Food & Recipes

Many good Tennessee cooks learned the hard way: from their mistakes. Then there are other good Tennessee cooks who had the good fortune to learn the easy way: from their mothers’ mistakes. Jane Jordan is one of those cooks.

“My mother was a music major in college, but she had four children and she was a wonderful cook,” says Jordan, who lives in Rutherford County. “In fact, she belonged to the home demonstration club which was very helpful for young women who married and lived on the farm.”

Jane’s recipe for Classic Fried Catfish, included in Country Classics II, published by the Tennessee Farm Bureau Women and now in its second printing, was handed down from her mother, the late Ruby Lynn Batey.

“It really is a good recipe for fried catfish,” Jordan says. “It is the way I have cooked it for years, and my mother cooked it the same way.”

Jordan and her husband, Ed, were dairy farmers from the mid-1950s until about five years ago, when they sold their farm and bought another where their two sons, Buddy and Will, live and raise Black Angus cattle and horses, as well as Jane and Ed’s grandchildren.

“I’m very thankful my kids live close enough that we can see them,” she says. “We always try to celebrate a birthday, and of course at Christmas they always come to my house for Christmas Eve.” Naturally, food is involved, although Jane says she doesn’t cook daily like she used to. “I use mixes and things as I get older,” she says. “I still like to cook a good breakfast and a pot of white beans. The grandchildren like fried chicken.”

As for the catfish, she makes that “whenever I want to,” she says. “My husband likes whole catfish. Most of the time I get fillet and make it for supper or lunch.” She uses garlic powder in her recipe. “Some people like it that way, some do not,” she says. With it she serves french fries, a broccoli dish, fresh squash in the summertime, rice or a baked potato.

Jordan enjoys recipes she finds in Country Classics. “I use it a lot if I want to look up a good recipe about anything. You can usually find it in the book.” But then, like her mom and other good country cooks, “A lot of the recipes I have in my head.”

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Magazine:
Tennessee Home & Farm, Fall 2010 Edition Edition

Headline:
She’s Got Fish To Fry

Summary:
Jane Jordan serves Mom’s cornmeal-coated catfish

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