away from being spoiled . When she measured it to go into the cornbread , it poured so slowly that it looked semi-solid .
As for the flavor of the result , well , I ’ d always had cornbread made with buttermilk so I didn ’ t know any different . It was Mama ’ s cornbread and therefore that was how cornbread tasted . The same reason that I hated Thanksgiving turkey dressing until I discovered that it wasn ’ t the dish itself , it was that my mother made it really , really badly . I know now that dressing doesn ’ t have to be dry as sand , salvagable only by several gallons of gravy .
But my mother made excellent cornbread . It was moist and fluffy , not too sweet , and tasted extra corny from the small can of creamed corn she added to the batter .
After dinner on a cornbread night , my father would do something that I found really odd .
He ’ d go into the kitchen , get a tall iced-tea glass , and fill it with crumbled leftover cornbread . Then he ’ d pour buttermilk over it , stir it a little with a long spoon , and carry it back to his recliner , where he ’ d let it sit for a few minutes while watching a few minutes of a basketball game or sitcom . When it became a tall , yellowish glass of chunky pudding , he ’ d eat it , scooping up every soaked morsel .
One time , I asked him for a bite . It tasted like sour mush , so once was enough , which was fine with Daddy , because he clearly loved it . Every time we had cornbread , he made this concoction . Parents . Weird . Or so I believed . Now , I appreciate buttermilk ’ s tangy flavor and its ability to transform the most lowly ingredients into delicious things that are way more than the sum of their parts because of the ingredient ’ s science and history . I know and respect where it came from , and there ’ s a kind of magic in that .
Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing by Debbie Moose
From “ Buttermilk : A Savor the South Cookbook ” by Debbie Moose , published by University of North Carolina Press
This chunky dressing takes salads to another level . Use a good-quality crumbled blue cheese . Make it a thicker dip for vegetables or chips by reducing the buttermilk slightly , until it ’ s the consistency you prefer . Makes about 2 cups
• 1 / 4 cup sour cream
• 1 / 2 cup buttermilk
• 1 / 4 cup mayonnaise
• Juice of 1 / 2 lemon ( about 1 tablespoon )
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese , softened
• 1 / 2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh garlic
• 8 ounces crumbled blue cheese , divided
• Freshly ground black pepper
Place the sour cream , buttermilk , mayonnaise , lemon juice , cream cheese , garlic and half of the blue cheese in a blender . Add a couple of generous grinds of black pepper . Puree until smooth . Remove the mixture from the blender and stir in the remaining blue cheese . Cover and refrigerate overnight for the best flavor .
What is buttermilk ? The short answer : it ’ s what ’ s left after churning the butter out of whole milk . In farming days , after making butter , families didn ’ t just throw out what remained . They put it aside , where it absorbed cultures from the air as they considered initially how to use it for sustenance and , over time , its tart flavor . When baking powder became widespread around 1800 , buttermilk ’ s acidity , which is higher than regular milk , was a perfect match for highrising biscuits , cakes and cornbread . Fermentation also extended the shelf life before widespread refrigeration in the South , and even now , refrigerated commercial buttermilk stays usable longer than conventional milk .
After hand-churning , there could be flecks of butter in the buttermilk , which explains the kind Mama bought . But I doubt that the flecks were blaze orange .
Older recipes may call for “ sour milk ,” and that means buttermilk , as opposed to “ sweet milk ,” which is what folks , including my mother , once called regular old milk . In no case does it mean that the answer to “ I don ’ t have any buttermilk , what do I do ?” is combining milk with lemon juice or white vinegar . Sure , you can do that , but all it will give you is acidic milk with none of the flavor-enhancing qualities of real buttermilk . What you do is go to the store for the real thing , preferably from one of many of the region ’ s small dairies , but if you ’ re stuck at home in ten feet of snow and want to make biscuits , it ’ s better than nothing .
Today , dairies make buttermilk by combining milk with commercial cultures rather than relying on the rather iffy natural fermentation of the old days . The result is more akin to yogurt than the milk it came from , which might explain how it might not have appealed to a child .
As for Daddy ’ s favorite snack , when I grew up and began to learn about the history of southern and Appalachian foods , I ran into many people whose parents had enjoyed the same combination . Most had the same thing in common – like my father , they had grown up rural and poor , in families who used up every leftover and never threw things away .
You don ’ t have to dig far into many of the region ’ s iconic foods to find , as with buttermilk , roots in making do and getting by . In this part of the world , we find a way , even if it seems strange to later generations . Buttermilk is a delicious testament to survival . �
Debbie Moose is the author of cookbooks , including “ Deviled Eggs : 50 Recipes from Simple to Sassy ,” “ Buttermilk : A Savor the South Cookbook ,” “ Southern Holidays : A Savor the South Cookbook ,” and “ Carolina Catch : Cooking North Carolina Fish and Shellfish from Mountains to Coast .” She can be reached at debbiemoose . com .
SOUTH � SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER ’ 24 � 23