Barry Black

Barry Black of Calhoun City learned to cook after he and Margaret married. He says what started it was a “discussion” over how to cook butterbeans, when hers “didn’t taste like Mama’s” (Jill Black).

They came to the conclusion that he would do the cooking if she would clean it up, and that’s what they’ve been doing for 36 years. He had to ask his mother and sister, Carla, a lot of things about cooking in the beginning.
Margaret said she did a lot the cooking when their three boys (who are all good cooks) were home because of the shift Barry worked, but now he says he does 80-100% of it.

The first meal he ever cooked for him and Margaret was ham, English peas and mashed potatoes. When growing up, his mother wouldn’t let him in the kitchen because she didn’t want him to mess it up, but the first thing she did trust him to make was an egg sandwich.
His favorite meal is fried chicken, creamed potatoes, English peas and rolls “with ridges” something that was always served for his birthday.
The Blacks love grocery shopping, and are “dedicated Cooking Channel gurus,” he said. Their favorites are Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Chopped. They are gardeners and have started growing herbs. He has built a greenhouse that is ready for them to use, and he started using raised beds last year and said he had great vegetables. They enjoyed turnip greens, collards, kale and rutabagas (even the greens from them.)

Barry wants a Kitchen Aid mixer so he can make his own pasta, and he calls himself “strictly a homemade cook.” They spent all Thanksgiving day in the kitchen cooking. Besides the traditional turkey and dressing, they made gingerbread muffins with cream cheese icing. He loves Asian–Japanese sushi, and does a lot of cooking on the wok, but said his first attempt at making tai pei, was “a disaster,” he said.
He also loves homemade marinara sauce and even though it would take a day and a half to make, he still wants to.
Margaret makes the cornbread. He says hers is perfect 100% of the time. She says his isn’t because she uses a recipe and he “cooks out of his head.”
R.M. England loves Margaret’s Mexican cornbread, and Barry says, “R.M. can smell it cooking at our house,” and would like it if she would add more jalapenos.

Barry likes to cook for people, and does a lot of cooking at their camphouse, especially deer meat with R.M. He says they’ve been cooking together 40 years–fish, deer meat and stew, and a lot of benefit cooking. “R.M. makes the best stew.” If there is fried deer meat left over at the camphouse, they all fight over the leftovers to take home and make a recipe in which they put the meat in a crockpot with Rotel, cream of mushroom soup and sliced onion.
He says the Chocolate Gum recipe was invented by Carla, who now lives in Colorado, and that the spaghetti is a combination of recipes including that of a lady at a Lodge meeting where hers was served. From her, he learned to add Dt. Coke or Dt. Dr. Pepper. “It makes the spaghetti–it mellows it out,” he said, and it is a favorite of his. He has never cooked or eaten many sweets, but grew up eating the ginger cookies, which his mother made often, along with teacakes.

He got the start of his oven rib rub recipe, a brown sugar and chili powder mixture, from the cooking network, then he just added more of his own stuff. He also says the cooking channel also taught him to cook without making a big mess.

Spaghetti
1 qt. tomatoes
1 can Manwich or tomato sauce
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
1-7 oz can mushrooms
1-12 oz. can Diet Coke
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 celery stalks
1 tsp. ground sage
1 tsp. thyme
1 Tbsp. basil
Small bag spaghetti
1 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 lb. ground hamburger/turkey
1 lb. sausage
Cook onion, bell pepper, celery and meat until meat is done. Put everything else in except Diet Coke. Once it slow boils about on hour, pour in Diet Coke. Let it slow boil another hour, stirring occasionally.

Chocolate Gum
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. Karo syrup (clear, red label)
Combine all dry ingredients in bowl. Add wet mixture (except butter) and mix together. Bring to a boil, adding butter about half way. Slow boil until you can drop some chocolate mix in a glass of cold water and it makes a ball. When that happens you are then ready to dip a spoonful in the water until it’s cool enough to eat like chocolate gum.

Mexican Cornbread
2 eggs
1 cup sweet milk
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 small can cream style corn
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups corn meal
1/2 cup oil
1 cup grated cheese
Mix all ingredients in order. Bake at 400° for about 45 minutes. Use well greased pan.

 Ginger Cookies
Sift:
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. ginger
1 ½ tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Cream
3/4 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup pure sorgum molasses
Mix flour mixture to egg mixture. Chill. Roll in balls. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350°.

 Oven Ribs
2 racks of either baby back or St. Louis ribs
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. season salt
1 Tbsp. dry yellow mustard
1 Tbsp. garlic salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. pepper
Combine all ingredients and mix together well. Cover ribs on both sides and wrap in foil. Bake in the oven for two hours at 350°. Remove ribs from foil and baste with favorite BBQ sauce. (I use Baby Ray’s Honey Style). Broil ribs on each side until BBQ sauce cooks into ribs. For even better taste, baste ribs and finish on grill instead of in the oven.