perfect chess pie every time, easy.

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

Jeff Davis Pie - lol

I had never heard of Chess pie either, it sounds wonderful and the blender would make it quick and easy.

 

I also had never seen a list of "Jiffy" products before, we have only a few.  My grandmother used Jiffy cake mixes when it was just for the two of them, no need for a whole cake.  Her favorite was white cake with Jiffy chocolate frosting.  May have to get some of those, haven't thought of them for years.  

 

When my son was little he would eat very few things and usually then only after a lengthy struggle. One day, I picked him up from the babysitter and she was elated that she'd found something he would eat and like.  It was simply Jiffy cornbread with butter and honey.  We stopped on the way home and bought some it's still a favorite and requested at least once a week so we always keep a box or two on hand.
 
Cuffs:

Are you originally from Georgia?

Because I grew up there, and when I was little, people who put sugar in cornbread were considered capable of depravities too horrible to contemplate. :P
 
Dane,
you flatter me! Actually I'm a yankee from New Joysey but my parents moved me to the south at age 4. Ergo, I claim southern citizenship. BUT, on the subject of depravities my screen name of Cuff054 has very little to do with a nice dress shirt(!)
 
I seem to have all the ingredients--and I picked up a couple of regular sized 9" pie crusts; have a pair of deep dish ones waiting for a MINCEMEAT that I promised to make that still hasn't yet materialized...

But what do I do about CORN MEAL? I usually use the Jiffy mix myself, and don't feel like I could just steal into a box of it for a couple of teaspoons when I usually need every morsel to fill the entire baking pan...

One recipe I saw Online calls for evaporated milk but it is OK to use regular milk right?

Kind'a feel like breaking into this now!

-- Dave
 
cornmeal

You could steal the needed tablespoon from a box without it making too much difference to your cornbread, or I'm sure in a pinch you could use something else, so long as it's a coarsely ground grain, like whole wheat flour, or possibly even crushed cornflakes. In the chocolate pie, you can use regular milk, the evaporated milk just makes it richer, and the concentrated milk fat makes it smoother. If you use regular milk, you may want to add an additional tablespoon of butter
 
Re Cornbread...

I never knew but one person who used Jiffy growing up, Both my Grandmothers made plain white corn bread with NO sugar, my Grandmother Craig and my Grandmother Powell both used Thompsons Fireside mix, it came in little boxes like jiffy does, they quit making it years ago, Granny Craig made wonderful cornbread and the best biscuits you could imagine, but my Grandmother Powell and my Mother both made the most horrid vile excuse for cornbread that could be imagined, sad, greasy and black on the bottom, All my Dads sisters made wonderful cornbread also, but My Aunt Jean makes the same mess Mother did, all they put into self rising white corn meal is buttermilk and pour it into a very heavily greased iron pan heated until it smokes, it burns on the bottom before it ever gets to the oven,I make mine with 1 cup white self rising meal, 1 cup self rising flour,1 egg 2TBSP oil and enough buttermilk to make a thick batter, pour into a cold greased iron skillet and bake at 400.
 
Jiffy mix is ok for cornbread

But believe me when I tell you, I have from scratch recipe that will have you sitting up and begging for buttermilk.
 
Hans:

It sounds like your Grandmother Powell and your mother were doing something similar to what my grandmother taught me, but it does not sound like they got the same result my grandmother did.

Her technique was to grease the pan very lightly, and put the shortening or oil called for in the cornbread recipe into the pan (she'd play with her recipe a little bit - milk sometimes, buttermilk sometimes, oil usually, shortening once in a while). She then put the pan in the oven and turned the oven on to preheat while she made the rest of the batter - the self-rising corn meal, the milk or buttermilk and the egg.

Once the oven was preheated, she took the pan out of it, and poured the hot oil or hot, melted shortening into the batter, stirring it very quickly to mix the oil or shortening into the batter. Then the completed batter was poured into the hot pan, and the pan immediately went back into the oven for baking.

This tactic made for very high-rising, light cornbread; it actually began rising as soon as the batter hit the hot pan. There was no burning on the bottom, just a nice brown crust. She always used Pyrex in preference to cast iron; said it gave the cornbread a crust that was crisp but not tough.

She made cornbread to die for, and so do I, using this method. The only thing I've ever changed was to start using PAM instead of greasing the pan.
 
I have never had any luck making cornbread from anything but Jiffy mix. I once tried making it from scratch (for about 60 at church no less!), and it turned out so dry and tasteless that I was embarassed to serve it, and haven't used anything but Jiffy since. I think I'm going to try that recipe for Chess pie soon, it sounds yummy!
 
cornbread..

My grandmother taught me to make cornbread, and it always started with setting the oven to 400 degrees, (425 if you are in a hurry or have a slow oven), and putting about 2 Tbsp butter in an iron skillet, and put the skillet in the upper third of the oven while it preheats.

While the oven and skillet are getting hot, stir together about 1 and 1/2 cup self rising cornmeal and about 1/2 cup self rising flour, along with a dash salt and a scant Tbsp sugar.

Make a well in the center of the bowl, break in 2 eggs, and beat well. Add milk slowly, until your batter is about the consistency of yellow cake batter, then tilt the bowl on its side, and beat well with a wooden spoon, just as if you were beating cake batter. Pour into hot skillet, return to oven, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Her recipe always gives light, fluffy cornbread, that as a child I could eat plain with butter and be happy, unlike the gritty heavy lump my mother and her family made and claimed to be cornbread, yuck, lol.
 
Cornbread

Being a true southerner Cornbread was always on the table at home. my mother made it like my paternal great grandmother did use a heavy cast iron skillet greased of course then add your butter to it melt in the oven add the melted butter to batter bake till golden
One funny thing about my dad he is really funny about his food at our house cornbread is never cut into slices its broken he says if cut it gums up the sides
 
breaking vs slicing

Funny enough, my grandmother always cut her cornbread in wedges, as soon as she removed it from the oven. She said if you waited even a minute all the hot steam would start condensing in the bread and make the bread heavy.

However, her flitter bread was always broken, never cut, for the same reason you said, she said it gummed it up. I tried cutting it once, and she was right, it didn't even taste the same.

Since generally people who didn't grow up in the mountains of Kentucky have never heard of flitter bread, here is the recipe, it's easy as can be.

Put an iron skillet on the stove over medium or medium high heat, put in 2 or 3 tablespoons butter. While the butter melts, put about 2 cups self rising flour in a bowl, and stir in water until it is just a little wetter than drop biscuit dough.

Put the dough in the hot skillet, all at once, and cook over medium heat until it looks dry around the edges. Then flip the whole thing. (Granny could manage this delicate maneuver with an egg turner, I prefer to slide it onto a plate and flip it back into the skillet. Cook until the bottom is browned and the center is done, ( tear back a small piece in the center with a fork to check).

Flitter is a very simple poor person's food, but very good when you want something not as rich as biscuits or rolls, or if you are in a hurry, or just don't want to turn on the oven.
 
Had ANOTHER Pie Shell that my Chess Pie Recipe din't fill, so I found a BUTTERMILK PIE recipe on the Internet (and somehow found myself w/ a Quart of it, thinking I would need it, based on what I've read here)... The Buttermilk Chess:

In which case there was TOO Much for a Reg. Pie Shell & My Deep Dish Duo is at my dad's, so the left-over batter w/ a scoop of strawberry ice cream left-over from my daughter's 4th Birthday party made a very interesting (& gut-busting, filling) milkshake!

-- Dave

daveamkrayoguy++1-16-2014-10-32-40.jpg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top