The phrase, “We were poor, but didn’t know it,” likely was based on the delicious and inexpensive food most Southerners ate growing up.

My father told me we only ate the finest, center-cut baloney. The reality was, we were so poor, our baloney didn’t have a first name.

There were two camps of baloney cooks: leave the baloney slice whole and let it turn into a bowl shape while frying, or cut slits on the outer rim so it would lay flatter in the skillet.

My mom didn’t cut slits, but it always came out an even black. Add some mayo on white bread and Fritos to that, and you had a meal.

Another inexpensive, yet excellent tasting dish was biscuits and gravy. It was inconceivable that a young lady would leave the house to marry a fella and not know how to make biscuits and gravy. For that matter, it was inconceivable that a fella would leave home without that ability.

Regular gravy is a Southern tradition, but in specific parts of the South, chocolate gravy is a delicacy.

Our family has Aunt Maude to thank for the chocolate gravy recipe that has been passed down for over 100 years. Aunt Maude was adopted as a young girl and from what I’m told, she knew how to make it when she joined us.

Made with Hershey’s Cocoa, butter, sugar, and (if available) fresh milk from the barn, chocolate gravy was dessert for breakfast.

Tear open a cat head biscuit, cover each side with real butter (margarine was grounds for excommunication) and after the butter melts, cover the biscuit with chocolate gravy.

Another inexpensive dish that was a frequent flier on our Formica dinette table were salmon patties. The folks who considered themselves better than salmon patties called them salmon croquettes. Regardless of what they were called, they were made the same way.

A cheap can of salmon, an egg, saltine crackers, onion, mayo, salt and pepper, were mixed into the shape of hamburger patties and then fried in bacon drippings in the skillet. Fried potatoes were served with them.  For that matter, fried potatoes were served with everything.

At our house, fried potatoes were served at every single meal. So were biscuits and white gravy. They were filling, and they were good. Very good. And my dad expected all three to always be there.

Mom could vary whatever else she wanted on the menu, but if we sat down to eat and there were no potatoes, gravy, or biscuits, everyone would have just assumed that the store was out of something that was part of the recipe.

Hindsight, I now know that a sack of potatoes was one of the least expensive things you could buy that could be stretched on-and-on-and-on.

I’ve often said that if I were limited to just one food from now on, it would be the potato. It has to be one of the most versatile foods we have. Baked, fried, sliced, scalloped; heck, even the peels are sold in restaurants.

I was taught how to peel potatoes at my first real job at County Seat Fried Chicken restaurant. The first time I saw potato skins on the menu at a restaurant, I was puzzled. But someone pointed out that pigskins were a Southern mainstay. They had a point.

For dessert, a can of peaches and a can of Pet Milk are hard to beat. Pour a few peach slices and their syrup into a bowl, then pour a little Pet Milk over them and you have a tasty end to any meal. My grandmother never called dessert, “dessert,” she just would say, “do you want something sweet?”

The answer was always yes. And if we were lucky, it was canned peaches with some Pet Milk poured over them.

Much of what Southerners still want to eat today is rooted in the inexpensive dishes on which we grew up. I still love a fried baloney sandwich, biscuits and gravy, chocolate gravy, and salmon patties. They were what allowed our mothers to stay home and raise us on dad’s salary. I argue that that family model is still the better one. Even if you need Lipitor later.

If you’ve never had chocolate gravy, I’ve included Aunt Maude’s recipe.

Chocolate Gravy
1 cup of sugar
4 tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon of self-rising flour
1/4 cup of butter
1 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla (optional)
Directions:
Mix sugar, flour & cocoa together, well.
Then add milk, butter & vanilla.
Bring to a boil. Pour over hot, buttered biscuits (split in half) and eat with a fork. Reduce heat & cook on low until done to preferred consistency.

© 2026
John’s new book, Write of Passage: Volume 3, is available on Amazon. Write to John at TheCountryWriter.com.