Old Family Recipe: Spoonbread
I just finished reading Mom’s Family Pie, Peggy Shifflett’s wonderful book of family recipes and the stories behind them.
Unlike Peggy, I don't have many family recipes, but I have a couple. One came from Aunt Leona.
When I was a kid, my great aunt Leona Ruble Davy (maybe it's spelled Davey) and her husband (she called him Buddy, but I don't know his real name) would come from their new Castle home to visit us aound Easter. She usually brought me a fruit-and-nut chocolate-covered egg. Sometimes it had my name in icing on it.
Supposedly Leona, the youngest child of G. William Ruble and Margie Caldwell Ruble of Botetourt County, was known for the beautiful clothes she made herself. This photo from her youth isn't in very good shape, but it shows how pretty she was. She still had her red hair in the 1950s.
Aunt Leona never had kids. I don't know when she died, but I can vaguely remember driving my brand new 1967 Firebird from Roanoke to New Castle to take my mother to visit Aunt Leona.
Besides the picture, I have her recipe for spoonbread. Here it is:
Unlike Peggy, I don't have many family recipes, but I have a couple. One came from Aunt Leona.
When I was a kid, my great aunt Leona Ruble Davy (maybe it's spelled Davey) and her husband (she called him Buddy, but I don't know his real name) would come from their new Castle home to visit us aound Easter. She usually brought me a fruit-and-nut chocolate-covered egg. Sometimes it had my name in icing on it.
Supposedly Leona, the youngest child of G. William Ruble and Margie Caldwell Ruble of Botetourt County, was known for the beautiful clothes she made herself. This photo from her youth isn't in very good shape, but it shows how pretty she was. She still had her red hair in the 1950s.
Aunt Leona never had kids. I don't know when she died, but I can vaguely remember driving my brand new 1967 Firebird from Roanoke to New Castle to take my mother to visit Aunt Leona.
Besides the picture, I have her recipe for spoonbread. Here it is:
Leona's Spoonbread
1 cup boiling water
one-half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
one-half cup sweet milk
one and a half teaspoons baking powder
one-half teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 cup boiling water
one-half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
one-half cup sweet milk
one and a half teaspoons baking powder
one-half teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well-beaten
Pour one cup boiling water over one-half cup corn meal. Beat in 1 Tbs. butter, one-half cup milk, one and a half tsp. baking powder, a half teaspoon of salt, and 2 beaten eggs. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake until set. This would be at 400 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes in a modern stove. Serve hot with butter.
I'm not much of a cook, but I've made this spoonbread before and it is wonderful.
I wonder how much more wonderful it would be baked in a wood stove?
I'm not much of a cook, but I've made this spoonbread before and it is wonderful.
I wonder how much more wonderful it would be baked in a wood stove?
posted by Becky Mushko | 1:43 PM
2 Comments:
I love old recipes! Thanks for sharing this. My mother is a vegetarian and my grandmothers weren't huge cooks (in fact, one didn't cook at all). I have hardly any good recipes - at least that don't involve jello!
Amy
I have already contacted you regarding the two recipes. I intended to post them on my blog to-day but began working on my "memoirs" and time got away from me.
I'm delighted to have recipes from the American south.
Post a Comment
<< Home