Grandma's Batter Bread

When I was growing up, my family cooked just about everything from scratch. The majority of the food that we ate came from our little family farm. A big breakfast, a big dinner, and then a lighter supper, usually consisting of leftovers from dinner, was the general order of things. A typical dinner or supper always consisted of a meat, potatoes, 2-3 other vegetables, and bread. Always bread. Usually cornbread, but occasionally we would have batter bread.

I used to pester my Mama & Grandma to let me help them cook.  My mom worked a full time job and usually a part time job too, so when it came to cooking, she just wanted to get the food to cooking as quickly as possible so that she could sit down and rest.  Grandma had a bit more time to let a little girl "help" which generally meant a big mess to clean up!  Grandma taught me how to read a recipe, but more importantly, mama and grandma both taught me how to cook from scratch, by simply throwing together whatever we had available to create something tasty.  Learning how different ingredients work together makes cooking without recipes so much easier. 

Thanks Mama & Grandma!

How did you learn to cook?

Grandma & Grandpa Burnette

Grandma's Batter Bread

1/2 cup shortening

3 cups self-rising flour

milk

Work the flour into the shortening until crumbly. Continue stirring and adding milk until it has the consistency of cake batter.  Pour into a pre-heated Dutch oven if baking in a fireplace or in a cast iron frying pan if using a modern oven and bake at 375F.  Bake until a broom straw inserted into the center comes out clean.

A sweet bread can also be made using the above recipe. Add sugar to taste. You may also add raisins, bananas, apples, nuts or other fruits.

Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean.