Big Mama never wrote down a recipe in her life. She cooked by the handful, the pinch, the "till it looks right," and the "you'll know."
When she passed, the family realized nobody had ever made her pie without her standing over them. So at the 1998 reunion, the first one
without her, the aunts sat at a card table under the pecan tree with a legal pad and argued for most of the afternoon until they had six of
her recipes the way they all remembered them. These are those recipes, typed up as close to the legal pad as I could, measurements and all.
They had to make up the measurements. Big Mama would laugh.
Under each one I've put who wrote it down and who makes it now, because a recipe in this family belongs to whoever brings it to the reunion.
Sweet Potato Pie
Written down by Aunt Ruth ♦ Made now by cousin Valerie, who brings six
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 cups mashed)
1 stick butter, soft
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
Boil the sweet potatoes in their skins until a fork goes in easy, about 45 minutes. Peel them while they're hot and mash them with the
butter until there are no strings. (Big Mama pushed hers through a sieve. Aunt Ruth uses the mixer and says the strings wrap around the
beaters and come right out.) Beat in the sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, spices and salt until smooth. Pour into the crust and bake at 350
degrees for 55 minutes to an hour, until a knife in the middle comes out clean. Cool before you cut it.
Aunt Ruth: "She used more nutmeg than that." Aunt Bernice: "She did not." It says 1/2 teaspoon. Use your judgment.
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Tea Cakes
Written down by Aunt Katherine ♦ Made now by cousin Mona, for the children's table
1 cup butter, soft
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup buttermilk
Cream the butter and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and nutmeg. Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the
butter mixture a little at a time, with the buttermilk, until you have a soft dough. Wrap it and chill it an hour. Roll it out on a floured
board about a quarter inch thick, cut it with the rim of a drinking glass dipped in flour, and bake on greased pans at 350 degrees for 10 to
12 minutes, just until the edges start to turn gold. They should be pale on top and soft in the middle.
Every child in this family has stood on a chair to cut these with a jelly glass. Big Mama kept them in a lard can on top of the
icebox, and you were allowed two.
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Smothered Chicken
Written down by Aunt Bernice ♦ Made now by cousin Earnestine, every Sunday
1 frying chicken, cut up
salt, black pepper, garlic powder and a little paprika
about 1 cup flour for dredging, plus 3 tablespoons
oil or bacon grease for browning
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced (optional)
2 1/2 cups water or chicken broth
Season the chicken all over and let it sit while you heat about a quarter inch of grease in a big cast-iron skillet. Dredge the pieces in
flour and brown them on both sides over medium-high heat. You're not cooking them through, just getting a good brown crust. Take the chicken
out and pour off all but about 3 tablespoons of the grease. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour and keep stirring over medium heat until it's the
color of a paper bag. Add the onion and pepper and stir a minute, then pour in the water slowly, stirring, until the gravy is smooth. Put the
chicken back in, turn it in the gravy, cover the skillet, turn the heat down low, and let it simmer 45 minutes to an hour, until the chicken
is falling-off-the-bone tender. If the gravy gets too thick, add a little water. Serve over rice.
Aunt Bernice says the color of the flour is everything. Too light and it tastes like paste. Too dark and you start over.
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Greens
Written down by Aunt Yvonne ♦ Made now by cousin Betty, from her own garden
1 smoked ham hock
2 quarts water
2 big bunches collard greens and 1 bunch turnip or mustard greens
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
pepper sauce or vinegar at the table
Put the ham hock in a big pot with the water and simmer it, covered, for an hour while you clean the greens. Wash the greens in a full sink
of cold water, lift them out, drain the sink and do it again, three times, until there's no grit at all in the bottom. Strip out the
tough stems, stack the leaves, roll them up and cut them in strips. Put the greens in the pot a few handfuls at a time, letting each batch
wilt down, then add the onion, red pepper and sugar. Cover and simmer an hour to an hour and a half, until they're tender. Taste and salt them
at the end, because the ham hock is salty. Take the meat off the bone and put it back in. Save the pot likker for sopping your cornbread.
Big Mama said the sugar isn't to make them sweet, it's to take the bitter out. And she said anybody who doesn't wash greens three times
is going to get found out.
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Skillet Cornbread
Written down by Aunt Jeanette ♦ Made now by me, Rosemarie, in Big Mama's own skillet
3 tablespoons bacon grease
2 cups plain white cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
Put the bacon grease in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and put the skillet in the oven while it heats to 425 degrees. Stir the cornmeal, baking
powder, soda and salt together in a bowl. Beat the egg into the buttermilk and stir it into the dry ingredients just until it's mixed. When the
oven is hot, take out the skillet (use a good thick pot holder) and pour most of the hot grease into the batter, leaving a little in the pan,
and stir. Pour the batter into the skillet. It should sizzle. If it doesn't sizzle, your skillet wasn't hot enough. Bake 20 to 25 minutes,
until the top is golden and the edges are brown and crisp. Turn it out onto a plate.
No sugar. Big Mama said sugar belongs in cake, and if you want cake, make cake. When she died, Aunt Jeanette gave me her skillet, and I have
never once let anybody wash it with soap.
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Chow-Chow
Written down by Aunt Sandra ♦ Made now by cousin Colleen, who sends jars to Chicago every Christmas
4 cups chopped green tomatoes
4 cups chopped cabbage
2 onions, chopped
2 green bell peppers and 1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 hot peppers, chopped fine (wear gloves)
1/4 cup pickling salt
3 cups cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
Mix all the vegetables in a big crock or bowl with the salt, cover, and let stand overnight. The next day, drain them well in a colander and
press out the liquid. Bring the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed and turmeric to a boil in a big pot, add the vegetables, and simmer
10 minutes. Pack it hot into hot, clean pint jars, leaving half an inch at the top, wipe the rims, put on the lids, and process the jars in a
boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes about 6 pints. Let it sit a few weeks before you open it.
Aunt Sandra is a schoolteacher and she made everybody write down the canning part properly. She says don't skip the water bath, and she's
right. Big Mama put chow-chow on her peas, her greens and her beans, and sometimes on her cornbread when she thought nobody was watching.
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If you make one of these, tell me how it came out. And if you're an aunt and you think I typed something wrong, I'm sure you'll let me know.
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Last updated September 12, 1999
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