and frying them. We may have even had gravy with them. In summer we had lots of wilted lettuce, which called for bacon grease and the works: vinegar and a little sugar poured over a huge bowl of fresh lettuce.

We had a gristmill that ground our own corn into meal. I am not sure about the whole process, but think it had to be sifted to get some of the hulls out.  This, however, was replaced with corn meal bought from the grocery store later on.  

The pies she made were gooseberry, cherry, blackberry, rhubarb, and mulberries, mixed together or separately. Lemon and gooseberry were Dad’s favorites. The cookies she made were mostly ginger snaps and sugar cookies that I recall.

This is a little of how mom cooked…

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