The Best of Brush Country Bull 1977-1980

Tongue, Turnip Greens n’ Clabber May 17, 1979 So far as I can determine, there is nothing on this earth that isn’t subject to change and I suppose that makes life interesting. One change that not many folks talk about and some don’t know about, is the change in the kinds of food we eat. And if you don’t think there has been some tremendous change in that area, well, you probably aren’t old enough to know what people not too long back thought was “pretty fair grazin’.” Now let’s say that you are a young buck and you come in after a hard day’s work and you ask, “Uh, what’s for supper.” No one says, “let’s go out for supper.” The reply would be something like this, “we’re going to have brains, and turnip greens cooked with a slab of sowbelly, hominy and for dessert--a bowl of cold clabber.” Not too many years back, my dad would have been really excited about that menu. Brains I’ve never been too fond of but cold clabber was hard to spit out. Ya take the skim milk and let it set up. Then put it in the ice box and get it real cold ‘til it sorta resembles white jello. Dish yourself a big bowl and put some sugar on it--fantastic. Many people eat cottage cheese today but you may be surprised how the country folk used to make it. When the skim milk was in the “set up” form, put it in a sugar sack and hang it on the clothesline to drip. After a few hours you’d have some bonafide fresh cottage cheese. When slaughtering a calf, you’d always save the sweetbreads (testicles). You couldn’t beat chicken fried sweetbreads, but the last time I ate some was about 1950. Now if you went to the meat department in a grocery store and asked for sweetbreads, they’d send you to the pastry aisle. Ox tail and beef tongue were also common in those times. Flying to Northern Canada one time, the crew and I stopped in for lunch at a diner and I had the best food I’ve had anywhere and the main course was – beef tongue. I’ll never forget it. Other foods not so common anymore are pickled pigs feet, hogs head cheese, bone marrow and there were those that ate rattlesnake, coons, armadillo and other such varmints. You might have a hard time selling some of these foods these days to youngsters. But I say if you sit down to your supper tonight, you’d be mighty lucky if beef tongue, mustard greens and cornbread were on the menu. I’d choose that over pizza anytime.