Fannie Hensley sat in the shade of the smokehouse rubbing a fresh ear of corn over the rough surface of a store-bought “gritter.”
“I wouldn’t give you a nickel for all the store-bought gritters you could haul in here,” she said. “They ain’t worth shucks when it comes to gritting meal.
“Why, with an old-timey homemade gritter I can grit enough meal in no time for a pone of gritted bread. But I haven’t had one for years. So I just use this store-bought gritter.”
She paused and cut her eyes at her husband Bert who sat hunkered down a few feet away.
“You should have mentioned it to me,” he said. “You know I would make you one. And I will. I’ve made many a one in my time. When I get in from hauling wood tomorrow, I’ll see to it. There must be a piece of tin somewhere around here. I know I’ve got a piece of board that will do for the backing.”
She smiled and turned her hand back to her gritting.
“You know,” she said, “there’s nothing better than bread made of gritted meal. It’s got a taste like no other corn bread. Sweet as new butter. Folks used to make a lot of gritted bead when I was coming on. That was the main dish back then in the corn season. I can hear my daddy hollering to us now, ‘Make us a cake of gritted bread’.
“Oh how he loved gritted bread. He’d rather have it and sweet milk than anything he ever ate. And when the corn started just to turn from the roasting ear stage and get a little hard, but still be milky-sweet, we had gritted bread and sweet milk every night for supper.”
—John Parris “Sweet As New Butter”
Farmer Tim’s corn is just beginning to come in and oh my is it good. We’ve been enjoying it for the last week. I’m hoping to make at least one pan of gritted bread this week. If you’d like to know more about the traditional Appalachian bread you can check out this video.
Last night’s video: Replanting Beans & Cucumbers in Appalachia.
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Growing up we called it cow’s milk! I remember getting milk straight from the cow and never even understood about pasteurization until I was about 6 or so. Now my kids don’t even know what is cow’s milk is and they wouldn’t touch buttermilk for no amount of money. Ah, how time changes. I only buy whole milk for babies coming off formula.
At our house in Carroll County, GA, on Dr. Aderhold’s farm, Whooping Creek community – near Clem, we drank more buttermilk than sweet milk. We had cornbread (made from our corn that we grew, and Daddy and my two brothers took to Stalling’s Mill near Clem to have ground), and buttermilk every night for supper with onions, tomatoes, pickles, etc. Since we used both buttermilk, and sweet milk we had to name the one we were talking about. We had a lot of buttermilk because we always had to churn the sweet milk to make butter for our breakfast buttered biscuits (Mother buttered them as soon as she took them from the oven), and muscadine and blackberry, etc. jelly, preserves, blackberry jam (we picked the wild blackberries), sorghum syrup (we grew the sorghum cane from which the syrup was made, and Daddy and my two brothers took it to Joseph Merrell’s Syrup Mill near Clem. Also, always on our country table covered with lovely printed oilcloth, we always had salt, black pepper, and hot red pepper. So, two things, you couldn’t just say, “Pass the milk, please,” but name the one you would like, and, also, we had to say, “Please pass,” and name the pepper we would like (no one but Daddy asked for the red pepper).
Well, you have stumped me. While my people are from the red-clay hills of northeast Mississippi there has always been a high correlation between your posts and my remembrance of what the old folks talked about. But you got me with a “glitter!”
Mom and my Memaw also liked gritted cornbread. They would break it up regular cornbread and put in in their buttermilk. No thanks.
My Mother and her family (N. AL/E. TN) called whole milk sweet milk, but she did love her buttermilk. When attempting to share some much bragged about goodness with my little boy (her grandson) it didn’t go over too well. He called it Pig Milk!
I never heard or had gritted bread but it looks delicious. Tipper, my dad when he thought the corn was ready, we would go out with him to the garden and he would pull and ear off and once he got some silks off, he would bite into it and say, ” it’s ready!” He never planted anything for us to eat but Silver Queen. There are some that still think yellow corn is best but if you have never tried Silver Queen, you are missing a treat! It makes the best creamed corn in the world!! Have a blessed day everyone! Oh, by the way, we finally had tomato sandwiches this weekend. Delicious!
Learned something new…..again! Thank You!
Sweet Milk is sweet because it has sugar in it. Lactose to be exact. Buttermilk is made when sweetmilk is allowed to sour (or culture, if souring sounds unappealing). Lactobacilli (naturally occurring in raw milk) begins to eat the lactose causing the milk to curdle and release gases that gives it a soured smell . The curdling helps separate the butterfat from soured milk leaving butter and buttermilk. Shaking or churning causes the tiny bits of butter to stick to each other and form bigger clumps which can be washed and salted if desired. Salt serves as a preservative which means if would keep longer, especially before refrigeration. Buttermilk, because of the lactobacilli, keeps longer too. The lactobacilli (a probiotic found in our gut) having already established itself, discourages other bacteria from taking over and rotting the milk.
In modern milk factories milk is first cooked (pasteurized) to kill off any and all bacteria. Then it is separated to produce skim milk and butterfat (cream). Butterfat is then reintroduced into the skim milk in specified amounts to make whole milk and reduced fat milk. The left over butterfat is made into “sweet cream” butter or injected with lactobacilli to make cultured cream butter. Cultured butter has to go through the souring process before it is ready to use. Sweet cream butter only has to be packaged.
Modern buttermilk (whole, reduced and lowfat) has to be “cultured” because all the bacteria has been killed in the pasteurization process. Even the good, probiotic bacteria. It too is injected with whatever strain of lactobacilli the processor chooses.
So, no, the sweetmilk in this story is not the same as modern whole milk. The Sweetmilk of old can be whole milk or skimmed ,or separated milk, but is still raw milk. Most likely, unless you live on a farm and have a cow or know someone who does, you have never tasted the sweet milk described here.
I hope this helps someone understand!
I can just see my Daddy sitting at the table with a big glass of sweet milk and him crumbling up his cornbread in that glass of milk. He sure enjoyed it! I’ve heard the corn called roasteners too, but what brought a smile to my face was Ron’s comment regarding Fannie;s story “She could have set them straight.” I probably still use that expression.
My Grandfather had a Jersey Cow and I remember not only how gentle she seemed to be but she was beautiful too. Had those huge brown eyes.
Tipper, here in SC PA we really have a problem with an invasive Spotted Laternfly. They like vines and I found a bunch of them on a junk vine in my flower bed. Some were on my squash plant too. I sure hope you don’t get them.
I got a grain mill last year & started grinding my own dried corn (I have seed saved it for years & it gets huge!) to make meal. It makes the most delicious cornbread in the world; so nutty & moist. It is totally different from the Jiffy mix most are used to. I’ve also made porridge with it & I loved it but the kids, not so much. I would like to make grits – I tried some instant grits & hated them. It was a disappointment, but maybe the homemade is much better, as that is the case w/most things. Never heard of gritted bread. I also grind my own wheat flour & it makes amazing bread. I pity people that don’t eat as good as my family. I do not need to buy too much from the store. Even out in the country where I live, mostly everyone lives on McDonalds and gas station food – it saddens me.
Most grits are the same as coarse ground corn meal or polenta. The best grits are hominy grits. You have to make hominy first then dry it and grind. Hominy and hominy grits are better for you than the mass produced version. The lye soak not only removes the husk of the corn, it releases nutrients that are not available otherwise.
I went to watch the video to see how to make it and apparently I’d already watched it since I’d already had given it a “thumbs up”. It must have been a while back so I watched it again to refresh my memory. It looked so good! I have got to make some, but I don’t have a cast iron pan. I use to but gave it away because it was so big and heavy. I need to get me at least a small one to make things like this. I did grow corn this year but only three rows and I did get a small ear, but the second one I harvest had very few kernels on them. I guess I didn’t hand pollinate well. My hubby says it’s because it’s not ready to pick yet because the cobs are not filled out…lol…I love him, but he’s no gardener, nor does he do research on garden things such as these. My mom grew corn in her garden so I remember her telling me which ears to harvest when the silks turn brown. I researched about hand pollution when you only grow 3-5 rows, so I felt sure the silks just hadn’t got enough pollen to develop the kernels. However, I don’t want to fuss with him, I’m leaving it on the stalks. Stalks are starting to die out, but he says they still aren’t ready since the cobs aren’t full. Well, I have disagreed with him from the beginning, but he needs to learn from experience, so I’m leaving the corn alone until he says they are ready…lol…I’ll just have to buy fresh corn this year to I can make this recipe.
Before refrigeration was available to everyone; if you didn’t have a spring handy to keep the milk cold it would sour in a few hours. Fresh, it was sweet. later it was sour but you drank it anyway. Sweet was and is preferred over sour.
I’ve put away a few corn meal fried fritters in my time especially with a fresh garden tomato and lots of salt. Gritted bread or grated bread sounds tasty, but frankly too much work for me at this time. That Sydney Sailor Farr knew a lot of great stuff indeed! BTW THANKS DON CASADA for a picture of the grinder… made things much clearer for me!!!
Here’s a picture of a corn gritter, found at the Ernest & Elizabeth Rose Hall place on Cable Branch:
https://www.diagsol.com/Photos/Corn_gritter.jpg
Thanks Don. Still have never known of the old folks mentioning such a thing.
Thanks for the photo, Don! I wonder if a kitchen box grater wouldn’t do the job?
I have never had gritted cornbread. I would really like to try it. I’m sure I would like it and I’m sure industry will never do it. So it will be at artisan and hand-craft scale.
I have to smile at Fannie’s “not worth shucks” comment. Plain to see that whoever is making the store-bought version should have talked to her or others like her who knew what they were talking about. She could have set them straight.
Never heard of or had gritted bread but I will now ! Thanks for the video and the recipes
Like you, Tipper, I love fresh garden corn! Tim is not making as big a garden this year but what he has he will share with us. It’s not easy to find home grown corn that’s not genetically altered. I sure do enjoy it when we can find some.
I think us kids got spoiled. We had a couple Jersey milk cows and always fresh milk. I will never forget it. Mom had us help churn butter. We would sit on the couch and hold a 2 quart jar for each of us. It had cream and butter milk. We just shook the jar back and forth until the cream started to turn to butter. We would each take turns milking the Jersey cows so we had fresh sweet milk twice a day. It was so good to have peaches and cream and all the cold milk we could drink
Mom liked the little Jersey cows because they were so little and so gentle. I will never forget our Jersey cows and the milk they provided for us.
I made some gritted bread when I first saw your video. It is really so good. The term sweet milk seems to be called that to not confuse it will buttermilk. …although I do love buttermilk.
The thought of how wonderful things taste made from the freshest ingredients – that is what food and eating is all about! I enjoyed reading this. It made my imagination start the day dreaming about fresh corn from the garden, or a truck parked with its tailgate down full of fresh corn on the cob ready to buy. As I was reading your post this morning, I was remembering another post you have written in the past about your Dad making a handmade gritter. My favorite vegetable is creamed corn. Have a great week, Tipper!!
Donna. : )
Tipper, could you please tell me… what is sweet milk? Is that regular whole milk, as opposed to buttermilk, or is it something different? I don’t recall you mentioning it before, but I’ve missed a lot of your older content, so you might have talked about it in the past. Thanks! Hugs
Valeri- you are exactly right sweet milk is whole milk 🙂
Valeri, my father, Commodore Casada (1909-2011), enjoyed telling the story of the time he and Peavine Truett drove up north to go to the New York World Fair. This was around 1939-40 when Daddy was working at the Unagusta Plant in Hazelwood.
They stopped at a restaurant in New York or maybe New Jersey, and Daddy ordered sweet milk to drink. It was apparently the first time the waitress had heard the term and Daddy explained that there was sweet milk and then there was buttermilk, and although he loved buttermilk, sweet milk was what he wanted right then.
This has me wondering if “sweet milk” is a southern Appalachian term.
Yes, as far as I know, Don. I grew up in NY state all my life – up near the Syracuse area & we never have used the term sweet milk. And I grew up on a working dairy. Also what you guys might call clabbered milk, my great grandmother call lobbered milk. don’t know if she was just mispronouncing it, but all my family calls it that and I never heard clabbered until I read Foxfire books & watched youtube channels. No one really talks about drinking buttermilk either, so maybe that is a regional thing too. And the dairy industry is huge up here, so I think I would have heard it in passing sometime (altho, I have seen it in old cookbooks).
Actually, the sweet milk v. Buttermilk terms are quite common in 20th century Mississippi vocabulary.
Sweet milk is regular milk. I grew up hearing my Nana and Papa saying sweet milk. I still to this day call milk sweet milk.