A Nace Family Recipe: Light Bread

 This post originally appeared on my "Peevish Pen" blog back in June of 2007 as "Another Family Recipe: Light Bread." Since it's a recipe my grandmother probably got from her grandmother, it's worth posting here:

Grandma's Light Bread

One of the delights of my childhood was going to Grandma’s house on Sunday and smelling her light bread baking. Eating it hot from the oven was even more delightful. She had both a wood stove and a gas stove in her kitchen. She used the wood stove for baking the bread and for most of her cooking. I rarely saw her use the gas stove.

Mattie Blanche Nace Ruble—who lived to be nearly 97—grew up in Lithia, Virginia, but moved to Roanoke when she married a railroad man. Here is a picture of her as a young mother with her three children (Lawrence, the oldest; Raymond, the baby; and Alene, my mother).


Grandma probably got the recipe from her mother, Sulmena Frances Spence Nace, pictured here with her husband, William Robert Nace.

Grandma Ruble’s Light Bread

1 cake or package of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening (She used lard but Crisco works)
6 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pint lukewarm water

Dissolve 1 cake yeast and 1 Tbs. sugar in one pint lukewarm water. Add 1 Tbs. shortening (Crisco) and 3 cups plain flour. Beat until smooth. Then add 1 tsp. salt and 3 more cups of flour—or enough to make a dough that is easily handled.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic–about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and set in a moderately warm place, free from drafts, until light (about 50 minutes).

Punch down dough and form into rolls. Place rolls in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise one hour. Bake 30 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. [Note: I added the time and temperature that worked for me.]

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I liked the rolls from the corner of the pan—crust on two sides so it held up well for buttering.

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Aunt Leona's Spoonbread

This post, which originally appeared on my Peevish Pen blog, on June 24, 2007, isn't about one of the Naces—it's about an in-law. Leona Ruble was my grandmother's sister-in-law. She must have given her spoonbread recipe to my grandmother, Blanche Nace Ruble, who passed it to my mother. (Aunt Leona was born on March 17, 1889. My mother was born on March 17, 1913.)

When I was a kid, my great aunt Leona Ruble Davy and her husband (she called him Buddy, but his real name was Howard Kress Davy) would drive from their New Castle home to visit us around Easter. She usually brought me a fruit-and-nut chocolate-covered egg. Sometimes it had my name in icing on it.

Supposedly, Leona—one of the daughters of G. William Ruble and Margie Caldwell Ruble of Craig County—was known for the beautiful clothes she sewed. My mother said Aunt Leona once came to visit with a whole trunkful of clothes she'd made herself. She also had red hair.

In the summer of 1967, I remember driving my brand new Firebird from Roanoke to New Castle to take my mother to visit Aunt Leona, who was up in years. That was the last time I saw her. Aunt Leona  died in 1970.  

Here's her recipe:

Leona's Spoonbread
1 cup boiling water
one-half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
one-half cup sweet milk
one and a half teaspoons baking powder
one-half teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well-beaten

Pour one cup boiling water over one-half cup corn meal. Beat in 1 Tbs. butter, one-half cup milk, one and a half tsp. baking powder, a half teaspoon of salt, and 2 beaten eggs. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake until set. This would be at 400 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes in a modern stove. Serve hot with butter.

I'm not much of a cook, but I've made this spoonbread before and it's wonderful.

I wonder how much more wonderful it would be baked in a wood stove?

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Update: Leona Frances Ruble Davy (1889-1970) is buried in the Huffman Memorial Cemetery in Craig County. 

Grandma's Light Bread Recipe

In the previous post, I mentioned my grandmother's cookbook. But the following bread recipe isn't from it.

One of the delights of my childhood was going to Grandma’s house on Sunday and smelling her bread baking. She always called it "light bread." Eating it hot from the oven was even more delightful. She had both a wood cookstove and a gas stove in her kitchen. She used the wood stove for baking the bread and for most of her cooking. I rarely saw her use the gas stove.

She probably got her light bread recipe from her mother. And she probably made it many, many times for her three children, pictured below.

Grandma Ruble’s Light Bread

1 cake or package of yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon shortening (Crisco works well; original probably called for lard)

6 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 pint lukewarm water

Dissolve 1 cake yeast and 1 Tbs. sugar in one pint lukewarm water. Add 1 Tbs. shortening (Crisco) and 3 cups plain flour. Beat until smooth. Then add 1 tsp. salt and 3 more cups of flour—or enough to make a dough that is easily handled.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic–about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and set in a moderately warm place, free from drafts, until light (about 50 minutes).

Punch down dough and form into rolls. Place rolls in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise one hour. Bake 30 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven.

I liked the rolls from the corner of the pan—crust on two sides so it held up well for buttering.

~