My Dad calls me “Puddin“. I don’t know where he got the name from and he doesn’t remember either. Today, I am reading a newspaper and there is a recipe for “Pudding” that is quite unusual to modern cooking methods. I’ve eaten pudding which is  bought in a box from a grocery store and is a powdered mix, but – I’ve never made the ‘old-fashioned’ kind. In fact, I’ve never even seen a recipe for “Pudding”. (I’m not really a cook and stay out-of-the kitchen as much as I can.) However, I can’t help sharing this recipe (because my nickname and the recipe name is so similar).

(1) From The Advertizer-Herald newspaper of Bamberg,SC on Jan. 14, 2015 – article by Pansy Clayton, Ehrhardt Correspondent (Note: Ehrhardt is 10 miles south of Bamberg).

This is a copy of the article that begins the “Did you know?” column:

That one of my old time favorites that Grandmoma Annie Clayton made for us was Chocolate Pudding and here is her recipe: 

One pint of sweet milk

One half pint of bread crumbs

One half cup sugar

The yolks of two eggs

Five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate

Then scald the milk, Add the bread crumbs and chocolate. 

Take from the fire, add the sugar and beaten eggs.

Then put in a pudding dish and bake 15 minutes, beat the whites with a tablespoon of sugar making a stiff merangue. Then spread over the pudding and brown a little. Then serve cold. 

(Website author note: I have a lot to learn. I’ve never cooked over a iron stove with a wood fire and have never scalded milk. In fact, I’ve never grated chocolate as they older cooks used to do. I’m sure that my grandmother used to cook this way – but, the grandmothers on both my mother and father’s sides were elderly and modern conveniences had taken place of the older methods of cooking when I was growing up. I want to try this recipe someday and have my granddaughter help me prepare it in the kitchen. She turned one-year-old a few days ago. Welcome to our changing world – I can imagine that when she is my age, there may not be any need to cook food anymore and that all our food will come pre-packaged and cooked. I hope that we are able to retain and share some of our heritage so that future generations can always prepare their own food using whatever recipe they like.)

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(2) Before publishing this on the wordpress blogging website, I HAD to add this ‘other’ recipe.  Remember the tv series show named “The Waltons”? It centered on the lives of a family who lived in the mountains of the east coast. The family lived on a farm.  There were two elderly ladies in the nearby town who often shared Papa’s ‘recipe’ with their neighbors – in the form of an addition to their afternoon tea (i.e., moonshine). The ‘recipe-Papa’s favorite drink’ was one that had been handed down for generations and they could never divulge how to ‘make-your-own’.  Well, I’m now reading The Advertizer-Herald for Jan 21,2015 and the Ehrhardt News correspondent has published a recipe for homemade wine. My maternal grandmother’s sister used to make the wine for the church communion and I imagine that her recipe was similar to the one below:

To one gallon of muscadine grape juice, you add three lbs. of good granulated sugar and a half pint of water. Then let it sit open until it is done fermentating. Then strain it good and put it into jars and put a tight cork on it. Let it sit again and it will be ready for sipping in a month or two. 

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(3) Here is another: From The Advertizer-Herald newspaper of Bamberg,SC by Pansy Clayton, Feb 4, 2015 page 10:

To make “ash cakes” in the early 1800’s, you would get some good “home grown” meal and mix it well with milk or water and add a little salt an bakin’ powder, then pat the cakes up right well and let them settle by sitting a bit. Then put them in the hot ashes at the edge of the big fireplace that people used to cook in and cover them up real good with some more hot ashes. Make sure the hot ashes are covering all sides of the cakes and leave them there for a few minutes till they are done and that is some of the best eating that you would ever have in those old times?

The Advertizer-Herald, Bamberg,SC – Mar 18,2015 Page 10.

(Did you know) That the recipe for “ash cakes” is – take a quart of meal, salt, soda, sour milk and a few spoons of sorghum molasses and make a stiff pone that can be handled easily, clean the hearth with a rag, place the pone on the hot hearth and let it stand under the heat until a light crust forms, cover with ashes, remove from fire, brush off ashes and wipe with a damp cloth and cover with butter to eat?

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(4) Below is another “Did you know?” article that I thought was ‘interesting’ and hope that you enjoy it also. From The Advertizer-Herald newspaper of Bamberg,SC on Feb. 18, 2015 page9 – article by Pansy Clayton, Ehrhardt Correspondent.
(Did you know) That in the early 1800’s on the plantations, a pond was usually located on the place and in winter, ice was gathered for summer use and stored in what they called an “icehouse”? It was built for that purpose by digging a large hole about ten feet deep and the ice was cut out in big blocks and put in that hole and covered usually with straw.  
(Did you know) The “icehouse” was a large frame built directly over that deep hole with an entrance door and steps leading down to the bottom of the hold and they stored lots of other things in there too – like pickles, preserves, cider and barrels of brandy and wine? 
(Did you know) That most plantations had their own stills too for making crystal clear moonshine and to tell when it was”right”, they held up a half-gallon Mason jar to check “the bead” and when that bead was just the right size and moving up at the right speed, then it was “done”?