annecros

I would think the Mississippi would bring a strong southern influence to Missouri. That makes sense. I have found the kind, considerate, and compasionate southern attitude in relatives of mine from Missouri as well, that shellfishfiend so eloquently described. Any state that builds a huge monument, then explains that if you pass it you are most definitely "west" surely has its boundries solid and knows where it stands!

Either the South or the UK! I love vinegar on my fried fish as well. Turnip Greens, yep, lots of pepper vinegar. This is a very fun topic. Besides, they grow lovely tomatoes in New Jersey. Surely there is some rebel floating around up there in the blood.

St. Louis BBQ comes to mind - others could probably enlighten you and I both! Also, I was not aware that the border areas of Arizona were also a part of the CSA. Once I think about the food and the 'tude, it sort of makes sense, though.

I would humbly suggest the CSA (Confederate States of America). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America There is a solid thread across the geography. BBQ, peppers, tomatoes, pork, rice, corn, abundant veggies, strong Native American influence (by that I mean to include the Native Americans that lived below the present US border, chocolate - yum) - just off the top of my head. Corn or Wheat may be the most fundamental dividing line - maybe. I had a yankee pot roast for dinner yesterday. I suppose others would refer to it as a plain old "pot roast" though.

Thanksgiving Eve: Baked Ham Collards Sweet Potatoes Cornbread Thanksgiving Day: Breakfast - Pigs in a Blanket Munchies - Cheese and Relish Plate of some sort (Refrigerator Dill and Sweet Pickles already started this week) Thanksgiving Dinner: Smoked Turkey Roast Turkey Leftover Ham Cornbread Dressing (leftover cornbread and biscuits accumulating in the freezer, turkey stock prepared Tuesday before) Giblet Gravey w/boiled egg - of course Leftover Collards Rhutabagas Brocolli w/Butter-Pecan Sauce Smothered Squash Deviled Eggs Creamed Corn? Sliced Can of Cranberry Homemade whole cranberry congealed salad Sweet Tea Desserts: Pumpkin Pie Pecan Pie Mincemeat Pie with a fresh Granny Smith sliced in

What Lan4Dawg said, and it goes double for me! Thanks Mike, and Pontormo, for jumping over a cultural hurdle that I have found some yankees reluctant to attempt. They don't know what they are missing, do they? I am from Southwest Georgia orginally, and have family all over Georgia, so anytime you want to go for a "ride around" the state, let me know, and I can steer you to a good meal or two. Anne

Perfect! And illustrates the darker crunchy that happens in the real world as opposed to the photograph in the book. Isn't that gravy good? The darker crust is not a bad thing at all. I am sure it is the sugars in the buttermilk carmelizing. Daughter "borrowed" my digital camera a couple of days ago without my knowledge (she asked Dad), but I should be getting it back very soon. Anne

Oh, please don't despair! It is a deep dark secret, but Southern girls do not spring from the womb knowing how to fry chicken! Ssshhhh. My first chicken frying experience was when I was about 14, and my poor mother was bed ridden with a sciatica attack and supervising from the bedroom by ear. Long story short, the grease was too hot. The chicken came out with the lovliest golden brown, perfectly crunchy skin. It was also dead raw, and almost cold, in the middle. Before the days of the microwave...... I've had to work hard for years to overcome the shame within my family, and it is STILL brought up from time to time, no matter how many platters of perfect chicken I produce. At least you had a tasty protein on the table! This recipe does leave a darker than usual crust. I think that is the case with most buttermilk soaks. Mine is darker using this method, but I love what it does for the chicken flesh. I wish I had taken a picture of mine to post, because the reality of the chicken is darker than the photographs in the book, though I am not sure exactly how dark yours is. Your cast iron should be fine with a year old season on it, if it is used from time to time in between. If mine has been in the cabinet for a month or two without being used, I will try to pull it out and fry a pound of bacon in it. I can stick the bacon in the fridge for salad and other uses, and of course the bacon fat always comes in handy. Are you using an open skillet, or one with a lid? As far as the temperature of the grease is concerned, I am going to give you my decidedly unscientific and controversial method. Some will dislike like it, but oh well, this is how I do it. I start the grease (regardless of the medium I am using, peanut oil, shortening, whatever) on just above a medium heat as soon as I have dredged the meat I am going to be frying. This gives time for the dredge to set while the grease is warming. Now to the nose. You can smell when the grease is warming up, and feel from a distance when the grease itself starts to put off heat, rather than the burner and the pan. I moisten my fingertips with water. Now I know people are going to be screaming about water in hot grease, but I mean moisten the fingertips which is a lot less moisture than the raw hunk of meat you are going to be dumping into that hot grease. I flick the moisture from my fingertips into the pan of hot grease, and count. If I can count to four before I hear the little tiny pops of the moisture in the grease, then the grease is not hot enough. If it pops when it hits the surface of the grease, then the grease is too hot. That three count does it for me, and in goes the meat. Now, be forewarned that introducing water into hot grease is seriously dangerous. Only moisten the fingertips under running water, and flick the moisture that is left on your fingertips into the grease. Now, I am going to put on my flame proof suit, step back, and say, "Don't EVER EVER EVER do this!" Anne P.S. There is also a wooden spoon method for testing grease temperature that I have heard of that some people use that you may feel more comfortable using. I don't use it, but hopefully someone with some experience with it will chime in.

Anne, its so funny you say this, the cake came out around after school time and was gone before dinner. I almost didn't get a picture off my three devoured it so fast! I seriously LOLed out loud Pontornmo and had to check just to be sure!! I have a question on the chicken. I just transfered from the brine to the buttermilk and my skin is in really bad shape. It is mostly just hanging on for its life and many peices have lost peices of skin. Is there a technique to either cutting it up or brining it that I am missing that will allow me to keep all my skin on?? -Mike ← Well, I have a little trick I played on the kids (and continue now that they are young adults), in that I use a little bit smaller bundt pan, and make a second, smaller pound cake in a loaf pan to sort of stash away. I pull each one as they test done, the loaf comes out first and usually has more crust, but that's MY cake anyway and that is how I like it! They sort of feel like they have to eat a whole cake when one of those things come out of the oven and they smell! On the chicken, I usually take one stroke with a sharp knife to split the skin on the carcass at the appropriate joints before butchering. Seems to cause less wear and tear on the skin. A very heavy, sharp butcher knife helps, as well. We all should post pictures of our fried chicken tomorrow! I still haven't settle on my sides, though. Anne

It's like being back in a college dorm when all the women on your floor discover they're in sync. Honest, I did the Judy Rodgers pre-salting thing on pieces of chicken Monday to cook thighs in Umbrian fashion last night and to soak the drumsticks in buttermilk for tonight to accompany green tomatoes! Alas, I am winging it so to speak, since I returned the cookbook to the library. If I don't find Ms. Lewis's instructions online, would someone mind telling me if there is anything special I should do besides soaking the chicken in buttermilk? ← It is funny, isn't it? Here's the recipe on line: http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/coo...ried_chick.html Edna Lewis had several variations in her cookbook, but this one is the consensus "best" that she and Scott Peacock came up with, if I remember correctly. Anne

Hi Mike! Ms. Lewis must have been looking out for all of us last night, as we had the chicken soup as well! Looks like you did a great job with the pound cake, and I am so pleased that it turned out well for you. It really is better to my taste after overnight for the flavors to develop and mellow, but that doesn't happen very often when my son and his friends are around! That crust is pure Edna Lewis technique, and I have been known to save it for last on my plate. Anne Edit to add: I had already put the chicken in the buttermilk to soak for fried chicken tonight before I saw your post! I'll be using peanut oil instead of the lard/butter combo though.

Oh man, I just remembered the Turkey in the dish drainer the afternoon before Thanksgiving! The the stuffed Turkey sitting out all afternoon, and the gravy in the pot on the stove, then consumed as leftovers around 7 PM after a 2:30 PM Thanksgiving Dinner! I don't know how Mom managed to not have us all in the ER by midnight Thanksgiving.

Old Foodie, Love, love, love your blog. Yep, we Americans know a good thing when we steal it! Although I suppose it is not stealing when incorporating all the cultural differences in our heritage. What can one do with Great Grandparents who are Irish, Native American, Italian, French, African and British - all faced with the prospect of nourishing themselves with what is readily available? I find the whole concept fascinating, and your blog does a great job of tracing the recipes back to their roots. Take the best and leave the rest. I'm thinking that your pumpkin scone recipe would be quite moist, as scones go. What do you think of the concept of substituting buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream for milk? Speaking of "Man" food (and I think a marmalade filled scone would be a lovely treat for anyone) I must tell you what my husband did to me recently. We moved, and I temporarily lost my large round biscuit cutter, so I used a smaller heart shaped cookie cutter instead. He absolutely pouted. Same biscuits, same flavor and texture, just a different shape! His mind is also closed to scones, unfortunately. Maybe if I called them biscuits, he would feel more comfortable in his manhood? Chef Mz. Jeannie, Please do keep us posted. As another southern cook, I think our frame of reference is pretty close, and I don't mind a bit learning from your experience! Anne

I think you would be quite surprised at the variety of textures and flavors that are present in American biscuits. Just as there are scones, and then there are scones - there are biscuits and then there are biscuits. Biscuits range from puff pastry type layers, to a crumbly and almost cookie like texture, and everything in between, depending upon the shortening utilized - type of flour - any additives - and of course the method of preparation. It has been my same experience with scones sampled around the US. There is a fast food place in the US called Hardee's that used to make (maybe still does) a "Cinnamon Raisin Biscuit" that reminds me a great deal flavor and texture of the scones that a neighbor lady, who was a Brit and lived next door to us when I was a military brat, used to prepare. Yep, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, as you describe. Hardee's did put a pretty nasty icing on the biscuit though, that my neighbor lady didn't and probably wouldn't put on her scones. Every scone recipe I have ever read, anywhere including dozens sourced in the UK, uses the same sort of methods and basic ingredients used in every biscuit recipe I have ever seen. In fact, I feel certain that we owe our biscuit heritage, and even the term "biscuit" to the British Isles. White Lily flour, the biscuit aficianados preference, is low in gluten, and would be an appropriate flour to substitute I would think, if that is the difference that some have noted in this thread. Flour, salt, butter and milk? Yep, sounds like a biscuit recipe to my frame of reference. Until the mixture resembles bread crumbs? Yep, only when making biscuits you say "resembles cornmeal." Add liquid all at once? Usually. Knead quickly? Always. Roll and cut? Yep. 450 for 7 to 10? A little high on the temp for my usual recipe, but I have seen recipes that high and higher. The proportions are probably a little different, would have to double check. I guess I need to break down and do some extensive scone baking and try some of this out. But my gut tells me that if you can bake a moist biscuit, you could probably produce a moist scone. Edited to add: now that I look more closely, the photograph with the "All Purpose Scone" recipe you posted I would have taken for a basket of classic White Lily biscuits, down to the split scone's shape and texture. You can find a photograph and recipe here: http://www.whitelily.com/RecipeBox/Recipe.aspx?ID=91 Just for giggles, here's White Lily's Scone recipe: http://www.whitelily.com/RecipeBox/Recipe.aspx?ID=66 You can also order the flour directly from the website, $2.00 for 5lbs, only to the continental US though.

Oh you are quite welcome Mike. Egullet has been so good to me as far as others offering advice to me on technique and recipe ingredients I am not familiar with (particulary Asian), its nothing. That's why I love this place so much! Hope it turns out well for you, and suits your tastes. Anne

That would be "White Lily", and actually the method for scone making is quite similar to the method for biscuit making in the Southern US tradition. I had an Aunt that made "scalded milk" biscuits that were quite similar to your Mother's method.

Anne, would you mind sharing that recipe!? We are on a kick to try a slew of pound cakes and compare. That tender crust the temperature technique imparts is really special isn't it? It was a new thing to us here. -Mike ← Happy to! As it was originally an old recipe I copied out of my Mom's 1963 edition of "Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers" (Sis has already claimed that cookbook ), and I have made several modifications over the years at the advisement of my Grandmother-in-law and Mother-in-Law, I am pretty sure there are no copyright problems, although it is an old recipe and you will find several similar. Nothing beats the moist flavor of a Sour Cream Pound Cake. It is wonderful warm, but to me it is better the next day, and makes a great breakfast if you toast a slice and butter or top with berries. All ingredients at room temp before you start! 1 cup (2 sticks) Butter 3 cups sugar 6 eggs (if I want an especially dense yellower cake, and have a need for some meringue, I substitute with 4 whole eggs and 4 yolks) 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon almond extract Zest of one lemon, or substitute 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (sometimes I use orange zest, depending on the time of year and my taste buds, summer = lemon and winter = orange) 3 cups sifted cake four (sift before you scoop and measure) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup (8 ounces) dairy sour cream Grease and flour 10-inch tube or 12-cup bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in extracts and/or zest. Sift flour again with baking soda and salt, and add alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour, mixing well after each addition. Spoon batter into pan, and knock out the large air bubbles (gently). Put the pan into a cold oven, 20 minutes at 225 degrees, 20 minutes at 300 degrees, then an additional 30 to 45 minutes at 325 degrees. Start testing with a toothpick at 30 minutes, but be forewarned that in my oven it takes the full 45 minutes for the final bake, but of course your milage may vary depending upon your oven. Remove from oven when toothpick tests clean, and place pan on a wire rack to cool EXACTLY ten minutes. It should turn out of the pan perfectly with that lovely golden crust intact uniformly all over the cake if you stick to the 10 minute rule. I have glazed this cake once or twice in the past, but it feels like gilding the lily. Good luck, and let me know how it comes out for you. It is very much an old fashioned southern style pound cake, techniques and all, and thanks to the input of fine old southern cooks I have had the good luck to be exposed to, including Ms. Edna's great books! Anne Edit to add: A couple of other variations I have made to this recipe include: sustituting 1/2 cup of cocoa powder for 1/2 of a cup of flour and omitting the citrus and almond flavorings for an amazing chocolate/sour cream pound cake substituting buttermilk for the sour cream, reducing the eggs by one, and once again omitting the citrus and almond flavoring for a wonderful plain old vanilla pound cake That is the beauty of these old pound cake recipes. Once you have a recipe that suits your tastes, it is very easily modified. I have even incoporated floured, toasted walnuts in the chocolate/sour cream version, and last year at Christmas I folded toasted chopped hazelnuts, dried cherries, and chocolate chips (all lightly floured so that they remain suspended in the batter) and it was a huge hit. I bet that trinity of additives would be great in the buttermilk/vanilla version as well, and a little bourbon or kirsch sprinkled over it for good measure.

Lovely! Pound Cake is the recipe that most young southern cooks first cut their teeth on, I know I did! I have modified my sour cream pound cake using her technique for temperature , and it made a fantastic difference in my old recipe that was quite good already. Don't wait too long to whip up that country captain. It is easier than you think! Just requires patience and involvement, just like the rest of Ms. Edna's recipes, and you have demonstrated that with your lovely pound cake! Edited to add: OOPS! I see you have already made the country captain jump! Congrats and it looks wonderful!

White Lily Flour is divine, especially for biscuits. Lard is a separate issue. If you cannot get a good quality lard, or do not want to render your own, don't bother. I think there is a separate thread around here dedicated to lard and includes detailed instructions. I prefer white cornmeal, espeacially for fried cornbreads like hoecakes, or for coating okra to pan fry. Yellow cornmeal I reserve for baked corn breads and corn muffins, as I prefer that texture there. I think that, unlike the difference between yellow and white grits (white grits being treated with lye), white cornmeal is actually made from white corn. But I could very well be mistaken on that count. I would suggest that you try them both, and take what you like and leave the rest. The nutritional differences in the two products is probably minimal if they do exist, from what I can tell from the labels I've read. The biggest difference appears to be in fibre content, and that is even minimal. You are dealing with a starch here, shouldn't be thought of as a vegetable. There is a sweeter, cleaner flavor to the white cornmeal and a softer texture. The yellow cornmeal is denser, moister, and has a grittier texture and perhaps a stronger flavor. Have fun, and good luck!

Mom was a fantastic cook, and taught me more technique by allowing me to watch her cook than I can begin to recount. But..she just didn't do seafood. Hated shellfish of every description, and would only prepare things like salmon or tuna croquettes. I had to learn to appreciate seafood on my own after I married, and learning to cook it properly was a real challenge. Learning to purchase carefully by sight and smell was a whole other struggle.

That occured to me as well! That movie is played every Thanksgiving evening after the ball games as we eat leftovers and pie. Justice is Blind...

I also go the "low brow" route with 'lil Smokies, but I do make up a buttermilk biscuit dough from scratch for the pastry, and do some grated cheese, a little dry mustard and garlic poweder directly in the dough. The biscuit dough makes a nice flexible blanket to wrap the piggies up in, and a sturdy carrier once they have baked. Southern style pigs, I suppose. I never knew they were "out" and neither have my kids. This is the obligatory breakfast for Thanksgiving Day, to keep everyone gnoshing while the Turkeys are cooking! Anne

Wow. Sounds like you are a candidate for surgery. Has anyone discussed this with you? I've known some other patients that have had it with very good results, but it is contraindicated in my case because of other medical conditions. Doctor's won't cut me unless it is a life threatening situation, so I have to manage the best I can, and I have found I can get by if I am SO CAREFUL and listen to my body. Keep in mind surgery anywhere in the gut sucks pretty bad, but this is a less invasive surgery than others, unless they nick something in the process. And you would have limitations after the surgery that you have to learn to live with that are entirely different from the problems you are having now. They just loop part of the gut around the esophogus in order to reinforce it, and is a cure for hiatal hernia as well (I've got a large one of those too, but was a result of other issues I have going on). Make sure your gastro and ENT are communicating with one another. And if you haven't seen a gastroenteroligist and ENT yet, you need to consult with both. Once again good luck.

I was diagnosed with severe reflux 5 years ago. I lost my voice for 4 months due to the irritation to my larnyx! You have gotten some very sound recomendations, and I concur that after you are on medications for a while and things have time to heal, you will be able to introduce these items back into your diet on a limted basis. And soups are great! It is a wonderful way to sneak in innoffensive flavor when you are sick and want to work some taste in. The only thing I would add, is that the time of day you eat is almost as important as what you eat. A normal breakfast, at whatever time your schedule demands you wake up, then your largest or heaviest meal at the middle of the day when you will be upright for the rest of the day and active, then a very light and innoffensive to the GI snack before going to bed when you will be lying prone and those nasty acids start creeping, will change things dramitically in my experience. Where reflux is concerned, gravity is your friend. This can help with your meds as well, take them at night if your symptoms are worse in the morning than they are later in the day. My biggest offenders are those items that tend to also dialate blood vessels. My GI and Rheumatologist concur, and have explained that they tend to relax those worn out muscles you have. Coffee, peppers, chocolate, and for some reason highly smoked meat do me in sometimes. Best of luck, and truly this condition can be managed very well these days. Best of luck

I was just down there in August, and both Alice's and Pisces are excellent choices. I would also suggest Alice's does serve fresh fish on an availability basis. The salmon is just a regular menu item, because some people will order Salmon regardless of their location. Blue Heaven is not too shabby, but may be more casual than you are looking for. Seven Fish also comes to mind. Some time during your visit, you must do 915 Duval. An upscale tapas and wine bar, they had just added a tasting menu when I was there last. Five courses paired with five wines, $60. Great place, and I cannot reccomend it highly enough, you just have to go and try it. Local's favorite, a huge wine list with amazing selections by the glass. http://www.915duval.com/