Soul Food

[paulz]

 

Sugar in grits? I think there are harsh local laws for such atrocities.

 

 

It's not unknown - parts of New England have laws against serving Manhattan style as 'chowder'

(I don't think it's that seriously enforced or anything, but are still around)

 

There's totally that food protectionism elsewhere - with regionals varietals, etc. I heard on marketplace last year there's some Italian noise abt what makes a "pizza"

 

 

Redeye gravy is good.

 

 

that's an excellent example of regional - I tried to serve redeye last year to a family that was part of the St Denis party (They established Natchitoches 300 years ago) and they asked "what's that", one of the members of the family called it "yankee food" (which I didn't think was accurate, but try telling that to an 80 year old lady from Louisiana)

 

That's one thing Boosh is going to have to come to terms with...every cook south of the M/D (and a lot north of the line) serves 'the genuine' and 'the best' -- so be prepared for that!

[spokenward]

 

That's one thing Boosh is going to have to come to terms with...every cook south of the M/D (and a lot north of the line) serves 'the genuine' and 'the best' -- so be prepared for that!

 

 

I know of at least one food scientist / researcher in Chicago who has studied the regional differences in the dinners prepared and served at churches on Chicago's West and South sides. The food roots of the migration go deep. He traces them to different Southern locations.

[paulz]

 

I know of at least one food scientist / researcher in Chicago who has studied the regional differences in the dinners prepared and served at churches on Chicago's West and South sides. The food roots of the migration go deep. He traces them to different Southern locations.

 

 

I can totally dig that - the US is a story of migration both internally and eternally and it isn't just one way - look at Jazz

 

[and those metropolitan cities can often hold some pretty decently hardcore subcultures that maintain cultural identity...Chicago,NYC, SF]

 

I recently had an experience of that migration -- I tried some etouffee from a roach coach someplace outside of Columbus (work trip to a plant) and I thoughts "wow, thats pretty much on they money"....turns out it was because the cooks were Katrina displaced

 

cultures sometimes move and mix some but still also can hold their identities some too

 

The Cajuns built A frames in a swamp because the were from waht's now Nova Scotia.

Sprite is tuned to the German/Norsk tastes (salts and vinegar tangs without a lot of capsicum heat, etc)

 

Hell, we have place in the US like parts of Oakland where the street signs have (trad) chinese

[chipmcdonald]

I claim Augusta Georgia home of soul food and sweet tea. Having regularly eaten at places Mr. Brown visited...

 

It's all about:

 

1) your collards;

2) your cornbread;

3) your grits

4) sweet potatoes;

5) banana pudding;

6) sweet tea

 

Unfortunately the best soul food chef in Augusta is presently in jail for tax evasion, but there's still places around town (although a couple are trying to come across "upscale" as new restaurants).

[chipmcdonald]

Something else - it's perhaps borderline politically incorrect to point out, but "true" soul food usually has a familial lineage one way or another back to slave times. The integration era during the south meant there was a lot of cross pollenization. I'd suggest there are some white families that can make "authentic" soul food quite well because of this.

 

/ actually, some greens made found at Golden Corral and Ryan's can be pretty good because of who is making it in the back. "Sometimes"; some times it's just tough tasteless leafy/stringy nothing

// cornbread should almost be close to cake...

/// gotta be Luzianne tea

//// black eyed peas can't be too mushy,too hard, too peppery, too watery

///// Texas Pete sauce on the table is maybe more authentic than just Tabasco sauce

///// a good restaurant probably won't have "Soul food" mentioned in it's name but "Hot foods"

///// Cracker Barrel isn't so bad in some ways (dumplings, biscuits, grits ok)

[rasputin1963]

By banana pudding (Southern style), am I correct in thinking of it as actually vanilla pudding, but filled with banana slices, and surround-garnished with vanilla wafers?

[boosh]

I've checked out all the links and let this thread simmer for a while,......

 

I'm fully aware of the fact that the U.S. are almost like different countries on one continent when it comes to food and traditions and that every family has it's own recipes.

 

What I'm trying to do is get a picture of different cooking styles and flavours.

 

About trying to change recipes,...I know it's not done but as a Chef I can't simply take a recipe and follow it. Well the first time I do that but the next time I cook something I'll make it my own creation.

 

 

Great links and stories!! Keep them coming,..Thanks!

[Lukenskywalker]

 

I have a whole slew of redneck recipies. Some things you need to know wbout cooking authentic Deep South dishes. 1. You need iron skillets. 2. Our gravies are an art-form that should not be attempted by amateurs. 3. Not everything is deep-fried. 4. Recipies for "BBQ" can vary widely in as little as a 200-mile radius. 5. We don't put sugar in our cornbread...that would make it cake. 6. You need to specify what kind of plant you are using as "greens". We have mustard, collard, turnip, polk sallet (this is the true spelling from the Deep South, not "poke salad"), etc. 7. "Syrup" for breakfast also needs clarification. Our normal "table syrup" is usually a corn and cane sugar mixed with and molasses concoction. You may get looked at funny if you ask for maple syrup, in some places. ...ask if you need any specific recipies.

 

 

Iron Skillets... at our family Cabin in Vermont, we have used the same Cast Iron pans, kettles and Pots for three, going on four generations...my daughters, nephews, and nieces are having a real problem 'seasoning' them after use,

I just got back yesterday from a week long stay and spent a good deal of time getting the pots/pans/ kettles back in shape after their Christmas Holiday incursion .

They know better but also know that the last week of Feb is when Uncle Luke, Lothar, Rick, and aunt Karen will be coming up, and will clean up their mess.

[paulz]

What I'm trying to do is get a picture of different cooking styles and flavours.

 

Road trip - gastronomic roadtrips are great fun

I do that on bike tour b/c I can eat whatever I want as I'm on my bicycle and people are really nice

it also lets you get in touch with the environment and see why the food is the way it is (you are moving more at the speed and in the environment like when a lot of these food were established) and you get to see how fast they change

 

About trying to change recipes,...I know it's not done but as a Chef I can't simply take a recipe and follow it. Well the first time I do that but the next time I cook something I'll make it my own creation

 

It's kind of a double edged sword (or maybe more like a triangular blade or something)

 

One one hand, it could be good to do as we were talking about - 'soul food' and 'southern home' cooking is, well home cooking, low cooking -- so you might want to juice it for dining clientele

 

On the other hand - you don't have a native or at least veteran palate -- so you are going to lose authenticity and move to more fusion as you interpret it

again, I don't think it's inherently evil (YMMV ) -- your palate will probably be closer to your clientele, so it has an upside...it's just different than authentic -- I'd just suggest you make it clear on your Bill of Fare that it's an "interpretation"

 

On the third hand (eww!) -- many traditional southerners do tend to, well, keep traditions alive and part of that can be (I feel your pain, I'm a technique not a recipe guy) fairly rigid recipes -- I've even known some families to keep recipes secret so they don't get 'reinterpreted'

not that they don't anyway, but it gives the original the out of "That isn't my recipe, that's some abomination"

So just by nature of varying it -- you find yourself outside the spirit of some styles of southern cookery -- it's part of the mystique for some

 

and remember -- a southern woman can handle a rifle very well

 

 

Just a cultural thing to keep in mind - even in the US you'll see "authentic insert state style insert food" in another state and when you get served, it's nothing like "home"

 

 

On a real practical note, I'd say narrow your focus even more just to make it managable

[Lukenskywalker]

Fried deer tenderloin with gravy, creamed taters, collards, corn bread, and banana pudding would be a typical meal at Granny's house. Breakfast might be cathead biscuits with sawmill gravy. There's also redeye gravy, tomato gravy, white gravy. Don't forget grits...a Southern staple.

 

Granny, on my Pop's side cooked some killer breakfasts at the cabin...she was 4 ft nothing, so small she looked liked she fell off a charm bracelet..she stood on a homemade stool in front of the big coal/woodfired campstove.

 

We had fried 'Backstrap' and tenderloin deer steaks, home fried potatoes, (only an iron skillet can get them crispy and brown on the crust and soft and tasty on the inside)...she only turned them once in the entire cooking time.

 

Homemade biscuits, with Vermont cow butter, Maple syrup, "grade B' The Vermont grade 'A' was bought by the 'New Yawrk' touristos:

We had plenty of 'cowboy coffee' a handful of 'grinds' thrown into a big blue enameled ancient coffee pot with water electrically pumped from the 'Roaring Branch' River, But in the old days my parents/grandparents brought it up in galvanized buckets ....

We ate fresh caught Brook trout, Watercress and Blueberries for lunch....

 

JEEZ GETTING HUNGRY, and I just had dinner.

 

Oh, I forgot, with the leftover coffee ,, my grandmother would make this great gravy for the Deer steaks...

Cooterbrown, did you fam use coffee in any of their super gravies????

[cooterbrown]

// actually, some greens made found at Golden Corral and Ryan's can be pretty good because of who is making it in the back. "Sometimes"; some times it's just tough tasteless leafy/stringy nothing

 

Gotta know the pre-prep for greens. That's the key.

 

// cornbread should almost be close to cake...

 

Not in Alabama...we like it crisp on the ouside and crumbly inside.

There shouldn't be even a hint of sweetness to it.

 

/// gotta be Luzianne tea

 

Not necessarily...Luzianne is really good, but so is Tetley, and there are some local distributers of coffee and tea who makes some excellent product.

Again...it depends on the skill and experience of the preparer.

 

//// black eyed peas can't be too mushy,too hard, too peppery, too watery

 

A lot of people around here do like them on the mushy side.

 

///// Texas Pete sauce on the table is maybe more authentic than just Tabasco sauce

 

Crystal, Lousiana, and Trappey's are even more "authentic".

 

But THIS (we call it "pepper sauce") is the most authentic hot sauce for the table:

 

 

edit: the above is nothing more than white or cider vinegar that has been boiled with a dash of salt, and poured over the glass jar or cruet filled with any pepper you care to use. It tastes stronger and better as it ages. Some like it firey, like the above, which is nothing but serrano peppers, while some people will use banana peppers, jalapenos, habaneros (serious heat!), or any combination of whatever.

[cooterbrown]

 

I know of at least one food scientist / researcher in Chicago who has studied the regional differences in the dinners prepared and served at churches on Chicago's West and South sides. The food roots of the migration go deep. He traces them to different Southern locations.

 

 

Absolutely.

Carson's ribs (a Chicago staple) are not that much different than Dreamland's ribs (an Alabama staple - and one of the pilgrimage's one must take if visiting Tuscaloosa for a football game).

[cooterbrown]

Granny, on my Pop's side cooked some killer breakfasts at the cabin...she was 4 ft nothing, so small she looked liked she fell off a charm bracelet..she stood on a homemade stool in front of the big coal/woodfired campstove. We had fried 'Backstrap' and tenderloin deer steaks, home fried potatoes, (only an iron skillet can get them crispy and brown on the crust and soft and tasty on the inside)...she only turned them once in the entire cooking time. Homemade biscuits, with Vermont cow butter, Maple syrup, "grade B' The Vermont grade 'A' was bought by the 'New Yawrk' touristos: We had plenty of 'cowboy coffee' a handful of 'grinds' thrown into a big blue enameled ancient coffee pot with water electrically pumped from the 'Roaring Branch' River, But in the old days my parents/grandparents brought it up in galvanized buckets .... We ate fresh caught Brook trout, Watercress and Blueberries for lunch.... JEEZ GETTING HUNGRY, and I just had dinner. Oh, I forgot, with the leftover coffee ,, my grandmother would make this great gravy for the Deer steaks... Cooterbrown, did you fam use coffee in any of their super gravies????

 

Just for redeye gravy.

 

My Grandaddy used to send me to the woods - .22 rifle on my arm, to get three or four squirrels, so he could crack the heads open and get the brains out to eat with scrambled eggs (I wouldn't eat that), or go rabbit hunting and make hash out of them. We would set up a big open grill after a dove hunt and put the birds on kabob skewers. Of course...the deep freezer is full of deer after the hunting season is over. Certain families just have a knack for knowing how to prepare it in numerous ways - all tasty.

[spokenward]

 

Absolutely. Carson's ribs (a Chicago staple) are not that much different than Dreamland's ribs (an Alabama staple - and one of the pilgrimage's one must take if visiting Tuscaloosa for a football game).

 

 

Thanks! that's interesting. The regional varieties of BBQ can be so different. If Boosh Googles rib recipes and compares preparations in Kansas City, Memphis, Carolina or North Texas he will get an idea how wide the spread is. The German immigrants in Ras's part of Texas make a barbecue of brisket. In Chicago neighborhoods, if you see Rib Tips on the board you will know the food isn't just for tourists.

[cooterbrown]

 

Thanks! that's interesting . The regional varieties of BBQ can be so different. If Boosh Googles rib recipes and compares preparations in Kansas City, Memphis, Carolina or North Texas he will get an idea how wide the spread is. The German immigrants in Ras's part of Texas make a barbecue of brisket. In Chicago neighborhoods, if you see Rib Tips on the board you will know the food isn't just for tourists.

 

 

 

Well, yeah - there's ribs, then there's bbq. Which is either smoked beef brisket (in Texas) or smoked pork shoulder or butt (pretty much everywhere else) and is served sliced, pulled (by hand or forks), and chopped or shredded. Again...there is an art form to making "the real deal" and the recipe is something that is usually not written down, but rather something somebody in your family entrusts you with.

 

The real regional differences come down mostly to sauce or spice rub accompianment. Rubs can be almost anything under the sun but has to have the right savory/sweet/salt/heat ratio, while the sauces can be tomato-based (more mid-western), vinegar based (Deep South into North Carolina), mustard-based (from South Carolina - and truly excellent), even "white bbq sauce", which is from North Alabama (mayonaisse-based - it rocks on chicken, IMO).

 

Everybody and every state has their own take on BBQ, though:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_variations_of_barbecue

 

I have my own take on it, as well.

I use pork shoulder, rubbed in corn oil and seared to give it the "outer bark", then rolled up in heavy foil fashioned with a dome and a very tiny "chimney" made on the top, so the liquid can roll around in there. Pour in a small amount of a mixture of water, a touch of pepper sauce, and some beer (I use Miller High Life - don't bother with premium or froofy beers, it won't taste good, I promise!), and put in smoker with hot hickory coals for several hours.

I do the "pulled pork" method to serve. Sauce is of my own concoction, and it combines the Tomato/vinegar style along with the South Carolina gold and I have a bit of orange zest in there, too.

[rasputin1963]

 

Just for redeye gravy. My Grandaddy used to send me to the woods - .22 rifle on my arm, to get three or four squirrels, so he could crack the heads open and get the brains out to eat with scrambled eggs (I wouldn't eat that), or go rabbit hunting and make hash out of them. We would set up a big open grill after a dove hunt and put the birds on kabob skewers. Of course...the deep freezer is full of deer after the hunting season is over. Certain families just have a knack for knowing how to prepare it in numerous ways - all tasty.

 

 

I confess I don't have a taste for wild game.... Just the purple, fat-free appearance of raw venison makes me want to hurl... not to mention the smell.

 

I can't imagine what qualities squirrel brains have...

[Huh?]

This place is up the street from my work. Go there once in a while....mmmmhmmhmm good!!! The lemonade is killer......so is the Killer Combo Poboy.

 

 

[rasputin1963]

This place is up the street from my work. Go there once in a while....mmmmhmmhmm good!!! The lemonade is killer......so is the Killer Combo Poboy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90o0_Ac9A5k

 

 

OMG, that food looks delicious... pig-out city....!

[Lee Knight]

Hush Puppies. A delectable side dish. Deep fried cornmeal essentially, about the size a of a very large grape. But the onion makes it. They sound forgettable but taste unforgettable. I learned 'dem from my daddy grew up in Richmond, VA.

 

HUSH PUPPIES

 

1 qt. peanut oil, for frying hush puppies

2 c. white cornmeal

1 tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk

1 sm. onion, finely minced

1 egg, beaten

 

1. In a deep-fat fryer, preheat the oil to 375 degrees.

2. Combine all the other ingredients, adding the egg last. Mix well and drop, a tablespoonful at a time, into the hot fat. Do not overcrowd.

 

3. When done, in about 3 minutes, the hush puppies will turn a golden brown and float to the top. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon or tongs and drain thoroughly on paper towels.

 

4. Serve the hush puppies warm.

 

Makes 2 dozen 1-inch hush puppies.

 

Serves 6.

 

 

Don't plan on staying skinny eating these.

[Mudcat007]

I don't think anyone has mentioned fried chicken yet.

 

Here's a nice recipe from Paula Deen.

 

Southern Fried Chicken

 

And you must either have biscuits or cornbread as a side item.

 

Biscuits

 

Cornbread

 

I also am I big fan of southern style "way over-cooked" green beans. Basically you trim and break your green beans and put them in a large pot or crock pot with some smoked bacon and enough water to cover them and simmer until you have cooked the life out of them. A classically trained chef would probably consider them ruined when they are just about right. These are best served with a slice of onion and a slice of tomato (preferably homegrown). Cornbread is an excellent accompaniment although biscuits will do in a pinch.

[Hard Truth]

The families of most African Americans in the San Francisco Bay area came to the area during WWII from all over the southern USA. These are the staple soul food dishes in our area:

BBQ (actually smoked) Ribs, chicken or brisket with a spicy red BBQ sauce

Catfish

cornbread (although many places just give you plain old store-bought white or wheat bread)

potato salad

collard greens

potato salad

macaroni and cheese

Pecan pie, sweet potato pie or peach cobbler for dessert

 

I worked in an old fashioned soul food restaurant cooking in the 1970s that also served Chitlins and Red Snapper, which were generally only eaten by older people.

 

 

Here's a link to to buy Everett & Jones BBQ sauce (which is excellent) http://www.super-que.com/purchase.htm

[coyote-1]

Some great info in this thread. Thanks to all who have shared!

 

But at a certain level I wish this were on OJ - there's be a bunch of pics of half-naked black chicks

[Jeff da Weasel]

It should be against the Geneva Convention to have this thread visible before lunchtime. It's freaking TORTUROUS to read some of this stuff when I'm nowhere near a good barbeque joint. And I think my saliva just shorted out my Mac as it dripped from my gaping mouth.

[coyote-1]

I was thinking about firing up the smoker this weekend even before this thread.... now it's certain

 

It should be against the Geneva Convention to have this thread visible before lunchtime. It's freaking TORTUROUS to read some of this stuff when I'm nowhere near a good barbeque joint. And I think my saliva just shorted out my Mac as it dripped from my gaping mouth.

 

[Lukenskywalker]

 

I don't think anyone has mentioned fried chicken yet. Here's a nice recipe from Paula Deen. Southern Fried Chicken And you must either have biscuits or cornbread as a side item. Biscuits Cornbread I also am I big fan of southern style "way over-cooked" green beans. Basically you trim and break your green beans and put them in a large pot or crock pot with some smoked bacon and enough water to cover them and simmer until you have cooked the life out of them. A classically trained chef would probably consider them ruined when they are just about right. These are best served with a slice of onion and a slice of tomato (preferably homegrown). Cornbread is an excellent accompaniment although biscuits will do in a pinch.

 

 

'way over cooked green beans'?...I had a Summer Intern one year that when I invited all the Investigators and support staff over for a Labor Day Cook Out, she brought a big pot of them, hers were done with smoked turkey wings instead of bacon...

I still have it in my recipe file as 'Dinas String Beans':thu: um-um-um-ummmm:love: