Norm Matthews

My mom also put stale cornbread in a glass with milk and ate it with a spoon. She also made wonderful green beans cooked for a few hours with salt pork. My son won't eat it any other way. I use bacon instead of salt pork. It isn't quite the same but it gets by. Mom told me that for a time there was a neighbor who had a cow and they bartered for milk from time to time. Before they lost the farm, they had one hog a year hanging in the smoke house. It had to last through the winter and when they wanted chicken, they gave mom the .22 and a bullet. She was the best shot in the family and the chickens were 'free range" ie they couldn't afford a hen house. FWIW, the stroganoff recipe I have does not use paprika either.

LOL. A few hours ago I saw a good 'ole Southern classic recipe remake and had to shake my head and wonder what they were thinking. It was for Chicken Fried Steak. The whole purpose of that is to make something palatable out of something inedible. Take a piece of beef as tough as shoe leather and pound the behaysoos out of it, then cover up the crime with flour, deep fry it and-quick- hide it under some thick white gravy... In the South, sausage gravy is for breakfast. Milk gravy is for dinner. Anyway this one used lean filet mignon, whole wheat flour, whole wheat panko breadcrumbs and baked it in the oven. The gravy was made with Italian turkey sausage and non fat Greek yogurt. HMMM now that I think about it i can see why some people complain about improvements. But I think this one missed the whole point.

Or sukiyaki

I suppose it comes down to a matter of degree and what you think of as original or classic. If you make a sandwich with toasted white bread, mayo, lettuce and bologna, you have no business calling it a Rueben. On the other hand, my mother got a recipe about 60 years ago from someone else. No telling who originated the recipe but it was a yellow squash casserole. All it had was squash, cream, onion and egg. It was topped with buttered bread crumbs. Over time that recipe has evolved or changed with the times. I see versions of it with carrots, eggplant, sour cream, cracker crumbs and cheddar cheese mixed in. You can find all of them online if you search for yellow squash casserole. If Louis Diat had created the original recipe, there would be people weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth over the awful changes people had made and saying it was not original. Squash casserole with sour cream isn't original but since it isn't a famous recipe with a famous name or romantic location attached, most people don't know or care what changes have been made. They either like it or don't. When a recipe is moved to a new location on the globe some changes are inevitable. Why worry and fuss about something added that might not have been a choice or maybe even been available to the original a couple hundred years ago? Paprika? I was an old man before I knew it came any way other than as a flavorless red decorative powder.

Jonnycake (fried gruel) is a New England term. In the South it's called hoecake and may sometimes be sweetened. My mother was from an extremely pour Southern family. They were migrant farm workers who worked the cotton fields during the depression. Sugar was a luxury item. So was white bread.

Does Chili need a new name when you add beans? I'd say no but lots of people way chili does not have beans. How about if you add cinnamon and serve it over spaghetti? I'd say OMG that is not chili but lots of people in Ohio would argue with me. Are Potage Parmentier, Cawl Cennin, Minestra e Patate, hot Vichyssoise, and potato and leek soup different dishes because they have different names? Does Vichyssoise need a new name if one uses sour cream, creme fraiche or light cream instead of heavy cream? I don't think so. It is nice to recognize the differences though. However I agree that there is some point when ingredients make a dish something entirely different and needs a new name (like Cincinnati Chili, IMHO). As for jonnycake, Johnny Cake or Journey cake, it is a recipe that has evolved. As time has gone by, other ingredients have become available and added. Now days it may have eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder and lard. It does not taste like the original recipe (thank goodness) but it is still called Johnny Cake. Again it is nice to understand what it once was and be happy you don't have to eat it that way anymore.

Recipes grow and evolve. Just because one becomes well known is no reason to solidify it's ingredients in stone. Some people will always be gnashing their teeth and weeping and wailing over the sacrilege of adding something the first person didn't use.

You can put green garden tomatoes in a cool dark place and they will ripen slowly as long as they don't get chilled. Once they are perfectly ripe, you must eat them or process them. If you can't do either, storing them in the refrigerator for three or four days is not... not... going to hurt them. They won't go mealy and if you bring them back to room temperature they will taste as good. Certainly much better tasting that if you had left them out to rot. Unripened or gassed tomatoes turn mealy in the refrigerator but not home grown fully ripe ones. Refrigerating them prematurely makes the ripening process stop. The texture and taste are ruined. It won't pick up when warmed up again but ripe tomatoes keep a little longer in the refrigerator than out.

never say never

How would he know if he wasn't told?

It is called a panade. It is a binder, somewhat of an extender and as rotuts said, it helps keep it tender, apparently extra necessary in your recipe since everything is mixed so much. It

Yesterday we had leftover ham salad which Cassie and Charlie request every time I make the roast ham dinner. Leftover Ham Salad 2 C. Left over baked ham, diced very small
 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped 
1 C. mayonnaise
 1/2 C. chopped romaine lettuce ribs only. 
 1/4 C. chopped sweet onion
 1/4 C chopped dried apples 
Salt and Pepper to taste Combine all ingredients and serve on bread or alone on a bed of romaine lettuce leaves.

Hi EatNopales. The ham was a butt end city ham which means it was cured and fully pre cooked, so it only needs warming through. I just glazed and basted it with a glaze of apple cider, brown sugar, dijon mustard, honey, and (real) maple syrup. Sometimes I use apricot jam and gluten free tamari instead of apple cider. The glaze was cooked down to thicken a little. The ham was then roasted it at 325 @ 8 to 10 min. per pound and an internal temp of 140. Cook to 160 if the directions say cook before serving.

Even in (large) barbecue contests (and I suppose in chili contests too) with trained judges, all of them don't taste all of the entries. They use a rating system and two tier judging most of the time. And it isn't the judges who have to stay sober, it is the health dept. people that have to certify that all the entries are fit to eat. A 24 hour window is a little long for the conditions in which chili contests are held. It would mean that the meat would not get cooked right away too. edit, going back to the original post, there is absolutely no reason why a home cook can't take a prize winning recipe from a contest and change all the canned, bottled and pre mixed ingredients and convert them to a completely home made version. Professional BBQ competitors seldom make their prize winning recipes the same way that they do when cooking for their family at home and it makes sense to me that neither would chili cooks.

In response to the question "Now, my question is: is the color from the reaction of soda with the acidity of the natural cocoa specifically or would any acid reacting with soda in the presence of cocoa (natural or dutched) produce that color? " There is no acidity in Dutched cocoa powder so if there is any reaction to any acid in a recipe with it would not come from a reaction with that cocoa powder. It would have to come from a reaction to other acids in the recipe such as buttermilk.

I have a 12-inch skillet in which I cook pasta. It isn't very deep but wide enough for a box of spaghetti to lay down and be covered by water by about an inch. It boils faster than a big pot of water and as soon as the pasta softens a little, I give it a stir and it comes out fine every time.

When I smoke ribs, I put them in foil for part of the cooking time but they have not been sauced yet.. That is only done, if at all, at the very end. I think most other BBQers. do the same.

Fall is here and we had a good Southern dinner of ham and ham shanks-not shown- collard greens and navy beans. Corn bread also not in picture.

Main course tonight was Country Style (boneless Pork Loin) ribs. I looked at several recipes for country ribs, didn't like any so I made something up. I put three packages of pork loin ribs in a dutch oven (12 pieces) on top of some celery and roasted it at 300 degrees, uncovered for 1 hour, then removed the celery and drained the liquid and put the ribs back in the dutch oven. Poured a sauce I made while they were cooking over them and topped them with an onion, sliced and roasted another hour. Sauce is 2T. Mirin 2T. triple sec 2 T. gluten free Tamari (soy sauce) 4 T. sugar 1/2 Cup fresh cut and grated pineapple 2 T. A-1 sauce 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 4T. Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. You can use ketchup and more A-1 but don't use tomato paste. Put all ingr. in small sauce pan and simmer about 10 minutes.

Son got me a Food Saver that allows food to freeze almost air free. I have been surprised at how fresh food tastes after a month or so in the freezer. Food like country ham, chili, and smoked BBQ brisket and pork shoulder.

I usually go to the store with a list of things I am out of, a list of ingredients for things I want to make- but not a whole weeks worth- and then plan a couple other meals based on what looks good that day. I also have to make a change in plans when the stores don't have everything I need for a particular recipe. That happens more often than I'd like.

I agree with Jenni completely. Your senses and thought process are more important than cups or scales. I don't mean to say to ignore them, just don't be driven by them. Even for baking, measuring by weight is not all that important. When you measure by weight the only thing you are assured of is that your results will be exactly the same as the last time. It does not guarantee good results, just the same results. Lately anymore I never measure flour when making yeast bread. I think it's nice to know how much was added in the recipe but I don't care if it is cups or ounces or grams. I will add flour until the dough is "right" and most of the time it isn't the same as the recipe that someone else wrote. That way I can add eggs or milk or seasonings or whatever and add enough flour to compensate for the differences.

My son made dinner tonight. Cassie helped. I don't have the recipe but I know he cooked the pork loin chops (sliced thin) in butter and a lot of garlic and he marinated the vegetables in rice vinegar and sugar. At least some of the vegetables were diakon, carrots, onions and cucumbers. LImes were involved, the jalapenos were fresh. Here is the one he made for me.

My son worked at a restaurant when he was in high school. The owner was rather tight. His Christmas party for the employees was required and they had to bring pot luck. His Christmas bonus to the employes was that each one got a lottery ticket and he said if anyone won anything they had to split it with him.

I made chili today.