Willie Isbell

Willie Isbell of Bruce is the oldest of nine children and started cooking about age 9. His mother, Mary, showed him how to make peas and cornbread so he could get meals ready while she and his father worked in the field.

She also taught him to make biscuits, chicken and dumplings,  fried chicken, and salmon patties, and he takes pride in what he learned from her. Once he started cooking, he never stopped. The most important thing about cooking is liking it, he said, and, “I like it.”

He learned to make scratch cakes, like caramel,  from  wife, Martha, and she says he can beat her making cakes. She started making the honey butter chicken dumplings, but says he has taken over making them now. He says they are not his favorite because of the sweetness, but  other people like them.

Isbell uses meal, flour, onion, black pepper and eggs in making salmon patties, and serves them with rice (with a little sugar and lots of butter) and biscuits, and that is his favorite breakfast usually on Sunday. Chitterlings and fish are his favorite foods.
He made barbeque for family reunions several times and everyone seemed to like it, so he started selling it to the public about eight years ago from a trailer. He developed his own recipe for potato salad, slaw, beans and bbq sauce that he sells with his barbeque. After he got them like he liked, he has kept the recipes for them the same.

Most times for something new to cook, it will be something he’s heard someone talking about, or he will occasionally see a recipe somewhere he wants to try.

For supper he might have oxtail, candied yams and pinto beans, or cabbage with fried chicken or neckbone. “That kind of food will make you look like me!” he laughed. When his kids come home to eat, their favorite is his ribs.

Honey Butter Chicken Dumplings
(Martha Isbell)  
1 whole chicken
1/3 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
Black pepper and season at your own taste
2 cans honey butter biscuits
Boil all on medium for about 30-45 minutes.

Butter Roll
(Mary Isbell)   
1-1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup Crisco
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
Mix flour, water, Crisco to make dough. Then roll dough out flat. Slice half stick butter inside dough and fold dough together like a loaf. Then mix milk, sugar, vanilla extract and one stick butter together until butter melts. Pour milk over dough. Cook at 350° about 20-30 minutes until brown on top.

Homemade Caramel Cake
(Willie Isbell)  
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 sticks butter
4 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla flavor
Mix flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla in bowl until all mixed together. Then pour mix into three 9” cake pans and bake at 350° until brown.
Caramel Frosting
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla flavor
Put 1/2 cup sugar in small boiler then sprinkle with water and put on stove to heat until brown. After browning, mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour, evaporated milk, 2 Tbsp. butter, and vanilla.  After mixing, pour into boiler with browned sugar, then heat and stir until it thickens.