More Fun With My Mom

I can “see” the kitchen where my mama made such good things to eat. It was long and narrow. It had old fashioned cupboards. Not the kind that we have now. The cupboard I remember was wood, but all in one piece. It had a flour mill in it. It seems like it had a part that you pulled towards you. I don’t remember what mom used it for.

Beside it was our icebox. It was literally an ice box.

My dad milked seven cows. We sold the majority of the milk, but we had all we wanted to drink.

Back to the cupboard; the counter was metal. Mom pulled it out at times to give her more room to work. One of these times was to make butter. If she had one, I don’t remember mom having a churn. What she did have, though, was a very big Kitchen Aide Mixer. She would put a lot of milk with cream into the mixer bowl and beat it on high until chunks of butter appeared.

She continued to beat it until the butter stuck to the beater. Mom would clean the butter off the beater completely. Then she would get out the wooden paddle. A picture of it is at the top of this page. It is amazing I still have Mother’s old kitchen utensils, but I am sure glad that I do. Fran found me a hanging pegboard that they all hang on. Once again I am off the track.

With the paddle she would drag the chunks of butter towards her against the side of the bowl. She would turn the bowl around and around doing the same thing over and over. The most amazing thing happened next. At the bottom of the bowl was my very favorite drink in the world; buttermilk. Never in my life have I tasted anything like it. The buttermilk that they sell in the store tastes bitter. The buttermilk when my mama made it was just wonderful.

I always wanted to take my turn and mom would always let me, but it was way too difficult for me. So then I would sit on my little red metal stool and watch.

When mom got the butter all made she put it in a refrigerator dish. When the butter came out it had a design on the top from the indentations on the lid of the dish.

Depending on how much milk she had, she spent a good part of the afternoon making butter and buttermilk.

When Mom was finished it was “break” time for us. She would pour each one of us a juice glass full of the wonderful buttermilk and we would talk about things that mamas and little girls talk about.