Biscuit Puddin’
by Jeannie Travis
Mama would season the pork sausage up with black pepper and salt, sage and a tiny bit of red hot peppers (Always had little kids) then taste a bite of that raw sausage to make sure she had it seasoned right…..YUCK!
We didn’t see how she could stand it, but no time to fire up the cook stove and fry a little cake. Most of it was stuffed into casings Mama had sewn up days ago and then hung in the smokehouse. Part of it was fried almost done then canned in quart jars for a quick breakfast when the stove wood was wet. The jars were stood upside down but on a slant
so all the meat was covered with the grease that cooked out of it and maybe a little of the fresh lard if needed. I think it was ‘sealed’ like that on a slant so there wasn’t so much fat to go through to get the sausage cakes out. I’ve heard that you can keep meat layered in lard in a cold place, just make sure none of the meat touches….
Seems like Mama canned some tenderloin that way one time, makes me hungry just to think of it. I wish I could cook tenderloin like our Mama did…seems like it had a thick crust on it, and tasted better than anything. I can’t duplicate it…but then I’d have to start with home grown tenderloin…fed the way Daddy fed his pigs. He was such a dab hand at curing ham that neighbors begged him to sell them any extra hams. Don’t know what he used to smoke them, but he was good at anything he tried.
When folks talk about bread pudding it reminds me of the delicious BISCUIT puddins’ Mama made when we were growing up. I’ll put the rough recipes in here in case anyone wants to try them.
Mama’s plain biscuit pudding
Crumble up leftover homemade biscuits…Make a thick slurry by adding several eggs, sweet milk or canned, more sugar than you would think because biscuits aren’t sweet, and a little vanilla. Taste. Bake at 350 till set and lightly brown – 30 minutes or more, depending on the pan. Mama used one of those deep pans we called puddin pans. Slice to serve, hot or cold…Great either way…Some folks use a lemon sauce poured on this. Just whatever you would use on bread pudding…
Sunday Biscuit Puddin’
Slice and toast leftover home made biscuits. Use like you would vanilla wafers and bananas in your favorite banana pudding recipe. Just use the toasted biscuit slices. Add meringue on top and brown. I’ve never used pudding mix in this…so don’t know about that.
MY version;
I make custard from scratch, as they say…starting out with 1 cup of sugar and 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of flour, stirred together. I then separate at least 6 eggs and add the yolks, cleared of all bits of white…Then I stir in Half and Half or regular sweet milk…but if I use milk I add some coffee creamer when it is hot…Stir and taste to see how much milk to add…At least a quart ……Put on the stove and stir till it is thick….add some vanilla to taste…{Sorry about these measurements }You don’t want it real thick, so it can soak into the biscuits…Put together like a banana pudding but using the toasted biscuit slices only. Bake long enough to brown the meringue .I add a little vanilla to the whites…..then
sugar after it gets frothy.
Matter of fact, we greatly prefer banana pudding made with toasted biscuits to those made with vanilla wafers or graham crackers. Now folks, I don’t know how this would taste made with canned biscuits….the mind boggles. I use self rising White Lily flour – unbleached if possible. – add about a tsp. of sugar…put plain Crisco in the mix, and melt butter shortening in the pan to roll the biscuits in….I don’t even have an approximate recipe for this, since I just dump stuff together…A biscuit recipe would be on the sack…I use plain canned milk for the liquid, maybe adding a little water…I just wing it , and 9 3/4 times out of 10 it is just right…don’t have to add more milk or flour…There must be a great ‘angel cook’ looking over my shoulder! I do cornbread that way, also…I guess the fact that I have been cooking since I was 9 years old might have something to do with it . Hope this turns out good for you…. In loving memory of my Mama…Myrtle Blanch Buntin Winchester.