Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)

[kayb]

7 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Here is a recipe for chili sauce from 1872

Chili Sauce

30 tomatoes

3 Lg onions

3 Lg green peppers

1 T each all spice, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg

2 T Salt

1 qt Vinegar

1 C Sugar

Mince the onion and peppers. Lightly cook the tomatoes, combine all and cook til thick.

 

Looks very similar.

 

I'll be danged. Sure does. Never heard it called Chili Sauce in our part of the world, though.

 

[kayb]

There is, in fact, an Ozark Folk Center cookbook.

 

clickety

 

I knew I remembered seeing one. They have one in the collection at the library in LR, as well as in the A-State library in J'boro.

 

 

[ElsieD]

I remember eating this as a kid.  We called it chili sauce.  How much does that recipe make?

[kayb]

Mine makes about 12 pints, best I remember. Plus a couple of quarts of tomato juice.

 

[gfron1]

Funny that you ask @ElsieD. One of the things that is obvious that finally clicked for me on this trip was the volume of the recipes. Most fruitcake recipes total about 20 pounds, and same goes for most of the canned products. I don't know why but it took me until this trip to realize that they were canning for the year or season, so of course they were massive amounts. So what's even more impressive to me about these cooks is that I never have enough space for canning in my commercial kitchen. I can't imagine canning on a woodburning stove in a tiny homestead. They probably did it outside, but still...

[Smithy]

18 hours ago, kayb said:

There is, in fact, an Ozark Folk Center cookbook.

 

clickety

 

I knew I remembered seeing one. They have one in the collection at the library in LR, as well as in the A-State library in J'boro.

 

 

 

You enabler, you. Soon I'll have a copy too.

 

My grandmother and her people came from the general vicinity of the Ozarks, and I'm sure it influenced her cookery as well as her speech. Dad talked about how she'd make chow chow from the last of the summer's green tomatoes, but he didn't remember what-all went into it.

[kayb]

2 hours ago, gfron1 said:

Funny that you ask @ElsieD. One of the things that is obvious that finally clicked for me on this trip was the volume of the recipes. Most fruitcake recipes total about 20 pounds, and same goes for most of the canned products. I don't know why but it took me until this trip to realize that they were canning for the year or season, so of course they were massive amounts. So what's even more impressive to me about these cooks is that I never have enough space for canning in my commercial kitchen. I can't imagine canning on a woodburning stove in a tiny homestead. They probably did it outside, but still...

 

I can address that, a little. The kitchen in our house where I grew up was quite small. Countertop centered with double sink on one wall. Maybe 36 inches of counter on one side of the sinks,  maybe 18 on the other. Door to the back porch in perpendicular wall to left of counter. Stove and fridge, both freestanding, on perpendicular wall to the right of the counter, door to hall in perpendicular wall to its right. Kitchen table, sitting in front of recessed shelves in area where the flue for the wood stove used to be, behind it, took up the remaining corner of room.

 

We would can every summer about 80 quarts of green beans, 100 or more quarts of pickles, 100 or more quarts of tomatoes in various forms, and that many pints of assorted jellies, jams and preserves as well as whole and cut-up fruit. We'd freeze 150+ pints of cut-off corn; 100+ pints of purple hulled peas; lesser amounts of lima beans, butter beans, butter peas, and pinto beans. We'd prep and dry probably 50 pounds of apples, and 50 pounds of peaches. (The freezer lived on the back porch, at first, and then in the basement after we added onto the house.) We'd make crocks of sauerkraut, and can 20 or 30 quarts of it. We'd cut, bread and freeze okra. We'd can new potatoes, and carrots. Apples, onions, and potatoes went in boxes in the basement, nestled in hay (in the smokehouse, which was immediately behind the back porch, pre-basement).

 

In the smokehouse, by early December, there would usually be four hams, several slabs of bacon, and several links of sausage hanging. We did either freeze or can some of our sausage fresh, and froze pork roasts, chops, etc. We'd usually get a calf back from the slaughterhouse, broken down and packaged and frozen, in early November. 

 

All the prep work except for the hog butchery, which took place at a neighbor's farm, was done in the 36--inch counter space to the left of the sinks, which was cleared of anything else. (The 18-inch counter to the right of the sinks was sacred to the coffee maker, and held the dish drainer. Neither of those ever moved.) Finished products went on the kitchen table, one of those now-classic green and white formica ones, until they got moved to the back porch or recessed shelves, or later to the basement. 

 

Most of that would take place over a two-month period in July and August, though there'd be late plantings of both peas and corn that were harvested up until late September, and some of the fruit was earlier, some later. Some things, like corn, would come in all in one big swoop; others gradually, over a four-week or longer period. But we'd can or freeze at least three days a week, and often more. In between there was harvesting, prepping (snapping beans, shelling peas, cutting off corn), all mostly done outside.

 

House wasn't air conditioned. When we'd be canning in August, Mama and I would throw a No. 2 washtub into the truck, go to town and get a 50 pound block of ice for something like 50 cents. We'd put it in the kitchen on spread-out newspapers and turn the fan across it. Then Mama would threaten to kill me for sitting on the edge of the tub and blocking the cool air. When we added on to the house we bricked it, and it was so much hotter we had to get air conditioners.

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by kayb (log)

[Smithy]

@kayb, thank you for a fascinating view of all that work. By the time I was old enough to pay attention, the canning activity in our family was down to canning fruit and making jellies. I don't know whether my grandmother canned vegetables such as beans or tomatoes in her earlier years, but I'd guess she did.

 

What did you do about canning the less-acidic foods such as green beans? Did you add acid of some sort?

[kayb]

4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

What did you do about canning the less-acidic foods such as green beans? Did you add acid of some sort?

 

No, those and any meat we canned got pressure-canned, instead of water-bath the pickles, tomatoes and jams/jellies got.

 

[gfron1]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

You enabler, you. Soon I'll have a copy too.

 

My grandmother and her people came from the general vicinity of the Ozarks, and I'm sure it influenced her cookery as well as her speech. Dad talked about how she'd make chow chow from the last of the summer's green tomatoes, but he didn't remember what-all went into it.

It is a solid book. Great material. Not all is historic, but all is authentic v the touristy stuff I find in many of the books. 

[gfweb]

All of this has a lot of similarity to Middle -of-Pennsylvania cooking. Reminds me of stuff my grandfather would cook up.

Fun reading.

[Vapre]

On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 10:13 AM, gfron1 said:

So, what do I see in here that's of interest? This is my first sighting of Spicewood, which I'll have to confirm is what we now call Spicebush. That's good, because we use a lot of it.

Do you use the whole berry or just the flesh around the seed? How/what do you do with it?

[gfron1]

20 hours ago, Vapre said:

Do you use the whole berry or just the flesh around the seed? How/what do you do with it?

We use the whole berry, both fresh earlier in summer, or dried, early fall, but in both cases we either steep the flavor or grind it for seasoning.

[Vapre]

Nice. How about Staghorn Sumac, y'all use that? It's pretty great and nearly identical to what you can get in a middle eastern market.

[gfron1]

On 1/22/2019 at 7:54 PM, Vapre said:

Nice. How about Staghorn Sumac, y'all use that? It's pretty great and nearly identical to what you can get in a middle eastern market.

Yes, we gather and use lots of it. One of our faves!

[gfron1]

Geez, for those of you who have followed along from day one (nearing 3 years ago)...we have broken ground! Literally.

Today the plumber started pounding out the path where the utilities will go. The finish estimate is March 15th with opening around April Fool's. I will HAPPILY start posting regular construction updates. (BTW, they're working on a Saturday!)

[heidih]

Well as a construction manager for many years I'd call that optimistic. There was a great series on Serious Eats bout the trials of opening  a BBQ resto in NYC.  We feel your pain.

 

https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/why-restaurants-never-open-on-time.html

[kayb]

30 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Geez, for those of you who have followed along from day one (nearing 3 years ago)...we have broken ground! Literally.

 

Today the plumber started pounding out the path where the utilities will go. The finish estimate is March 15th with opening around April Fool's. I will HAPPILY start posting regular construction updates. (BTW, they're working on a Saturday!)

 

Awaiting anxiously. I'll be in the Lou May 24, and counting on a dinner there then!

[gfron1]

40 minutes ago, heidih said:

Well as a construction manager for many years I'd call that optimistic. There was a great series on Serious Eats bout the trials of opening  a BBQ resto in NYC.  We feel your pain.

 

https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/why-restaurants-never-open-on-time.html

I hear ya, but there has already been quite a bit work done, and much of the work is being in an off-site workshop for later installation. 

[chromedome]

Very smart.

[gfron1]

HERE's a long-format story on our project. Since I've known many of you from the very beginning I'll add - just ignore the cringe-worthy comments and errors. Overall its still a good piece. 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

HERE's a long-format story on our project. Since I've known many of you from the very beginning I'll add - just ignore the cringe-worthy comments and errors. Overall its still a good piece. 

 

That's a nice article, Rob. I especially liked the opening contrast of perceptions: a city with trees, vs. a forest with buildings. Are you harvesting only wild persimmons, or do you also find commercial cultivars such as Hachiya and Fuyu?

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

HERE's a long-format story on our project. Since I've known many of you from the very beginning I'll add - just ignore the cringe-worthy comments and errors. Overall its still a good piece. 

 

Great article.

[gfron1]

14 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

That's a nice article, Rob. I especially liked the opening contrast of perceptions: a city with trees, vs. a forest with buildings. Are you harvesting only wild persimmons, or do you also find commercial cultivars such as Hachiya and Fuyu?

I only use wild persimmons. 

[lemniscate]

What did the "taunting laminated card" say?  Inquiring minds want to know.