Winter days at my grandmother’s house were never gloomy or boring.
I visited during Christmas vacation and I always had the best of times. We could not go outside and do the things we did during pretty weather, but these were the times I was treated to several lessons of homemaking that were priceless. 
She taught me to make biscuits in her old black wood stove when the wind was puffing around the old clapboard house. She showed me her secrets of her most scrumptious beef stew that we always ate with her fluffy big biscuits. One of the things that I wish I could have taught to my daughter was how she made the buttermilk that we used to make this delicious, cloud-like biscuits.
She would also churn the beautiful golden butter to slather on the biscuits. They had one old milk cow that gave them plenty of milk. My grandmother would get out her little churn with the short broomstick-looking handle with the paddle on the bottom, pour some room temperature milk inside and then we would move the paddle up and down, up and down until the milk broke into yellow clumps.
Then the milk would be strained through cheesecloth, leaving the lumps caught in the cloth. These lumps would be poured into a butter mold and become yellow homemade butter. The remainder of the milk would be soured buttermilk, used for baking. This process always fascinates me. I have tried making butter with a quart jar and lots of shaking, but it has never turned out like my grandmother’s did. Nevertheless, I will keep on trying to make this yellow butter until I perfect it.
For breakfast each morning I was indulged with these wonderful buscits paired with country ham that my granddaddy had smoked and sorghum molasses one of the neighbors had made. Most of the biscuits were of normal size except for the two she made for my granddaddy. His were the size of a small saucer. Sometimes if the weather was really cold and wet, we would have this same meal for supper.
My children buy butter and buttermilk from a grocery store. They know it is made from machines but none of them know how this came to be. My grandsons do not even know how buttermilk is made. I believe they think it comes from a different kind of cow that only gives the sour milk.
Foods back then were made naturally, no preservatives. Now we are treated to products that are “good” for us and these additives take away the really good homemade taste. If you remember how to make butter and buttermilk, tell your children so that this treasured past tradition is never lost.
Weekly Recipe
Beef Stew – 2 pounds of stew meat rolled heavily in flour, salt and pepper. (The flour will help to thicken the stew.) 2 small onions diced and sautéed, 3 or 4 large sliced carrots, 4 or 5 potatoes diced. Brown stew meat in 3 tablespoons of butter, (the kind we just made), Add potatoes, carrots and onions, salt and pepper. Add a quart of homemade beef stock (or store bought) and cook until meat is done and vegetables are tender, about 1 ½ hours on simmer. Sometimes she would add a quart of her canned tomatoes and change things up and this is also so good.
Peggy Sims is a columnist and resident of Kosciusko.
