Directions: |
Directions:Preheat oven to 350º
Bake in a "large pan" Perhaps a 9" X 13" pan?
No baking time was given, but set timer for 30 minutes; is toothpick or tester doesn't come out clean check at 5 min intervals
Cream the butter and sugar; add one egg yolk at a time until well incorporated.
Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; add alternately with buttermilk (begin and end with dry); add vanilla.
Beat egg whites until a glossy but hard peak forms when you lift the mixer.
Fold in the egg whites--first "lighten" the batter by stirring one spoon full of whites gently into the batter and then "folding" the rest of the egg whites by dumping all the whites into the bowl, pull a large spoon from the bottom of the batter, come up and "fold" that spoonful of batter over the egg whites adjacent to the spoon. Turn the bowl and repeat the process until the batter is light and uniform with no large pieces of egg white visible. Come over and I'll show you or watch a demonstration on YouTube! |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: My grandmother wrote this recipe, described as a "Civil War Recipe" in a blank page in her Household Searchlight Cookbook. In it, she states that this recipe was handed down from her mother, Anna Shoemake Potts, who had childhood memories of Sherman's troops near her home in Cave Spring, GA.
Anna's father was a silversmith when he enlisted in the CSA. He was one of the many soldiers from both sides who died from disease caused by lack of sanitation, poor nutrition, and crowded conditions in the camps. Pneumonia, typhoid, diarrhea/dysentery, and malaria were the predominant illnesses. Altogether, two-thirds of the approximately 660,000 deaths of soldiers were caused by uncontrolled infectious diseases. Anna (Granny) lived to be 101 years old. I remember visiting her when I was small. How I wish I could talk to her now to hear about her fascinating life!
Anna's husband was Theodore Potts, who lived most of his adult life as a shop-keeper in Denison, TX. Both of his parents were deaf-mutes who met at a school founded by Theodore's grandfather Asa Prior in Cave Spring, GA in 1846. Asa was a prosperous planter with many children, six of whom were born deaf. Asa's youngest was Theodore's mother, Angelina.
This recipe does not at all seem like a "poor man's" desert. Butter, eggs, and even buttermilk were scarce commodities during most of the Civil War. I wonder.
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This recipe for Poor Man's Pudding is from