Family Recipe
written by: Ed Sams
Listen and learn, nor let it be said
That men on their own cannot make cornbread.
Three things you must have, three things you must know,
And six cheap ingredients make up the dough.
Buttermilk, soda, salt, oil, meal, and flour,
Bake in a well-heated stove for one hour.
With luck if you’re canny, and able, and thrifty,
What girls know by twenty, a boy might at fifty.
Three household items can help any man,
A wood spoon, a teacup, an old cast iron pan.
With oil, grease the pan, about one third cup,
Pour meal, flour, milk by the cup and stir up.
With a fist full of soda and one pinch of salt,
Beat one hundred strokes with the spoon and then halt.
Now bake the concoction, nor let it be said,
You’re a man who can’t cook, for they’re no good in bed.
In picking your cornmeal, you must go by sight,
Some prefer yellow, but I tell you white.
Some throw molasses and eggs in the mix.
Some even use sugar, but stick to the six.
Some balk at buttermilk, that’s just plain rude,
And skimping on basics does not make good food.
With buttermilk left and cornbread aplenty,
Boys now have at fifty what girls have at twenty.
So eat, eat it up, for often it’s said,
A man who won’t eat is no good in bed.
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