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Annelle Lindsey is an active seventy-three year old African American senior citizen living in Carrollton, Georgia. Traditional recipes and baking methods are as much a apart of Mrs. Lindsey’s regional diet today as they were during her childhood. Mrs. Lindsey fondly recalls her mother using some brand specific and farm produced ingredients to bake homemade cakes, pies, biscuits, cornbread, and tea cakes in her favorite worn cake pan and perfectly seasoned cast iron skillet. Even today Lindsey uses many of her mother’s recipes for holidays, birthdays, and church dinner on the grounds. Overtime, some of Mrs. Lindsey’s ingredients and traditional recipes have evolved in conjunction with the ease of contemporary pre-packaged and frozen products, and still others have simply fallen by the wayside, opening the door for trying new recipes and cuisines. But no matter the changes to her menu, the caring sentiment behind Mrs. Lindsey’s cooking for her family, church, and community is constant and clearly reflected through more modern and complicated recipes like her well-known Friendship Cake. Interview of Annelle Lindsey 2 April 2002 Interviewed by Deirdre Haywood-Rouse Southern Foodways Oral History Project Center for Public History * DR: Ok. Ok. Well, we are goin’ to move, Annelle, thank you so much for that demographic information an’ were are going to talk a little bit about your childhood an’ get into talking about baking, What was the time period when you were growing up. AL: Uh, it was back in the ‘30's, that was durin’ the Depression. DR: Ok. Ok. And what kind of breads were eatin’ in your home? AL: Well, there was uh biscuit an’ cornbread. DR: Biscuits and cornbread. And, when were these breads eatin’, was it a certain meals or . AL: Well, like breakfast uh, we always had biscuits an’ lunchtime an’ dinner, they’d have uh cornbread to go along with the vegetables, like uh for breakfast we’d have uh my father, they raised their own hogs, so we’d had plenty uh bacon an’ ham an’ all that stuff. DR: Ok. AL: So we’d have ham an’ biscuits, ham an’ whatever . DR: So, you would basically have biscuits in the morning and maybe biscuits at lunch. Did you call lunch supper or did you call it lunch or . Then at that dinnertime or the last meal of the day is when you may have cornbread to go with the vegetables? AL: Well, like when I was small, growin’ up, my father, he, well my mother an’ father, they had three hot meals a day an’ she had cooked three times a day, an’ so uh, like we had biscuits in the mornin’ an’ uh ham an’ eggs an’ uh uh pear preserves or jelly or whatever Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm ‘cause she made her own jelly an’ all that stuff an’ uh like lunch, well we call it dinner, supper back then . DR: Ok. Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm AL: We’d have uh like, well she, they grew all their vegetables you know an’ stuff so we’d have like turnip greens or collards or beans or whatever an’ you uh, mashed potaters an’ cornbread, an’ uh we had our own milk ‘cause we had, they uh raised cows an’ things, so we had our own milk. * DR: Ok. Ok. Now, who did the baking in your home when you were a child. AL: My mother an’ me an’ my older sister. DR: Your mother an’ your older sister. And how many years difference about is it, between you and your older sister? AL: Well, my oldest sister uh she uh she went to live with my Grandmother uh an’ when she got to be a teenager, but my next oldest sister, which was five years older than I am, she did a lot of cookin’ . DR: Ok, so she helped your mom uh a lot, so you mom, did you dad ever bake? AL: I don’ remember. [laughter] DR: Ok. Now, did you ever, once you got to a certain age help with the bakin’ or the cookin’? AL: Well uh, by the time we reached 9 or 10 years old they started us ta cookin’. DR: Ok. What kind of things did they started you off cooking? AL: Cornbread. [laughter] DR: Cornbread. Do you remember who you made your cornbread? AL: Well uh, we, they uh uh grind the meal . DR: Ok. AL: An’ uh, I don’t know if you remember this or not, but anyway, they, uh freshen your [inaublible] you have ta sift it . DR: Ok. AL: it’s not like a meal, a mix, an’ uh, well you’d have about 2 cups an’ then you put about cup, ½ cup of flour, an’ it’d be plain an’ uh you’d just automatically know how much uh salt and bakin’ powder, you wouldn’t even haveta even measure that . DR: Ok. How would you just know? AL: I don’t know, you just know. [laughter] Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm DR: So your mom wasn’t one to measure and say ok “I need a teaspoon of salt or a teaspoon of pepper or bakin’ powder. She just knew how much to put into the mixture dependin’ on how much she was makin’. If she was cookin’ for just you’all or if she was cookin’ for something for the church . AL: Right. DR: You know, she knew how much to put in and that’s how you learned, like that, you just kinda know how much to, to uh use. So you began baking when you were about 9, 9 years old. AL: ‘Bout, I say at least 10, ‘bout 10. DR: !0. So, was that kinda a requirement for all the girls? AL: Oh, yes. DR: What about your brothers? AL: Uh, you know, they didn’t. DR: Ok. Help with the baking. Now, what time of day did your mom do the bakin’ AL: Well . we ate breakfast, I guess, around 8 o’clock in the mornin’. An’ then around 11, not, ‘bout 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock, an’ then as we call then supper, it would be like 6 or 7 o’clock. DR: Ok. Did you sit down and eat together as a family or . ? Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm AL: Yes. DR: Ok. And what types of flours or meals did your mom use? Now I know you said then you had to grind up the meal and then sift it because it is different than what we know as meal today that we purchase out of the store. Did she use any special brands that you recall? AL: I don’t recall the flour, I don’t know. DR: Ok. Ok. And uh you told me about how they were processed at the mill, was it a local mill that everybody went to or did you do it on your own property, in terms of grinding up the meal? AL: No. They would take it to uh different place an’ get it ground. DR: Ok. What about fat. What type of fat did your mom use in terms of bakin’? AL: Well in bakin’ cakes an’ things she would use Crisco, but like biscuits an’ things like that she would use the uh lard from the pig, hog. DR: Ok, so for uhm baking cakes she would use . AL: Crisco or butter. DR: Ok. And where did you get your butter from? AL: Uh from the uh milk. DR: From the milk that you had there with your cow. AL: Yeah. [laughter] DR: OK. And were did you, what was the other one that you said that you used? AL: Uh, she used Crisco. DR: Ok. Ok. So you your hogs an’ your cows an’ she mainly would use the, for the biscuits the uhm . .. AL: The pure lard, uh huh. * DR: Ok. So you have quite a few meals from the hog for your family. What types of sweetners did your mom for bakin’ bread? AL: Hh she, she always bought Domino sugar. Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm DR: Domino Sugar. So what was so special about Domino Sugar? AL: I don’t know. That’s the onlyiest kind she ever bought, ever used. DR: Ok. AL: An’ if she couldn’t find Domino’s, well, I mean not the Domino, she would use Domino when she couldn’t find Dixie Crystal. DR: [says Dixie Crystal at the same time}. Oh, ok. AL: But, Dixie Crystal is what she really used all the time. DR: Ok. So Dixie Crystal. Is that, do you, since I know you’re a baker, what do you use in terms of uhm sugar? AL: Dixie Crystal. DR: Is there a different taste if you use Dixie Crystal compared to the store brand? Center for Public History, University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~history/center.htm AL: Well, to me it is. Because Dixie Crystal, well like if I can’t get Dixie Crystal [inaudible] but Dixie Crystal is sweeter. You buy the store brand, you goin’ to have to use more [laughter]. You do not save by buyin’ cheap su-, sugar. DR: Ok. So, when you’re bakin’ your cakes or pies or whatever custards that you make, you make sure that use use Dixie Crystal? AL: Right.

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