A simple white trash cornmeal recipe

[Gene L]

I've been doing this for a couple of decades. It's not exotic, but it's filling. My mom used to fix this or a variety of this for recovering from sickness. Mine doesn't have grease like hers did. Easy on the stomach.

You slice peeled potatoes in fairly thin slices so they'll cook fairly quickly. You bring a couple of cups of chicken stock (or more) to a boil and add cornmeal...how much, I never measured. You'll have to experiment. Just dust it in so it doesn't clump and stir it. Probably a quarter cup, dusted in, maybe less.

As it cooks, the broth will thicken with the corn meal. Add pepper and salt until the meal is about cooked, and add the potatoes. They'll cook in five minutes or so and the meal furnishes a (to me) good thickening agent, the salt and pepper add the flavor.

A good, quick lunch. Not at all like grits.

 

[coloradoclyde]

It needs a name!

I'm calling it, "Gene's potatoes -n- cornmeal gravy" :wink:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

White Trash 'Taters?

Spuds & Mush?

Indian & Irish?

Indian & Idaho?

Polenta & Potatoes?

LD

 

[Nativearizonan]

Does it have a consistency like soup, more like mashed potatoes, or thicker still?

 

[Claude Mathis]

It needs a name!

I'm calling it, "Gene's potatoes -n- cornmeal gravy" :wink:

How about "starch"?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Calling it "white trash " anything, is derogatory regardless of the intention..... :idunno:

 

[Nativearizonan]

Calling it "white trash " anything, is derogatory regardless of the intention..... :idunno:

I assumed it was self-derogatory, which is often acceptable, especially for the sake of humor. Like calling oneself a redneck is acceptable, but using it as an insult at someone else is not.

 

[Artificer]

I've been doing this for a couple of decades. It's not exotic, but it's filling. My mom used to fix this or a variety of this for recovering from sickness. Mine doesn't have grease like hers did. Easy on the stomach.

This reminded me of something my Maternal Grandmother (who lived with us as I was growing up) and my Mom made when we kids were recovering from sickness. It was nothing more than a couple of slices of toasted white bread with some margarine or butter spread on them and then heated milk poured over it to soften it up. I actually have eaten this many times as a snack or when my kids or I were recovering from illness.

What we did not know was that in the 18th century, bread with milk mixed in was one of the major breakfast meals in the colonies and even by some of the lower wealthy homes as well. I do not know if they heated the milk and it was probably fresh from the cow. What it did do was ensure that even stale bread could be eaten and not wasted.

Gus

 

[omarick1948]

Calling it "white trash " anything, is derogatory regardless of the intention..... :idunno:

I assumed it was self-derogatory, which is often acceptable, especially for the sake of humor. Like calling oneself a redneck is acceptable, but using it as an insult at someone else is not.

How about a self-derogatory attempt at trying to be funny? Bad choice of words! :td:

 

[Nativearizonan]

I've been doing this for a couple of decades. It's not exotic, but it's filling. My mom used to fix this or a variety of this for recovering from sickness. Mine doesn't have grease like hers did. Easy on the stomach.

This reminded me of something my Maternal Grandmother (who lived with us as I was growing up) and my Mom made when we kids were recovering from sickness. It was nothing more than a couple of slices of toasted white bread with some margarine or butter spread on them and then heated milk poured over it to soften it up. I actually have eaten this many times as a snack or when my kids or I were recovering from illness.

What we did not know was that in the 18th century, bread with milk mixed in was one of the major breakfast meals in the colonies and even by some of the lower wealthy homes as well. I do not know if they heated the milk and it was probably fresh from the cow. What it did do was ensure that even stale bread could be eaten and not wasted.

Gus

You just described milk toast. I think everyone is familiar with the term, but few realize it really was a common meal, enjoyed by most people, and not some made up term to describe a flawed personality. It was most likely the inspiration for modern cold cereal; something nutritious that could be fixed quickly when a person had little time to eat.

 

[nhmoose]

Calling it "white trash " anything, is derogatory regardless of the intention..... :idunno:

Uh lighten up with the politically correct PC I come here to get away from that carp. Thanks no offence

 

[sidelock]

When I was a kid on the farm during WW11 we had this often and Mom called it milk toast and it was good. I think I may ask my wife to do it again for me. my Mom milked the cow while Dad was away in the Army.

 

[sidelock]

I think Mom used any leftover bread, biscuits, cornbread, pancakes, any leftover bread. All was very good. TRY IT!!!! A little nutmeg once in a while.

 

[tenngun]

The milk toast is good, my dad used to make it. A poached egg on it with lots of pepper is real good too.

 

[Gene L]

Calling it "white trash " anything, is derogatory regardless of the intention..... :idunno:

I assumed it was self-derogatory, which is often acceptable, especially for the sake of humor. Like calling oneself a redneck is acceptable, but using it as an insult at someone else is not.

There was a cookbook titled "White Trash Cooking" or something like that and which was quite successful widely praised and raised no PC eyebrows. It was somewhat comic and basically composed of simple recipes garnered from lower-income white Southerners without any malice. One example was a potato chip sandwich...mayo, potato chips, and white bread. Unsophisticated.

This recipe was in keeping with the original book as it is simple and uses components on hand in most Southern kitchens and is simple, quick, and pretty true to the book. And the recipe and the title is one I used before in a cooking class I helped put one. Which was widely appreciated because it had no cholesterol and was tasty, which was the purpose of the class.

Being raised a white poor individual (but not white trash) I think I'm entitled to lightly refer to white trash cooking in terms of the original book without an atom of disrespect for the cooking.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I wasn't trying to be politically correct!...I'll let it go.. :surrender: But there is still a point to debate.

I also grew up poor....I love potato chip sandwiches.. mayo, ketchup, and chips between 2 slices of bread...have to press it with your hand to break all the chips. :haha:

Also, onion sandwich...same as above just replace the chips with a slice of onion.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

There was a cookbook titled "White Trash Cooking"

YES I have a copy.

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

Mind boggling!....

 

[coloradoclyde]

One example was a potato chip sandwich...mayo, potato chips, and white bread. Unsophisticated..

The early beginnings of the potato chip where anything but unsophisticated....
Form early recipes in affluent cookbooks such as
The Cook's Oracle first published in 1817
To a chef at Moon's Lake House restaurant who was trying to appease an unhappy customer on August 24, 1853 who kept sending French fried potatoes back saying they were to thick....

Today potato chips are junk food...but in the beginning they were all the rage among the wealthy.

Mayonnaise also follows suit, with one claim to fame being said to be the invention of the French chef of the Duke de Richelieu in 1756.

Only bread qualifies as Common, unsophisticated or "white trash"

 

[zimmerstutzen]

My wife worked in the local schools for ten years. The really poor kids got free breakfast and lunch. What some of the other kids had for lunches was amazing. Two pieces of bread with sugar sprinkled on the bread. A few crackers and a packet of ketchup from a fast food restaurant. One kid often had moldy bread. One of these kids was a neighbor. Fed the kids garbage, but took them to Disney world every year.