First, on Tuesday, volunteers start by trimming the ham.
Which, by the way, is country ham. For those who don't know, it's salt cured, not your regular baked fresh ham. I LOVE country ham, but I usually love it best if it's soaked a bit to get some of the salt out. Something my dad always does to help cut the saltiness is to cook it in Coke. It cooks down and makes a nice glaze.
Here are a few of the volunteers cutting out the bones and trimming off the extra fat.
And this fat is not wasted! Yes, it's cooked and packed to give away. This fried, crispy meat/fat is called cracklin'.
Here they are just thrown in the pot.
And now just about cooked down.
Then they package them up to give away! We don't waste any of it. :)
One of my jobs, along with my United Methodist Women's circle is to wrap silverware, fill salt and pepper shakers and decorate the tables. Here are some of the beautiful center pieces my friend Jan put together...
And here, we're all done wrapping.
I don't have photos, but there are volunteers who bake biscuits and cook grits. Also those who crack a gazillion eggs. That used to be one of my jobs until I got too busy with after school activities with my kids. I have to admit, it makes it tough to eat eggs the next day after working with them!
Here is some of the country ham cooking.
Here are some of the cooks. This is for the dine-in food. The carry-out food was cooked in another kitchen on the other side of the church near where they do drive through--handing it out of a window! :)
Stirring up some of those many cracked, fresh eggs.
Pouring them into the griddle (a huge flat top cooker)... YUM. I love scrambled eggs.
Here's the beginning of the serving line when we first opened at 4:30. Volunteers on the right. Hungry folks on the left.
One of my jobs is to take warm biscuits around to the tables offering seconds (and thirds and fourths). I must've served dozens to people who were gobbling them up with the yummy homemade apple jelly--compliments of our youth minister along with some youth who helped him make it!
Here's hubby's plate. Had to snap the shot since I forgot and had already dug in on my plate! :) One thing he doesn't have that I did is red-eye gravy on the grits. For those who've never heard of it, you make it with drippings from the cooked ham and...coffee! Yes, coffee and fat. Believe it or not, it's very, very tasty!
Missy
www.missytippens.com
OH MY GOODNESS. This was so cool. I'd heard of cracklin' but wasn't exactly sure what part it was or how it got cooked. Also, the red-eye gravy was so funny!!! Fat and coffee! Too of my favorite things, it couldn't possibly be bad!
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that I so love the fact you were eating grits. I found some packaged on the shelf in our local store the other day and bought them to show my kids. Nobody eats that here and I have no idea why it was there, but I bought it!!
Your church has it going on in the food department. YUMMY. And I love the idea of the drive through. Give me a heads up next year and I'll start driving a few weeks before...
You will love those grits! Check back for my blog post on making them with half-and-half. I think I shared a shrimp and grits recipe. :)
DeleteP.S. Judging just from the kitchen, your church looks HUGE. Over here in the PNW, the churches are small and very far between. We go to the largest (and oldest) church in Walla Walla and recently got a brand new hall... and the kitchen looks like it's 1/3 that size. How awesome to be surrounded by so many faithful!
ReplyDeleteVirginia, come on to GA! You can make it a big family road trip! :)
DeleteOur church is fairly large but not huge. We have about 1500 members. We're so thankful to have a wonderful industrial size kitchen that was built in our new fellowship hall in 2005. It's amazing! The old fellowship hall was renovated into a youth center so we use that kitchen now for youth snack suppers and breakfasts, etc.
I was thinking that's a huge kitchen too and must be a huge church! I grew up in a church that was lucky if we had 100 people there - now they're lucky to have one person per pew I think...I finally settled in a 'big' church in Sugar Land but it doesnt' feel as big as the Methodist church downtown thank goodness. pretty sure it has a big kitchen but never been in it and if they're smart they'll keep me out of it LOL!
Deletemy dad loved the nasty salty juice from the ham - he didn't mess with the coffee part though- just wanted it in a big measuring cup then put in the fridge to separate then he'd dig a hole through the congealed fat and pour the 'gravy' out and heat it - nasty stuff but he and my brother liked it. I don't go out of my way for ham- my family's must be country ham because it's too salty for me and even though it's already cooked there are about a handful who insist that it be sliced and fried - in Crisco no less.
Susanna
Yep, Susanna, that sounds like country ham! :) But I can't imagine adding Crisco to cook it!
DeleteI'm laughing at how your dad gets his gravy! Tell him to try adding come coffee and see what he thinks. :)
well parents are both gone now so too late to tell him about the coffee! he probably would have but neither parent was much on coffee (on rarely did my dad drink it) and when it was ham time my mom wasn't about to mess with another thing to cook like coffee! as for biscuits I just wanted the white milk gravy on mine and scrambled eggs on the SIDE not on top of the biscuits under the gravy...not a fan of traditional thanksgiving food- too salty for me.
Deletemy company started givng us gift certificats for Honey Baked Ham each year about 7 or so yrs ago - at first we had to get a honeybaked ham (now we can get different combos but usually honeybaked ham is part of it...) anyways brought ti home and my dad grabbed it out of the fridge and cut some slices and started frying (really surprised me he was helping LOL) then he tasted it and made a face wanting to know what it was sweet! didn't care for it at all.
Susanna
Oh, I'm sorry, Susanna. I think I knew that but forgot.
DeleteThat's so cute about him cooking that ham, expecting his country ham. :)
Yeah -- I am ogling the church kitchen too. I've never seen one that huge with all those fancy cooker things. It looks like commercial grade stuff. Up here it's mostly castoff stoves that have been donated -- and sometimes a church is lucky to have two stoves -- but two kitchens? Uh-uh! It always makes me wonder how on earth the country churches out here manage to run their turkey suppers. They feed masses of people (city folk drive out to the country for the home cooking) with one itty bitty oven.
ReplyDeleteKav, we're blessed with our kitchen. We use it every week for Wednesday night suppers. Of course, personally, I don't know how to use most of the equipment. I do much better in the youth kitchen! In fact, this Sunday is our turn to do the supper for the kids. Must figure out what we'll be making!
DeleteWhich probably means ordering pizza. LOL
DeleteWhat a fun idea. Except for that WHITE stuff. Grits. ugh.....
ReplyDeleteAh, come on Radcliffe. You haven't had any of MY grits yet. You must try them before you write off grits forever. :)
DeleteI agree, Missy. People who say they don't like grits haven't had them done up right!
DeleteI love grits. And me a northerner and all....
DeleteTina, we've got to get you down here and GA and force feed you. :)
DeleteJan, I'm glad you gave them a chance! I bet you had them in KY. I grew up on grits, only we put sugar on them then. I didn't use salt and pepper until I moved to GA.
That is a lot of ham. I MISS grits and Tina puts up her nose to them.
ReplyDeleteCracklin's, red eye gravy.
I should have just driven down. It would have been worth the trip.
Next year, Julie! For the special 50th. It's always the first Wed. in Nov. :)
DeleteThe farther south we lived, the bigger and better equipped the church kitchens.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
Missy, this looks fabulous! It reminds me of the pulled-pork fundraiser we used to do for Boy Scouts back in Kansas. Everybody pitches in to help, and the recipes never change because they're everyone's favorites.
ReplyDeleteYour cracklin's aren't what I'm used to, though. I grew up sampling cracklin's that were by-products of making lard. I would imagine these have the same flavor, though!
My tastes of those cracklin's were few and far between. My dad always said they were too rich for children.
I think he just wanted to keep them all for himself :)
Lol, Jan. Probably!
DeleteSmart dad, Jan! :)
DeleteInteresting thing to note about the church kitchens. I guess we focus a lot on food around the south. LOL
What a great event and yummy dinner! I love grits. We got used to them when we lived in MS for 6 months (we're from UT), back in 1998. When we returned home, we couldn't find grits anywhere here, and my in-laws sent some from FL. Now we can find them easily on the shelves, and even the kids love grits. We make them several times a week.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add, we often serve our grits with ham, cheese and eggs too. Now it's making me hungry.
DeleteCindy, I need to make them more often. I rarely make them for breakfast. Usually for breakfast at dinnertime. Or else for a side dish with dinner.
DeleteYep, sign me up for the next one. That looks SO good, Missy. And there nothing quite so yummy as breakfast for dinner. Especially when you're not the one who has to cook it. :D
ReplyDeleteOH my what fun! All except the grits part.... but ham, eggs and biscuits and red-eyed gravy???? That's what Dave and I ate at the Loveless Cafe in Nashville two years ago next month... Annie Loveless's melt-in-your-mouth biscuits???/ OH MY STARS, reason to be Southern right there! Missy, I WANT THIS KITCHEN! Is this your church kitchen? For real?????
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that's where my sister took me to eat (she lives in Nashville). Loved the biscuits!!
DeleteRuthy, you're welcome to come on down anytime and play in the kitchen! I'll turn you loose in "heaven" and let you cook for me. :)
Tina and I agree... two Western New Yorkers bonding over a "No Grits" policy.
ReplyDelete1500 members and you have that kitchen?????? We've got three times that and our kitchen is nice.... but no cool equipment. I would be in my glory in that kitchen, the Good Lord could just hang a sign sayin' "Heaven" and I'd be fooled!!!!