For the Love of Bread

Vintage African American – Master Bakers

Legacy

I cannot recall consulting a cookbook, in recent memory, other than to pass the time while browsing the aisles at Barnes and Nobel. Nor have I ever thought to research the origin of any dish, ingredients or cooking methods.  Thanks to the loving and experienced hands of both my mother and grandmother, who I fondly refer to as “Big Mama,” strict teachings regarding food preparation and baking, the legacy of our family recipes and techniques continue to pass from generation to generation, intact.  My family’s recipes are four, maybe five generations old and, as of this writing, many of which I have not mastered. Barnes & Nobel

Ancestry

My family ancestry has been traced from the early 1800s, through emancipation, forward. During and after the time of slavery, civil war, emancipation, civil rights era, many of family members, including my Big Mama, were employed as servants, butlers, maids, head cooks and now chefs. Ancestry

The foundation of my personal knowledge is rooted in the teachings of five generations of survivalists, heroes, role models, strong independent women, servants, butlers, maids, head cooks and now chefs.  Whenever I attempt to recreate one of Big Mama’s recipes, I am always mindful that it is indeed an honor and a privilege. Replicating Big Mama’s techniques have brought my family through many rough times is responsible for creating the unique flavors and textures that translate into love. As a side note, my people are known for possessing the magical ability to make a whole lot of something out of nothing!

As an addition to paying homage to my Big Mama, the mental preparation, also includes observing certain traditions and superstitions.  While, my family claims not to believe in the practice of juju, however, when it comes to baking, they do. For example, the spilling of salt or baking on more than one rack at a time is strictly forbidden.  Also, I was taught how to properly open and close an oven. I know it sounds crazy, but we do I was taught to observe both the acts, as well as the remedies to take, in the event of a mistake. Why People Throw Salt Over Shoulders; JuJu

Personal Background

Yes, I am a southern girl, born, raised and educated in Los Angeles, with the richness of red clay and ruddy earth sown deep into my soul. The working the land, food, love, and laughter were all that encountered as a child.  Never in my young life did consider myself to be poor.  Furthermore, I never understood, nor cared to decipher the hidden messages contained within the familiar phrases that flowed so smoothly from my Mother and Big Mama’s lips.  Two of my favorite phrases were “make sure that you clean your plate,” “don’t leave nothing on that plate” and my favorite of all time, “don’t you know that there are poor children starving in Africa, now eat!”

As an adult reflecting on the past, I am now able to accept the role that bread held as a moniker of prosperity or well being within our family unit.  In that, as it related to my parents’ economic struggles, with regards to feeding and caring for us kids. The lack (bread aka money) of hot, warm cornbread or butter biscuits with honey, most often meant that our family was experiencing lean economic times.  Fresh baked goods translated into the added expense of milk, eggs, butter, oil, honey, syrup, jelly or jam, flour and sugar.

What is Bread

Per Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, Bread is a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal, but I prefer, Webster’s Definition

Free Dictionary by Farplex’s definition:

Bread – A staple food made from flour or meal mixed with other dry and liquid ingredients, usually combined with a leavening agent, and kneaded, shaped into loaves, and baked. (The Free Dictionary By Farplex)

  1. Food in general, regarded as necessary for sustaining life: “If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second” (Edward Bellamy). Edward Bellamy
  2. Something that nourishes; sustenance: “My bread shall be the anguish of my mind” (Edmund Spenser). Edmund Spenser

Stone Hearth Oven

Historical Evidence

Grown in Mesopotamia and Egypt, wheat was likely first merely chewed. Later it was discovered that it could be pulverized and made into a paste. Set over a fire, the paste hardened into a flat bread that kept for several days. It did not take much of a leap to discover leavened (raised) bread when yeast was accidentally introduced to the paste.

Instead of waiting for fortuitous circumstances to leaven their bread, people found that they could save a piece of dough from a batch of bread to put into the next day’s dough. This was the origin of sour-dough, a process still used today.

In Egypt, around 1000 BC, inquiring minds isolated yeast and were able to introduce the culture directly to their breads. Also, a new strain of wheat was developed that allowed for refined white bread. This was the first truly modern bread. Up to thirty varieties of bread may have been popular in ancient Egypt. History of Bread; Industrial Revolution of Bread

 The African History of Bread

African cooks in the “Big House” introduced their native African crops and foods to the planters, thus becoming intermediary links in the melding of African and European culinary cultures. In short, the house servants while learning from the planters also took African culinary taste into the Big House. African cooks introduced deep fat frying, a cooking technique that originated from Africa. Long before the day of refrigeration, Africans understood how deep fat frying of chicken or beef could preserve these foods for a time. The Soul of Food

Using their indigenous crops, enslaved Africans recreated traditional African cuisine. One such dish is fufu. In South Carolina, this dish is called “turn meal and flour.” This meal is prepared by boiling water and adding flour while stirring the ingredients, hence the name “turn meal and flour.” Throughout Africa fufu is a highly-favored staple. This is a traditional West and Central African meal eaten from the Senegambia to Angola. Africans prepare fufu by mixing palm oil and flour. From these fufu mixture slaves made hoecakes (Horton) in the fields that later evolved into pancakes and hot water cornbread. Corn bread, prepared by African slaves, was like African millet bread. In the reports of slavers found in the journal entry from the ship Mary, June 20, 1796. “Cornbread” was mentioned as one of the African foods provided for their cargo. The report also mentions a “woman cleaning rice and grinding corn for corn cakes.” Corn is fried into cakes as is still prepared throughout in Africa today. Fufu

Traditional Hot Water Cornbread (with Parsley)

BIG MAMA’S HOT WATER CORNBREAD

 Recipe

Ingredients Directions
Ingredients

 

2 cup of corn meal

 

2 tablespoons of butter, lard or oil (mashed into the cornmeal)

 

Dash of salt

 

Dash of Ground Cloves

½ teaspoon fresh chopped of parsley

2 teaspoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 egg

2 cups of Crisco to fry in

 

Cast Iron Skillet

 

Mix all the ingredients (except Crisco) together in a bowl.

 

Boil 2 cups of water

 

Add in boiling water. Very Slowly. Stirring constantly. Until you get the cornmeal to where it forms into a firm ball and stays together. (Do not over water – but add enough water that you do not have a powdery residue left in the bowl. You need to be able to scoop a handful out and pat it into a patty, and it must hold together.)

 

Heat 2 cups of Crisco in an iron cast skillet – (Grease should be sizzling)

 

Place approximately 2 to 3 tablespoons of cornmeal into your hands and press into a patty. Think of working with clay and water to make a nice patty shape about ¾ inch thick

 

Place carefully into grease and cook until golden brown on both sides.

 

Butter Biscuit

History of the Biscuit

The original biscuit was a flat cake that was put back in the oven after being removed from its tin; hence the French name “bis” (twice) “cuit” (cooked). This very hard, dry biscuit was the staple for sailors and soldiers for centuries. During the time of Louis XIV, soldiers’ biscuits were known as “stone bread.”

Animalized” biscuits were introduced later. They were thought to be very nutritious because they used meat juices as the liquid. In the 19th centuries, travelers’ biscuits were hard cakes that kept well wrapped in a kind of tin foil.

Feathery, light biscuits originated in Southern plantation kitchens but, now are popular throughout the United States. Rolled biscuits were a staple at most meals, but beaten biscuits became another Southern favorite. Beaten biscuits are made light by beating air into the dough with a mallet or a rolling pin (up to 100 strokes “or more for company”). Beaten biscuits are typically thinner and crispier than baking powder biscuits. Food Reference

BIG MAMA’S BASIC BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

RECIPES

Ingredients Directions
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

dash teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup lard (or shortening)

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 450°F. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Sifting is important, it helps loosen up the flour so the lard and milk mix into the flour quicker with less kneading. Cut in lard with a pastry blender or a couple knives.

 

Once you cut in the shortening or butter into your flour mix, stir in milk only until distributed. The dough should be sticky. You want your dough to be as moist as possible, yet able to retain its shape.
Dump your biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the sides of the dough gently towards the center of the dough. Flour the surface again and flip the dough. Fold one more time, very gently. Then flip the dough and press out with your finger to the desired thickness and use a traditional cutter.

 

If dough if is too sticky to roll out, you can pinch off individual pieces of dough and shape each piece with floured hands.

 

For crusty biscuits, place biscuits on a greased baking sheet 1″ apart. For softer biscuits, place biscuits in a large casserole dish with the sides touching. Bake for 10-12 minutes – use an old fashion egg timer. Brush tops with butter for a brown finish, if desired.

BIG MAMA’S BUTTERMILK CHEDDAR BISCUITS (ADAPTED BY CHEF RINNIE)

Ingredients Directions
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

dash teaspoon salt

dash of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 Salted Butter

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 Cheddar Cheese

1 teaspoon Garlic

1 tablespoon Parsley

½ teaspoon Paprika

½ teaspoon Basil

1 teaspoon Onion Powder

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

½ teaspoon Dry Mustard

¼ cup Heavy Cream

1 tablespoon Honey

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 450°F. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Sifting is important, it helps loosen up the flour so the lard and milk mix into the flour quicker with less kneading. Cut in lard with a pastry blender or a couple knives.

 

Once you cut in the shortening or butter into your flour mix, stir in milk only until distributed. The dough should be sticky. You want your dough to be as moist as possible, yet able to retain its shape.
Dump your biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the sides of the dough gently towards the center of the dough. Flour the surface again and flip the dough. Fold one more time, very gently. Then flip the dough and press out with your finger to the desired thickness and use a traditional cutter.

 

If dough if is too sticky to roll out, you can pinch off individual pieces of dough and shape each piece with floured hands.

 

For crusty biscuits, place biscuits on a greased baking sheet 1″ apart. For softer biscuits, place biscuits in a large casserole dish with the sides touching. Bake for 10-12 minutes – use an old fashion egg timer. Brush tops with butter for a brown finish, if desired.


WORKS CITED

 

n.d. 2 Decembe 2016. <www.freedictionary.com/Spenser>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <www.freedictionary.com/Bellamy>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/about/the-history-of-bread/>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/about/the-history-of-bread/the-history-of-bread-the-industrial-revolution/>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <http://slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=crops-slave-cuisines>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <http://www.foodreference.com/html/a-biscuit-history-1008.html>.

n.d. 7 December 2016. <http://www.ancestry.com/africanamerican>.

n.d. 2 December 2016. <http://addapinch.com/cooking-conversion-charts/>.

n.d. 2016 November 2016. <www.foodreference.com>.

Barnes & Nobel. n.d. 7 December 2016. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/cookbooks-food-wine/_/N-29Z8q8Zy3b>.

Christina, About. The Soul of Food Slavery’s Influence on Southern Cuisine. n.d. 2 December 2016. <http://ushistoryscene.com/article/slavery-southern-cuisine/>.

Hicks, Louella. “Hotwater Cornbread.” n.d. 7 December 2016. <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177821885263168886/>.

Horton, Emily. slate.com. 2 Julyr 2014. 7 December 2016. <slate.com/browbeat/2014/07/02/hoecakes_recipe_history_how_the_southern_cornbread_got_its_name.html>.

Merriam-Webster. unknown unknown unknown. 2 December 2016. <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bread>.

“Picture of Stone Hearth – Modified.” n.d. <http://www.breadinfo.com/history.shtml>.

Ronca, Debra. HowStuffWorks.com. 6 August 2015. 7 December 2016. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/why-do-people-throw-salts-over–shoulders.html>.

The Free Dictionary By Farplex. unknown unknown unknown. 2 December 2016. <www.thefreedictionary.com/bread”>bread</a>>.

Wikipedia. 22 October 2016. 2 December 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.juju>.

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