August 17, 2011

An excerpt from An Irresistible History of Southern Food by Rick McDaniel, published by The History Press.

On March 3, 1791, the newly minted United States government imposed a federal excise tax on stills and distilled spirits. This didn’t set well with the Scotsmen who settled the rugged coves and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains, as it reminded them a little too much of the tax the British had made them pay back home. Since they had dodged the British tax collectors for years, they pretty much ignored the tax and started making liquor on the sly.

For someSoutherners, it was the amount of tax levied by the government that kept their whiskey making on the other side of the law. As one mountaineer explained to Horace Kephart, author of Our Southern Highlanders (1913): “Nobody refuses to pay his taxes for taxes is fair and squar’. Taxes costs mebbe three cents on the dollar; and that’s all right. But revenue costs a dollar and ten cents on twenty cents’ worth o’ liquor; and that’s robbin’ the people with a gun to their faces. Now, yan’s my field o’ corn. I gather the corn, and shuck hit, and grind hit my own self, and the woman she bakes us a pone o’ bread to eat—and I don’t pay no tax, do I? Then why can’t I make some o’ my corn into pure whiskey to drink, without payin’ tax?”

Although moonshining occurred in many areas of the South, it was mostly concentrated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and northeast Georgia.

Corn liquor was a valuable trading commodity in a region where cash money was scarce.

Someone who had corn liquor could trade for powder and shot, flour, gingham and calico for the lady of the house, chewing tobacco or whatever else they needed or wanted to make life in the wilderness more pleasant.

Oftentimes would-be moonshiners went in with family or friends to pool resources to purchase a used still or to procure the parts to assemble a new one. The basic still consisted of a sealed copper kettle or pot in which to cook the mash and a copper condensing coil called a worm.

The distillation process for moonshine required a fire to “cook” off the alcohol. Since this produced large amounts of smoke and steam, the process was carried out at night far back in the woods, where the fire was indistinguishable from any normal campfire. Since the operation was carried out by the light of the moon, the word moonshine entered the American vernacular as both noun and verb.

May 8, 2011

An excerpt from An Irresistible History of Southern Food by Rick McDaniel.

Ask any Southerner to picture in their mind a lazy summer day, and chances are that vision will include a porch, a rocking chair and a glass of iced tea. So how did a drink made from a plant that grows on the other side the world become, as many have called it, the house wine of the South? Iced tea begins life as the leaves of a bushy evergreen shrub indigenous to Tibet and western China. There’s some controversy as to exactly when the Chinese started drinking tea, but it was so popular by the sixth century that merchants commissioned a book extolling the pleasures of drinking it.

Tea drinking spread to Europe in the sixteenth century, when the English began trading with China. The English began exporting tea and then switched to growing it themselves in their Asian colonies.

Despite attempts in the early 1800s to grow tea in South Carolina, the British continued to dominate the tea market after the American Revolution. In 1859, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company began selling tea at one-third the price of British tea and later grew into a chain of supermarkets under the name A&P.

One of the most enduring myths associated with iced tea is that it was “invented” at the 1904 World’s Fair. While this might have been the earliest commercial sale of iced tea, and definitely served to popularize black tea (instead of the green tea popular since colonial days), Southerners had been enjoying this cool and refreshing drink for at least a generation prior to the dawn of the twentieth century.

Although there were recipes such as Regent’s punch (essentially a spiked version of iced tea) dating back to colonial times, iced tea became an essential part of Southern life sometime around the mid-nineteenth century.

It’s been theorized that the birth of iced tea probably occurred in New Orleans sometime after the first commercial ice production began in 1868, but there are recipes for other iced drinks that predate commercially produced ice by at least three decades. The earliest mention of iced tea in print is a passage from Sea-Gift, a novel written by North Carolinian Edwin Wiley Fuller in 1873.

Mary Ann Bryan Mason, another North Carolinian, gave this advice about iced tea in 1875: “Three things it would be well to avoid in tea—tea of inferior quality, weak tea, and cold tea, unless persons desire iced tea—then it should be well iced. Tepid tea is nauseous, especially if weak.”

The earliest printed recipe for iced tea is found in Marion Cabell Tyree’s Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), so by at least the early 1870s, iced tea was a well-established part of Southern cuisine.

How to Make Southern Iced Tea

Start with a 4- to 6-quart nonreactive pot and fill it with three quarts of cold water. Put four to six regular (or three or four family-size) tea bags into the cold water, cover and bring to a boil, then immediately remove from the heat. After three or four minutes (depending on how strong you like your tea), remove the tea bags (don’t squeeze them) and pour the hot tea into a gallon pitcher. Add a small pinch of baking soda to counter any bitterness, and add sugar to taste—1 to 2 cups, depending on whether you like your tea sweet, seriously sweet or stand up and bark sweet. Add enough cold water to fill the pitcher, stir well and let the tea cool to room temperature before pouring; otherwise the hot tea will melt the ice in the glasses and the tea will be watery. Do not refrigerate until the tea is completely cool or it will become cloudy. To serve, fill a tall glass three-quarters full of ice. Quarter a lemon and squeeze it over the ice, then drop in the lemon and pour the tea over the ice.

April 29, 2011

An excerpt from An Irresistible History of Southern Food by Rick McDaniel.

Any Southerner will tell you that the miracle of the loaves and fishes was the only churchsupper in history that didn’t include fried chicken.

For those of us who grew up in the post–World War II South, chicken was a pretty regularpart of our diet. But prior to the end of the war, chicken was a rare treat for most Southerners.

The reason for this was economic: unlike hogs, which had to be killed to use them for food,
chickens produced eggs, a renewable food source.
Like hogs, chickens were essentially self-supporting and free range. They were able to feed
themselves on bugs, grubs and animal droppings. Chickens are good mothers, and unless a
predator got in the henhouse, chicks usually reached adulthood.
Eggs were not only food but could also be bartered for goods or sold for cold, hard cash. This
meant that chickens were generally left alone until after they had stopped producing eggs, at
which time they were ushered to the chopping block.
These mature hens needed to be cooked for long periods of time in moist heat to make them
tender. Dishes such as chicken and dumplings, stewed chicken and chicken country captain
evolved to make use of these older birds.

The dry heat and short cooking times used for frying requires a young, tender chicken, one
capable of egg production. For Southerners of modest means, sacrificing one or more laying
hens so their guests could have fried chicken was the ultimate expression of hospitality, one
reserved for Sunday dinner with company or when the preacher came calling.
After the Second World War, commercial poultry production finally made the Republican
campaign slogan of 1932 a reality: a chicken in every pot.

Fried Chic ken
The first mention of “Southern fried chicken” in print was in 1925. An earlier mention of
“Fried Chicken—Southern Style” is found in Kate Brew Vaughn’s Culinary Echoes from Dixie,
published in 1917. The dish itself goes back to at least the early 1800s. The earliest published
recipe for what Southerners would consider fried chicken was in the third edition of Mary
Randolph’s The Virginia House-wife, published in 1828.
Although it may come as a shock to some below the Mason-Dixon line, Southerners didn’t
invent fried chicken. Nearly every culture on earth has some dish involving a chicken and a
skillet or pot of hot fat, from pollo fritto in Italy to ga xao in Vietnam. As to how fried chicken
came to the South, the most popular theory credits African slaves. The Scots also fried several
different foods, including chicken, so the jury is still out.
There are almost as many ways to prepare a chicken for a date with a pan full of hot grease
as there are people who want to snatch a drumstick when it’s done. Sarah Rutledge had one
of the simplest formulas for fried chicken in The Carolina Housewife (1847): “Having cut up a
pair of young chickens, lay them in a pan of cold water to extract the blood. Wipe them dry,
season them with pepper and salt, dredge them in flour and fry them in lard.” She goes on
to give directions for making gravy, which is good information to have if the preacher is on
his way for dinner.
Other variations on the theme involve replacing the water bath with buttermilk, sweet milk
or no bath at all; dipping the pieces in an egg and milk mixture before or during breading; and
replacing the flour with cornmeal, cracker crumbs or some combination thereof.
Traditionally, rice was the most common side dish served with fried chicken, along with
cream gravy made from the drippings from the frying pan and hot biscuits. Some Southerners,
particularly in Maryland, serve the gravy poured over the chicken, but the gravy is most
commonly served on the rice instead.

Basic Fried Chicken
Yield: 4 servings
2 cups cold water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 chicken, cut into serving pieces
fat for frying (vegetable oil, lard, shortening
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
In a shallow baking dish, combine water and salt. Place
chicken pieces in dish and refrigerate for at least 30
minutes.
In a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, place enough fat (vegetable oil, shortening or lard) to come to a depth of about two inches. Heat the fat until it shimmers but does not smoke, about 350 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
Whisk remaining ingredients together in a shallow baking
dish. Remove chicken pieces one at a time from water, drain them and dip into the flour mixture,
then carefully place them into the hot fat. Cook for five minutes, then gently lift with tongs to see
if chicken is cooking evenly; rearrange pieces if necessary. Continue cooking until chicken is evenly
browned, about five more minutes. Turn chicken with tongs and continue cooking until brown all
over, about 10 to 12 minutes longer.

October 9, 2009

Clean thoroughly and scrape it. Put it into a stove-pan with sufficient cold water, a pod of red pepper and salt. Baste frequently to make it crisp. Cook well done. Serve cold.
—Church of the Epiphany (Danville, Va.). Key to the Pantry: Choice, Tried Recipes. Danville, Va: Boatwright Bros, 1898.

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.

November 23, 2008

Stew your cranberries in a covered saucepan till soft, then pulp them through a hair sieve, return them to the saucepan, with equal weight of good brown sugar, and a spoonful of butter. A little water should be added, or the sauce will be too thick. To be served hot.
—Mary Ann Bryan Mason, The Young Housewife’s Counsellor (sic) and Friend: Containing Directions in Every Department of Housekeeping, 1875.

November 21, 2008

Joint chicken or cut in joints, dip in sweet milk, dredge with white corn meal instead of flour ; salt and pepper. Fry in boiling hot fat. (I preferred lard and butter mixed.)
Make a cream gravy. Serve with corn fritters made of canned or fresh corn. For three to four, one can of corn or six ears cut. Make a batter same as for hot cakes; put corn, salt and sugar to taste. Pour out of end of spoon into boiling fat. Cook a golden brown and serve.

—Mrs. J. E. Buckley, Echoes Of Southern Kitchens. Compiled and published by the Robert E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy No. 278, Los Angeles, 1916

November 10, 2008

This is a classic recipe from the 1950s that came into my family by way of the late Marcia Gabriel Saunders of Charlotte, North Carolina. They are always found on the table at Christmastime.

Yield: 12 to 14 servings

• 8 medium potatoes
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh chives
• 8 ounces sour cream
• Paprika, salt, and pepper to taste

Peel, cube, and boil potatoes until tender. Beat cream cheese and sour cream together. Add drained, cooked potatoes and beat until smooth. Add remaining ingredients (except paprika) and mix to combine. Pour into a 2 quart casserole dish and dot the top with more butter. Sprinkle the top with paprika for a festive touch, or Parmesan cheese if you prefer. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Serves 10.
Can be made ahead and frozen or refrigerated before baking.

Source: www.chefrick.com

November 9, 2008

Black-eyed pea soup was probably a fixture in slave cabin cookery prior to the Civil War, but doesn’t show up in Southern cookbooks written by whites until the late nineteenth century.

1 cup dried black-eyed peas
2 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 small yellow onion
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour

Wash and pick over peas. Place peas in a 4-quart mixing bowl, cover with water and soak overnight.

Discard remaining liquid. In a 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat, sauté onion until tender. Add peas, salt and cayenne; cover with 2 quarts water and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer until peas are tender, about 45 minutes. Check cooking liquid; if it hasn’t reduced by one half, increase heat and cook until approximately one quart of liquid remains. Add flour and stir to thicken. Serve with hot corn bread.

November 6, 2008

It’s appropriate on many levels that the first post for Hushpuppy Nation be titled In The Begining, as it not only begins a new blog, but also looks at the origins of Southern foodways.

To understand where Southern food came from, it’s necessary to take a trip back to the 1400s. Columbus had just “discovered” the New World while trying to find an easy way to the spices of Asia. So, the very reason for Europeans being here was food-related. As soon as he noticed that the natives had lots of shiny gold jewelry, Columbus claimed the New World for Spain, setting off a power struggle between the French, Spanish and English for control of the New World and all that gold.

The Spanish established a settlement at St. Augustine, Florida in the late 1560s, prompting the English to make several attempts to colonize Virginia, culminating with the settlement of Jamestown in 1607.

The Melting Pot

Southern cooking is a unique blend of European, African and Native American foods and cooking techniques that is also influenced by geography and the nationality of the people who settled that particular piece of Southern real estate.

Louisiana is a good example of the geographic divisions. In south Louisiana, French and Spanish influences flavor the Cajun and Creole cuisine; in the rest of the state, the cuisine is the English-based, traditional Southern cooking.

Native Americans and Africans also played an important role in the development of Southern cooking. Native Americans gave us corn and grits, as well as showing the English how to effectively hunt wild game. Africans brought their skill at cultivating rice, deep fat frying and cooking one dish meals to the mix.

The role of Europeans, Native Americans and Africans will be covered in detail in future posts…