Scott City Musings: Eats from back when

Marge and I were visiting with a friend the other day about foods we like and dislike. Our friend is about our age. We talked about how the younger folks are more into snack food and pizza and the like. Now don’t get me wrong, I like a good pizza that has enough meat and veggies and cheese on it. Our friend said she likes pizza, but not all the time and I had to agree that once a month was about right. We found out our friend likes meat and potatoes and a veggie. Steak or roast or pork chop or most any cut of meat or even chicken as long as it wasn’t a steady diet of hamburger. I could live with those parameters.

Back when our friend was younger most everyone raised their own food or it was available locally. Most of our neighbors butchered their own hogs and beef. There were local markets where you could buy unfrozen meat, fruits and vegetables at fairly decent prices. At that time, the staples were meat and potatoes and homegrown veggies. Meat could be most anything from deer to rabbit to chickens to beef to pork to lamb to whatever, but most folks back then grew up on beef and pork and chicken. Mom and Dad had a refrigerator with a small freezer and they also had an International Freezer. It might have been big enough to store a quarter or half of a beef in, but that was all. The walls were really thick and it weighed a ton. Interesting that old freezer ran and worked till close to the year 2000.

Meals back when we were younger didn’t have the international flare that we have today, so the spices were pretty simple. Salt and pepper were common, but I can’t remember being around garlic till later in life or when we moved south. If there were pizza joints, we didn’t go there.

Mom and Dad’s favorite meal was to take a beef roast and place it in the middle of a fairly large roaster. Now this wasn’t a 2- or 3-pound roast, but instead closer to 8 or 10 pounds. Mom would skin a healthy amount of potatoes, peel some carrots and onions and, now and then, cut up a cabbage and place it around the roast. Mom might have cooked the roast some before putting the veggies in the roaster. I don’t remember. But when everything was done and seasoned with just salt and pepper, that was a meal fit for a king and queen. Mom or Dad would set it in the middle of the dining room table, and we’d all dig in. Loved the meat but I’d have to say baked carrots was my favorite. We might have gotten tired of it, but I can’t remember ever wishing Mom hadn’t cooked it.

Most everyone would order at least 100 baby chicks. I was thinking Mom and Dad usually got 150 to 200. When the chickens were about three-quarters grown, Mom would wring the head off a couple chickens, dip them in boiling hot water and pick the feathers off the chickens. Mom would then hold the cleaned chickens over the gas burners in the kitchen to burn off the pin feathers that were missed. Once the chicken was cut up and cooled down, Mom would dip the pieces in flour seasoned with salt and pepper and fry them in lard. Young folks today don’t have a clue how good that fried chicken tastes. Never a black place on the chicken leg either. Chicken back then also had two legs, two thighs, two breasts, two wings, one rib, one back, two chicken feet and one wishbone. Oh, and the neckbone! Add mashed potatoes, gravy and a veggie and you were eating mighty fine. Only thing that could make it even better was a piece of homemade bread with real cow’s butter on it. Oh and add a dill pickle.

I guess I kind of feel sorry for our young folks who will never experience sitting down to a simple meal fixed with simple ingredients seasoned with salt and pepper.

Just me,

Rennie

Rennie Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.