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skillet. The final touch of cooking is to add a small amount of home
cured bacon drippings for flavor. Creamed corn is not something that
can be cooked quickly, as it will scorch very easily, it must be
simmercooked for a long time to get that true downsouth flavor. That
along with other fresh farm vegetables, makes it worth while to take
time out and have a noontime summertime feast. A lot of care had to
be taken when using a pressure cooker, they were heavy when loaded,
plus there was live steam inside under pressure. We would plant sweet
corn over a period of several weeks so all of it would not come in at
the same time. The best part of growing the sweet corn was when we
would find some ears too hard to use but not completely dry, put it
in the oven and bake it. The sugar content was at its peak, and it
was almost like eating candy.

Most of our canning was done on the old wood fired "Home Comfort"
range, the kind with the water chest on the left side and a warming
closet over the main cook area. I still argue and contend the best of
all Southern Home cooking was done on a wood stove. The big worry to
home canning was hoping all the jars would seal properly, if not all
that work was in vain. Every thing not properly sealed would be lost.
After they sealed the rings could removed and used for the next
canning session. All this was done in a kitchen with a wood shingle
roof. It's a wonder it didn’t catch fire. We tried to use wood that
did not make a lot of sparks, maybe that helped. Maybe someone was
looking down and protecting us. In canning season it took much wood
to keep it going and it was a hot job.

Most of the field corn we consumed was as cornmeal or grits. Many
years ago, Papa had gotten some seed of a white flint corn and it
made excellent meal and grits. The grits did take longer to cook. The
kernels were very hard, so it was not very bad about getting infested
with corn weevils. When we needed meal and grits we went to the
corncrib, selected large solid ears and shucked them and ran then
through the cornsheller, to get the kernels off the cob. The sheller
was a big hand powered machine that stood about three and a half feet
high. A large crank on one side for power, and a large balancing
wheel on the opposite with a large iron disk inside with many teeth
extending from it to remove the corn from the cob. As the corn was
removed from the cob, it came out the bottom and was collected in a
bucket or tub. The cobs were expelled from a chute on the opposite
end of the sheller. The shelled corn was put in a sack taken to town
to a gritsmill for grinding. The miller didn't charge cash for
grinding just a portion, usually 1/12. Sometimes we would use yellow
corn for our grits and meal. We very seldom had both on hand for long
at a time. Either yellow or white cornmeal, made some mighty fine,
made from scratch

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