Breakfast at my granny's

[Scrapman]

My granny was origanally from the coal mining area of west virginia .. There was nothing she couldn't make in a frying pan ...
Sunday mornings she would fry up 2 or 3 pounds of bacon in a giant cast Iron fry pan ... leaveing all the grease in the pan in went the eggs ,Fryed up till the edges were bubbley and crisp ... Then corn fritters into the grease they were indiscribable good
I still can't replicate the flavor ..What i would give to have a corn fritter fried in bacon grease right now
The adults would wash this breakfast down with a few bottles of home made wine or beer
My granny ate like this for years and lived to be in her ninty's
Granny came from someplace around sarah ann, West virginia
Anybody know were this is ...
I ended up with granny's house and rebuilt the whole thing. Originaly built in 1865 ... Not much left from the old day,s but the memories of my childhood are still thick here..
.................scrapman

 

[FireDance]

Ah, thanks for the memories Scrapman. My grandaddy used to fry the bacon/sausage and then the eggs in the grease - the lacy edges were not my favorite to eat, but they sure were pretty. He could make the best fried eggs! sigh...

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Thats the way I make bacon and eggs as well.

In fact, yesterday for dinner I made "bacon burgers".

I saved the grease from breakfast (or maybe I was just too lazy to clean the pan.)

Caught some nice ground round on sale, and to it I added a healthy shake of Montreal Steak Seasoning and after I formed the patties, a nice little bit of butter.
Fried them in the bacon grease and they were fantastic.

 

[Genealogist]

Granny came from someplace around sarah ann, West virginia
Anybody know were this is ...

It's on highway 44, just a hop, skip and a jump from where West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia "meet."

My prior husband, (he passed), was born in West Virginia.

Genealogist

 

[kjacks]

Yeah, and you can't beat the gravy that the bacon grease makes, especially if you age it (covered & unrefrigerated) for a couple/three days......OMG!!!

 

[mudwrench]

aint nothin better than bacon grease gravy my kids wont eat sausage gravy dads is better

 

[MissTina]

I'd put my Nannie's bacon against your Granny's anyday. Hers was ALWAYS perfect just the right amount of chewyness (is that a word?). My favorite though was that she bought canned biscuits probably as soon as they hit the market. She too fried the eggs with little lacy edges, not my favorite either, but the insides were, once again, ALWAYS perfect. Thanks for the memories. Now my mother, she could cook biscuits perfectly.

 

[Dinghy]

You're all really lucky. I don't ever remember breakfast with my Grandmothers. The favorite one, my Dad's mom, that we called Cookie Grammy would make big batches of cinnamon rolls from time to time and give some to each family. They were really good. They were the only thing I could stand to eat with maple icing. She was an old German lady that never made anything that tasted bad!

 

[Trek]

This thread is a trip down memory lane!

I love my cast iron frying pan and take care to preserve it for a lifetime of use. Having seen pans "warp" from temp changes made too quickly, I stick mine out of the way until it's completely cool before washing.

My mother and grandmother saw me do this and had heart attacks.

It seems that my Great-Grandmother also loved her cast iron frying pan. To her, keeping the pan well seasoned was critical. (It is, but not quite by the method she used) So...

She never washed her pan. The grease accumulated and was used over and over again. Fried eggs, fried pastrami, fried lamb chops...

Now, I know why my mother would never let me eat anything fried at Great-Grandma's house.

 

[WyoKathy]

Camp breakfast

This is how we do breakfast when we camp out! I thought it tasted so wonderful because of where we were. Perhaps not! I never make this type of breakfast when I am at home. You guys have inspired me to give it a try!

Kathy

 

[FireDance]

Oh yes, the great "wash the cast iron or not" debate. General consensus around here is you do NOT wash. What I was taught to do is to take the pan off the stove immediately and run under cold water to remove the "remains" and wipe dry. It does work, but now I wonder about warping. HOWEVER, I've never had a cast iron anything warp or crack from this.

Now I flagrantly wash my pans in soap and water! I haven't had a problem with this either, but only because my pans are well seasoned. Of course, that could change. I remember the time my cousin was "caught" putting her cast iron in the dish washer. Boy she was blasted for that! I love this stuff - so important to the family!

 

[Indiansummer]

My Grandmother did the bacon fat basted eggs, with the lacy crispy edges, and I loved them!

Cooking over wood heat seems to impart a certain perfection lacking in all other methods. I made the most incredible fried potatoes, with bacon fat, and a campfire, that I ever tasted, if'n I say so meself!! Course I was the main cook, and the campers, sure did appreciate the goods.

 

[angelight]

not my grandmothers but-
my mom only makes pancakes and french toast in bacon grease-and does the bacon in the cast iron on top of the stove
i alway managed to burn myself doing that-so i started cooking it in the oven-no splatters-
then pour the grease into a heatproof dish and refridge
to be used as above and for pork chops
Cast iron-i always wash mine in VERY hot soapy water and then immediately dry with paper towels
mom has a pan that she has been using for at least 50 yrs that i know of-and does hers the same way
but then again-both are WELL seasoned pans
DH on the other hand did not grow up with cast iron-and insists on letting the pan soak-he just gets yelled at for that
when he put it in the dishwasher-i was tempted to chase him around the house with it and give him a good knock on the head-had to be reseasoned-
then again-he has been smart enough NOT to try the dishwasher again
KM

 

[Trek]

i was tempted to chase him around the house with it and give him a good knock on the head

And THAT is why my mother was so fearful of me getting my hands on a cast iron frying pan when DH and I married. Told her not to worry... I like my cast iron frying pan too much to risk damaging it on DH's thick skull!

 

[MissTina]

Absolutely never clean cast iron with any detergent. It gets into the "pores" of the iron and will leach into your cooking. Just a really good rinse and really, really good dry. I wash my pot scrubber out really well before using it on my cast iron skillet. I've heard some people keep one pot scrubber aside with no detergent use ever to use on their cast iron.

One of my moms oldest and dearest friends did use her skillet on her husband. He kept coming home drunker than a skunk so one night she waited outside for him and threw a sheet over his head then clocked him in the head with the skillet. Seems he needed a few stitches and never did know it was her who did it.

 

[Indiansummer]

I never use soap of any kind on cast iron, good kosher salt and very hot water does a fine job, though, even helps restore a pan that has been abused.

 

[Scrapman]

Cast Iron

My sister had a problem with not anough iron in her blood and the doctor told her to start useing cast iron cookware ,as it would impart a certain amount of iron at every meal .
Wierd Huh .
Owning a scrapyard I have aqiured many fry pans over the years , But old griswalds are the best .
Try corn bread or biscuits in a cast iron pan ,They are the best ..

..........Scrapman

 

[bdande]

This thread brings back memories. Every weekend when I was a kid my mom and dad and 3 sisters went to grandmas house. Grandma had 11 kids so there were always a ton of people there and a ton of cousins to play with. Grandma and my Aunts always made a huge breakfast. I think I watched them do it about a hundred times. They fried the bacon and sausage. Then they used the bacon and sausage grease to fry the eggs (for a long time I thought this was the only way people fried eggs and had no idea people did it any other way) She used some of the grease to grease the biscuit pan for her homemade biscuits (oh how I wish I had learned to make them). She also used the left over grease to make gravy (she always said the secret to good gravy is to burn it). Breakfast at grandmas house was the best.

 

[Tano]

MissTina

 

[newsnut]

I've always been a fan of frying eggs in the bacon grease, and consider myself a pretty darn good breakfast cook too! My problem is, I never learned to make gravy, I always rely on the bob evans frozen boxed variety because it's easy but I'm not normally a cook out of a box type guy. I just flat never learned. If it's not too much of a thread drift, could someone give or PM me a "how to" for gravy from bacon grease please? I would sure appreciate your kindness.

 

[Albuburbia]

What I remember most about breakfast at my Grandmom's house was the wonderful smell ~

I would wake up to the smell of coffee, sausage, and blueberry muffins, stumble down the stairs, and see my Granddad at the kitchen table with his newspaper.

She never measured anything, and never timed anything. Everything was mixed by feel and the doneness was measured by smell. We used to say that she had asbestos fingers - she would poke things and grab hot stuff right out of the oven.

{{sigh}} damn. Now I'm all misty. I miss that little ol' Irish lady!