January 30, 2009

“One calf’s head, mashed throughly; then boil four hours; take head out; cut meat off; strain the soup; add one pint of veal, chopped fine and fried in butter; a hard boiled egg, two boiled potatoes, both chopped fine; six tablespoonfuls of flour, browned in butter. Add butter balls, size of pea, made of one cup flour, tablespoonful of butter and little salt. Season soup with salt, pepper, sweet marjoram, all-spice and cloves to taste. Everything to boil in ten minutes.”

– Ladies’ Aid Society, Freemason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk, VA: Jamestown Cook Book. Norfolk, VA: Burke & Gregory, Printers, 1907

January 26, 2009

“One cup of preserves, one cup of butter, one cup of sugar, one cup of flour, five eggs. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the flour and eggs well beaten ; lastly the preserves. Bake in a quick oven. Serve hot with sauce.”

–Mrs. W. A. Horne, Echoes Of Southern Kitchens. Compiled and published by the Robert E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy No. 278, Los Angeles, 1916

January 22, 2009

“Take five pounds of sugar, one quart of vinegar, one and one half ounces of stick cinnamon, one and one half ounces of cloves, one ounce of white mustard; boil all together. Pare and quarter eight pounds of apples; put in boiling water; let boil till tender. Then pour the boiling vinegar and spices over the apples.” ––Mrs. Amanda Clay

–The Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, Parish, KY. Housekeeping in the Blue Grass: A New and Practical Cook Book. Cincinnati: Geo. E. Stevens & Co., 1875.

January 21, 2009

Henry “Harry” Heth was a Confederate Major General in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, commanding a division in General A.P. Hill’s Third Corps.

Heth’s war record was solid but not outstanding, so  he’s not as well known as Lee, Jackson, Pickett and other Confederate icons. Heth’s main claim to fame was that he accidentally started the battle of Gettysburg when he sent some of his men into that sleepy Pennsylvania town to look for shoes.

According to the story that accompanies the recipe, General Heth made this drink in honor of president Grover Cleveland’s election in 1884, then bottled the remainder and served it again when Cleveland (who was the only president ever elected to two non-consecutive terms) returned to the presidency in 1892.

“For 1 gallon, bake well and crisp 8 well flavored apples of medium size. When cool, place in a bowl. Mix 1 qt. of brandy, 1 pt. of arrack, 1 pt. of maraschino; pour the mixture over the apples and add 2 qts. water. Sweeten to taste, grating a little nutmeg. Stir well, but try not to break the apples.”
—Jacquieine Harrison Smith and Sue Mason Maury Halsey, Famous Old Receipts Used A Hundred Years and More in the Kitchens of the North and the South, Contributed by Descendants. Philadelphia: John C. Winston and Co., 1906.

January 17, 2009

The name for this early bread comes from the Algonquian Indian word apan, meaning, “baked.”

“Six or eight potatoes (according to size), two eggs, half a cup of sugar (brown), a cup of syrup, a little orange peel and a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Wash and grate, without peeling,  the potatoes. Beat sugar, and eggs together, mix syrup with potatoes, then sugar and eggs and orange peel and cinnamon. Put all in a dish and bake.”
—Laura Thornton Knowles, Southern Recipes Tested by Myself. New York: George H. Doran, 1913.

January 13, 2009

Edna Lewis (1916-2006) was one of the best known and best loved Southern chefs of the 20th century. Born the granddaughter of former slaves in Freetown, Virginia, she was a sucessful chef and author (The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972), The Taste of Country Cooking (1976) and In Pursuit of Flavor (1988).

Lewis moved to New York City from Virginia during the Depression. She met John Nicholson, an antiques dealer who in 1949 decided to open a restaurant on 58th Street, on the East Side of Manhattan called Café Nicholson. Lewis became the cook, winning over patrons with cheese soufflés and roast chicken. Café Nicholson became an instant success among bohemians and artists. The restaurant was frequented by William Faulkner,  Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Marlon Brando, Gloria Vanderbilt and Marlene Dietrich.

Lewis’ books had a profound influence on many Southern chefs, and her life was the subject of an excellent short film, Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie. The film follows her life among sub-alternate cultures such as growing-up in the former-slave community of Freetown to working as a typist for the Communist Party in pre-WWII New York City.

The film features interviews with chefs, writers and scholars about Lewis’ life and legacy, and is an excellent introduction to Southern food.

To see Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie, click here. You’ll be glad you did.

January 12, 2009

The year 1946 brought some pretty exciting changes to the way Southerners ate.

As GIs came back from the war and the Post-war economic boom set in, countless diners, fish camps, barbecue lodges and drive ins began springing up to tempt Southerners with delightful smells, massive menus and cheap eats.

One of the true cultural landmarks of those days was the Beacon Drive In in Spartanburg, South Carolina. More than sixty years later, it’s still a cultural and culinary icon.

The first thing that strikes new visitors to the Beacon is the physical size. In the middle of a huge parking lot sits the second-largest drive in in the United States, just slightly smaller that Atlanta’s famed Varsity.

At one end of the longest stainless-steel counter you’ve probably ever seen in your life stands J.C. Strobel, the Beacon’s counter man. J.C. has worked at the restaurant for over 50 years, shouting out food orders over the buzz of the crowd of hungry customers and the din of the kitchen staff hustling to fill them.

“Caaall it!” he shouts as regulars stream up to the line and first-timers, politely invited to step to the side, wade through the Beacon’s massive menu.

“I need a chili cheese Ah-Plen-TAAAY!” begins another movement in a well-rehearsed culinary ballet choreographed by the Beacon’s sixty employees that, within sixty seconds, will net you one of the best chili cheeseburgers on the planet, buried under an obscene amount of fried onion rings and french fries, the “A-Plenty” part of the chili cheese.

Further down the line, the Beacon’s iced tea is waiting in styrofoam cups filled with crushed ice. Grab one and head for the cash register, then find a chair in the 350-seat dining room for a true taste of the South.

Each week, the Beacon The Beacon goes through:
Three tons of onions
Three tons of potatoes
Four tons of beef, chicken, and seafood
Three thousand pounds of sugar
The Beacon is the largest single seller of iced tea in the United States, making 62,500 gallons of iced tea each year, enough to fill 24 tanker trucks!

After White retired in 1998, brothers-in-law Sam Maw and Steve McManus bought the Beacon, keeping it locally- and family-owned. In 1999, Reidville Road was renamed John B. White, Sr.  Boulevard-a fitting tribute to someone responsible for one of the South’s most beloved culinary experiences.

January 10, 2009

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. This page is from the original 1747 edition.

To make Apple-Fritters

Beat the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of four well together and strain them into a pan; then take a quart of cream, make it as hot as you can bear your finger in it; then put to it a quartter of a pint of sack, three quarters of a pint of ale, and make a posset of it.When it is cool, put in nutmeg, ginger, salt, and flour, to your liking.  Your batter should be pretty thick, then put in pippins sliced or scraped, and fry them in a deal of butter quick.

—Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Alexandria, VA, 1805 Edition.

January 9, 2009

Scripture cake was also known as “Bible Cake,” “Scriptural Cake” and “Old Testament Cake,” and was extremely popular in the latter part of the nineteenth century, especially in the southern Appalachians. The cake was meant as a way to teach young girls baking and Bible verses; the original recipes didn’t include the ingredients out to the side as provided on this one. The earliest recipe for this cake I have been able to find was published in the Atlanta Constitution on June 27, 1897. Some researchers believe the cake dates to the late 1700s in England or Ireland, while others claim the cake a favorite of Dolly Madison, wife of U.S. president James Madison.

Recipes differ on amounts of ingredients and occasionally the Bible verses used to find them; this recipe is based on one found in Key to the Pantry, published by the ladies of the Church of the Epiphany in Danville, Virginia in 1897. This cake may also be baked in two 9-by 5-inch loaf pans, with a reduction in cooking time of about 15 minutes.

For the cake:

3/4 cup Judges 5:25 (butter)
1 1/2 cup Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
5 Isaiah 10:14 (eggs, separated)
3 cups sifted Leviticus 24:5 (flour)
3 teaspoons 2 Kings 2:20 (salt)
3 teaspoons Amos 4:5 (baking powder)
1 teaspoon Exodus 30:23 (cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon each 2 Chronicles 9:9 (spices-nutmeg, ginger, allspice)
1/2 cup Judges 4:19 (milk)
3/4 chopped Genesis 43:11 (nuts)
3/4 cup finely chopped Jeremiah 24:5 (figs
3/4 cup 2 Samuel 16:1 (raisins)
Whole Genesis 43:11 for garnish (almonds)

In a 4-quart mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and spices.

Beat flour mixture into butter and egg mixture, alternating with milk, until flour is just blended in.  Beat egg whites untill stiff; fold into batter. Fold in chopped nuts, figs and raisins. Turn into 10-inch tube pan that has been greased and dusted with flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F until a cake tester inserted into cake comes out clean, about an hour and ten minutes.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. After fifteen minutes, turn cake out from pan onto wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with Burnt Jeremiah Syrup.

Burnt Jeremiah Syrup:

1 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
1/2 cup Genesis 24:45 (water)
1/4 cup Genesis 18:8 (butter)

in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, melt sugar, stirring ocasionally to prevent sticking. After sugar melts, continue cooking, stirring continuously, until it is a deep golden brown. Add water and cook, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from the heat, add butter and stir till until it melts; allow to cool.

Drizzle over cooled scripture cake and garnish with whole almonds.

January 5, 2009

The food provided to plantation slaves varied widely depending on several factors: time period, location, what food the plantation produced, and the owner’s economic situation all came into play.

Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave and abolitionist, wrote in 1845: “The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal.”

In The Life of Josiah Henson (1849), Henson, who was born a slave in1789 in Charles County, Maryland, wrote: “The principal food of those upon my master’s plantation consisted of corn-meal and salt herrings; to which was added in summer a little buttermilk, and the few vegetables which each might raise for himself and his family, on the little piece of ground which was assigned to him for the purpose, called a truck-patch.”

On coastal plantations, like those in the South Carolina Lowcountry, broken or dirty rice was plentiful and was a staple of the slave diet.

Archeological evidence from excavations of slave cabins at Ashland Plantation in Louisiana shows that in some cases slaves added to their diet by fishing and trapping. The bones of opossums, raccoons, rabbits, wild birds and fish such as freshwater drum, gar, catfish, sunfish, and mackerel have been found at the site.

In Flowerdew Hundred: The Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation, 1619-1864 (1993), James Deetz detailed archeological findings of food remnants from slave cabins at Flowerdew Hundred plantation on the James River near Hopewell, Virginia. Deetz found the foods most often eaten by slaves at Flowerdew Hundred, based on the amounts of identifiable remains, were pork, catfish, various types of birds and fish, sturgeon, chicken, beef and opossum.
Deetz also found evidence that slaves on this plantation also regularly supplemented their diets by trapping and fishing as well as by keeping pigs and maintaining garden plots.

According to Patricia A. Gibbs, a former member of the research staff at Colonial Williamsburg, there is documentary and archaeological evidence that slaves grew a variety of plants in these gardenssuch as lima beans, pole beans, cabbages, collards, corn, cymlings (patty pan squash), onions, peanuts, black-eyed or other field peas, potatoes (both Irish and sweet), and pumpkins.

These garden patches were tended after the slave’s twelve-hour workday was over (often in the dark) and on Sunday, usually a day of rest on most plantations. The vegetables chosen were high-yield, didn’t require much care after planting, and by staggering plantings, would yield successive crops throughout most of the year.

Although slave gardens were apparently fairly common in the eighteenth century, there is less evidence of their being maintained in the nineteenth century; they were rarely mentioned in traveler’s accounts of Southern plantations of the time. Slaves of this period were more likely to be dependant on the food furnished by the plantation owner, with less supplemental vegetables available to them.

No matter what they were furnished or could procure for themselves, the diet of the slave was barely adequate in the best of times, especially considering the large amount of calories they expended. Malnutrition and the diseases it spawns were common among slaves, and the mortality rate was staggering, especially among the young.

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