Buttermilk and Cornbread

[Buck Randall]

The cold hard facts - If you live in an area that does not enjoy cornbread, collard greens, or fried okra, then you are deprived. Or is it depraved? Either way, you probably need to move to an area that appreciates the finer things in life. Unless you refuse to fit in with those with a better understanding of life in which case you should remain where you are and suffer in silence.

If you live in an area that enjoys cornbread, collard greens, or fried okra, you also live in an area that doesn't enjoy decent cheese, beer, or bratwurst. I'll take my deprivation over yours.

 

[greybeard]

View attachment 13720

ClodHopper37869 said:
Good cornbread has just 5 ingredients, cornmeal, buttermilk, salt, black pepper(i like heavy BP), and just a little sugar, cooked in a cast iron skillet with bacon drippings.

That Pearl product, (Formerly called Aunt Jemima) is NOT cornmeal. It is a cornmeal MIX and has way more than 5 ingredients. It has flour, salt, and leavening agents in it.

Real cornmeal has nothing but ground corn in it. Nothing else. No salt, no flour, no baking powder, no baking soda no preservatives, no sugar.
Cornmeal itself tho, will have things like niacin, ribflavin, thiamine, folic acid listed simply because those are in...........
wait for it.............
corn.

Typical ingredients of a self rising cornmeal mix are: (This is off the label of Martha White Gladiola cornmeal mix: The underlined are things you won't find in cornmeal, but do find in cornmeal mix.
Ingredients
Enriched Degerminated Yellow Corn Meal And Enriched Flour (Degerminated Yellow Corn Meal, Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Leavening (Baking Soda, Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Salt.

These are typical labels from Cornmeal (not a mix)

 

[greybeard]

I had to look up "ribbon cane", it is similar to what we here would call molasses only lighter.

No. Ribbon cane syrup is very similar to sugar cane syrup. Both made from the same family of cane but different species. Molasses can be made from the same cane, but the difference is in the cooking down process. Molasses tho isn't a primary product, is what is left over from the syrup or sugar making process.
How many times they boil down the leftover liquid determines whether it is light molasses or blackstrap molasses.

Rum, is made from fermented molasses..

To make sugar like they do in Florida and Louisiana, they (very basically describedtake the cane, crush it down to extract the juice, then strain the juice, boil it until sugar crystals form. They centrifuge the compound to separate the sugar crystals from the liquid and the leftover liquid is what molasses is made from.

To make ribboncane syrup tho is a little different. You crush the cane in a cane mill, catch the juice and strain it a little, and very slowly boil the juice to remove the water. Most people that do it at home do it in a long pan with baffles in the pan and a fire all down the length of the pan to slow the flow down so the water gets out. You move the baffles as needed to keep the juice from sugaring off. You have to skim off impurities as it flows down the pan.
I've seen it done several times and helped my grandfather and father make it, as I suspect Caustic has and I know HurleyJD has since one of his neighbors does (did) it every fall in Yantis Texas. This is what a home or farm cane mill looks like..horse or mule
operated. This one is larger than most and required 2 animals to rotate it. It's in my front yard. The cane would be pushed into the holes marked top feed. The bolts and nuts are used to close the rollers up or open them wider.



There are 2 big crushing rollers inside it.
The crushed remains of the cane would come out the other side of the rollers.


The juice comes out a rough spout on another side.

 

[Little Joe]

If you live in an area that enjoys cornbread, collard greens, or fried okra, you also live in an area that doesn't enjoy decent cheese, beer, or bratwurst. I'll take my deprivation over yours.

You may be right about us not having good cheese and brats but there are alot of micro-breweries in my area that make good beer.

 

[Buck Randall]

You may be right about us not having good cheese and brats but there are alot of micro-breweries in my area that make good beer.

You're probably right about the beer, though a lot of times you have to go directly to the brewery or a nice liquor store to find it. In Wisconsin you can get that stuff at a gas station.

 

[Little Joe]

You're probably right about the beer, though a lot of times you have to go directly to the brewery or a nice liquor store to find it. In Wisconsin you can get that stuff at a gas station.

I went to Wisconsin when I was younger, my accent was so thick to them that I had to point to stuff on menus because they couldn't understand what I was saying. I understood what they were saying but their accent sounded weird to me also. My accent is so thick that even other southerners notice it.

 

[Cattlelow]

Does anyone else eat cornbread in buttermilk? My grandparents used to and lately I've been craving it. My wife made cornbread the other night to go with our brown beans so I had to go get some buttermilk to eat with it. She does a bang up job on her cornbread too. She pours the batter like a pancake into hot bacon grease in a cast iron skillet.

My husband loves it! Likes my Cornbread too. Lol Our parents on both sides enjoyed the combination. They passed it down to us.

 

[Caustic Burno]

No. Ribbon cane syrup is very similar to sugar cane syrup. Both made from the same family of cane but different species. Molasses can be made from the same cane, but the difference is in the cooking down process. Molasses tho isn't a primary product, is what is left over from the syrup or sugar making process.
How many times they boil down the leftover liquid determines whether it is light molasses or blackstrap molasses.

Rum, is made from fermented molasses..

To make sugar like they do in Florida and Louisiana, they (very basically describedtake the cane, crush it down to extract the juice, then strain the juice, boil it until sugar crystals form. They centrifuge the compound to separate the sugar crystals from the liquid and the leftover liquid is what molasses is made from.

To make ribboncane syrup tho is a little different. You crush the cane in a cane mill, catch the juice and strain it a little, and very slowly boil the juice to remove the water. Most people that do it at home do it in a long pan with baffles in the pan and a fire all down the length of the pan to slow the flow down so the water gets out. You move the baffles as needed to keep the juice from sugaring off. You have to skim off impurities as it flows down the pan.
I've seen it done several times and helped my grandfather and father make it, as I suspect Caustic has and I know HurleyJD has since one of his neighbors does (did) it every fall in Yantis Texas. This is what a home or farm cane mill looks like..horse or mule
operated. This one is larger than most and required 2 animals to rotate it. View attachment 13744It's in my front yard. The cane would be pushed into the holes marked top feed. The bolts and nuts are used to close the rollers up or open them wider.

View attachment 13741

There are 2 big crushing rollers inside it.
The crushed remains of the cane would come out the other side of the rollers.
View attachment 13742

The juice comes out a rough spout on another side.
View attachment 13743

Yep got pictures somewhere here making syrup.
Ours was a one mule model .
The property next to mine used to be a ribbon cane farm.

 

[Cattlelow]

That was my grandpaws desert...just milk and cornbread for me,love it...

Yep, that's what my husband calls it.

 

[Buck Randall]

I went to Wisconsin when I was younger, my accent was so thick to them that I had to point to stuff on menus because they couldn't understand what I was saying. I understood what they were saying but their accent sounded weird to me also. My accent is so thick that even other southerners notice it.

I have a terrible time with thick southern accents, too. I once had this exchange:

"We need some chahco."
"Chahco?"
"No, chahco."
"Chahco."
"CHAH - CO. Ya know, fer barbecuin."
"Oh. Charcoal."

 

[Little Joe]

I have a terrible time with thick southern accents, too. I once had this exchange:

"We need some chahco."
"Chahco?"
"No, chahco."
"Chahco."
"CHAH - CO. Ya know, fer barbecuin."
"Oh. Charcoal."

A guy who works for me is married to a lady from California, when she first met me she told me that she was going to need an interpreter because she couldn't understand me. She offered to pay me to go to California with her so her friends could listen to me talk . Most people like to hear me talk but it makes me self conscious when they point it out, I forget that I have a distinct voice and accent. It was one of the things that first peaked my wife's interest in me. My voice is very raspy, loud and a thick southern accent, when I speak there is no mistaken as to whom is speaking and I'm loud enough that I don't have to have a microphone in scenarios where most people do.

 

[TexasBred]

Does anyone else eat cornbread in buttermilk? My grandparents used to and lately I've been craving it. My wife made cornbread the other night to go with our brown beans so I had to go get some buttermilk to eat with it. She does a bang up job on her cornbread too. She pours the batter like a pancake into hot bacon grease in a cast iron skillet.

My dad had a glass of it every night for ages. Pretty darn good too.

 

[Hunter]

I believe my dad called cornbread in milk, mush.

 

[Ky hills]

Growing up, my grandmother and my mother would often fry mush to go with fried fish.

 

[BFE]

A guy who works for me is married to a lady from California, when she first met me she told me that she was going to need an interpreter because she couldn't understand me. She offered to pay me to go to California with her so her friends could listen to me talk . Most people like to hear me talk but it makes me self conscious when they point it out, I forget that I have a distinct voice and accent. It was one of the things that first peaked my wife's interest in me. My voice is very raspy, loud and a thick southern accent, when I speak there is no mistaken as to whom is speaking and I'm loud enough that I don't have to have a microphone in scenarios where most people do.

I didn't think the hill people had as much twang as the delta people in Ark. I may be wrong though.

People here talk slow, no "G" on the end of 'ing words and 'at's right not that's right, but not much twang or drawl. Pen and pin are the same word.

Cornbread is one of those wonderful foods that can be eaten sweet or salty but can't be sweet on its own. Molasses, jelly, honey, maple syrup are all acceptable toppings. White or brown beans must be served with cornbread, state law! Also needs grandma's relish and fresh side, fried potatoes, you got a meal that'll stick to your ribs.

 

[BFE]

Also around here when someone says you're having beans for dinner or supper (I don't eat lunch) it's understood that means ham and beans. Lots of ham. Not the sweet kind either which is an abomination.

 

[Little Joe]

I didn't think the hill people had as much twang as the delta people in Ark. I may be wrong though.

People here talk slow, no "G" on the end of 'ing words and 'at's right not that's right, but not much twang or drawl. Pen and pin are the same word.

Cornbread is one of those wonderful foods that can be eaten sweet or salty but can't be sweet on its own. Molasses, jelly, honey, maple syrup are all acceptable toppings. White or brown beans must be served with cornbread, state law! Also needs grandma's relish and fresh side, fried potatoes, you got a meal that'll stick to your ribs.

I'm originally from the Delta area of Arkansas, Lee county to be precise. My family on my Dad's and Mom's side both moved from Alabama to Lee county right after the Civil war. I still have family on both sides that row crop farm and live on the same ground that was settled back then. I eat dinner and supper as well. I do say lunch sometimes.

 

[Ky hills]

Here in the hills of KY, there's no g on the end of words either.
Its breakfast, dinner and supper here. Lunch is what the city folks eat in place if dinner.