"My Southern Food Memories, 1979" (poem)

file photo courtesy of Evan-Amos

Hoop cheese, Vi-enna sausages,

and saltine crackers

Eaten on the back of a pickup truck;

RC cola and peanuts,

Pawpaw’s treat at the feed store;

Eating a big Twix ‘n Tween burger

goin’ to Aunt Sue’s.

Fried cornbread, fried Spam and

a pot of black-eyed peas

Mama made in her kitchen.

Fried catfish with hushpuppies

Fryin’ at church on  Saturday.

Granny’s big breakfast with

grits, eggs, and sausage,

and Pawpaw asking

 for sawmill gravy on biscuits

the size of a cat’s head.

Easter Recipes from the South

Southern Baptists never acknowledged Lent in the 1970s but they loved a tooth-grittin’ly sweet dessert anytime.  Christians observing the Lenten season was as foreign to these parts as the Chinese language.  It was planting time down here in the South, and you couldn’t plow a cornfield or plant a garden fasting on fish or giving up fried foods – that’s what they did up in the big cities and the North. 

Girdle-Buster Pie 

20 Oreo cookies, crushed

¼ cup melted butter

1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened

1 small can evaporated milk

2 TB butter

½ cup sugar

2 squares bitter chocolate

½ tsp vanilla

Whipped cream

Toasted slivered almonds

Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter; pack into pie pan to make a crust, then freeze.  Spoon in vanilla ice cream; store in freezer.  Combine milk, butter, sugar, chocolate, and vanilla in a saucepan; cook over low heat until sauce is smooth, stirring frequently.  Let cool.  Serve pie topped with sauce, whipped cream, and slivered almonds.

(Source: New Holiday Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, 1974, Mrs. Sara Martin Conkle, Chelsea HS, Chelsea, Alabama)

I remember when I was young if there was a get-together in the South, there was a three-congealed-salad minimum.  During Easter, it sometimes went up to five or six. And our ladies in blue hair religiously enforced it.

Sunshine Salad

1 3-oz. Package lemon gelatin

1 3-oz package orange gelatin

2 cups boiling water

1 ½  cups cold water

1 no.2 can crushed pineapple

2 bananas, diced

40 miniature marshmallows

2/3 cup sugar

2 TB flour

1 egg, beaten

1 cup whipped cream

Dissolve gelatins in boiling water; stir in cold water.  Chill until thickened.  Drain pineapple; reserve juice.  Add pineapple, bananas, and marshmallows to gelatin; mix well.  Place in shallow, oblong baking dish; chill until firm.  Mix sugar, flour, egg, and I cup reserved pineapple juice in double boiler; cook until thickened, stirring constantly.  Cool; fold in whipped cream.  Place on top of salad.  Grate cheese on top of dressing, if desired.

(Source: New Holiday Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, 1974, Kathleen Burchett, Area Supvr of Home Economics, Jonesville, Virginia)

Ham was the usual meat dish for Easter in our South.  Some folks say that lamb is an alternative Southern meat for Easter, but that has to be a recent thing.  Lamb was a practically unknown dish in my part of the rural South.  As my Granny would say, “Them’s what they eat up North, that’s why they wear them fleece coats.”  Ham was the traditional dish because hogs were killed in the fall; and by Easter, the hams were smoked and cured to perfection. Anyway, we farm folks would eat plain ham, but some folks – those in the Southern part of the county, the descendants of the plantation people would sometimes serve ham with Jezebel Sauce.

Jezebel Sauce

1/3 to ½ small box dry mustard

1 large glass apple jelly

1 large glass pineapple preserves

½ small jar horseradish

2 tsp coarsely ground pepper

Mix mustard and apple jelly well.  Add remaining ingredients; mix thoroughly.  Place in decorative jars; tie ribbons on jars.  Tie on recipe card and serving suggestion for ham, roast pork or sausage.  Store in refridgerator; will keep indefinitely.

(Source: New Holiday Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, 1974, Mrs. Emely Sundbeck, Manor HS, Manor, Texas)

"Great Uncle Clarence in the Springtime" (poem)

Great Uncle Clarence sits on the porch,

The evening sun has set the sky a’fire.

He rocks back in his chair.

“The pecan tree’s a’leafin’ out,

time to put tomatoes in the ground,”

He swats at a spring mosquito.

“The dogwood’s a’bloomin’ too, time for my bath.”

Aunt Minnie smiles, first time since fall.

"A Spring Evening"

 The woodpecker barks,

This knothole is his.

The cardinal calls her mate,

He’s fighting with his twin.

Sparrows chirp frantically

 in the magnolia tree.

The oak tree is budding,

And yellow pine dust

Floats in the air,

The early moon shines silver

in the evening gold of the sun.

A spring day is ending.

"The Earth"

The great oak rises from the regal earth,

Its huge branches reaching, twisting and turning toward the sky like slow lightening. 

Ancient lightening from the earth bursting forth,

A slow green spark lit by the earth herself.

Through the eons, the steady earth goes gently with seasonal rhythm.

And hard rock melts into tears of sand,

While the sky moves with wild abandon; its wind, its lightening and storms,

A warrior in a constant war whose battles change daily;

The earth, an aged queen,

Repeats herself, quietly retelling her story forever.

Old Gardening Superstitions of the South

Plant corn when the dogwood blooms but never on May first, second and third; those are barren days.

Plant root vegetables in the dark of the moon and plant leaf vegetables in the new moon.

The first thunder of spring wakes up the snakes and tells you winter is busted.

You are sure of a rough winter if the grape or nut crops are heavy.

Snakes will not come around a place where gourds are growing.

Weeds won’t grow back if cut in March during the dark of the moon.

Ninety days after the first katydid is heard, there will be a frost.

To make peppers grow, you must be hot and mad when you’re planting them.

When it rains on June 2^nd, there will be no blackberries.

Plant cotton among your cucumber plants and insects will not attack your cucumbers.

It is bad luck to haul off or burn sassafras wood.

Never point at a watermelon with your first finger or the watermelon will drop off the vine.  Point at it with all your fingers.

Slips from plants should be stolen, only the stolen ones will grow.

Interesting Southern Heirloom Cake Recipes IV: Lady Baltimore Cake

Lady Baltimore Cake

Lady Baltimore cake is a popular Southern cake believed to have originated in South Carolina. It is a white layer cake, made light with beaten egg whites, filled with raisins and nuts (and sometimes figs) and iced with a fluffy white frosting (typically a 7-minute frosting, or meringue frosting). A Lord Baltimore cake, similar to a Lady Baltimore cake, uses egg yolks in the cake rather than egg whites with added crumbled macaroons and almonds in the filling.

According to Cassie L. Damewood at the website Wisegeek.com: “The story of how the Lady Baltimore Cake got its name varies. Since there is no mention of it in literature or evidence of it being a recipe prior to 1906, it is unlikely it had anything to do with the real Lady Baltimore. Ann Arundel, who died in 1649, was called Lady Baltimore because she was married to an Irishman man who inherited the whole state of Maryland in the United States (U.S.), including its large city of Baltimore, from his father. Interestingly, she never visited the North American continent, just as Lord Baltimore never did.

The most likely origin of the Lady Baltimore Cake was a romance novel entitled Lady Baltimore, written by Owen Wister and published in 1906. Legend has it that prior to writing the book, Wister had been given a cake by a southern belle from Charleston, South Carolina, named Alicia Rhett Mayberry. The confection so impressed him that he included it in his novel…Wister’s description of the cake’s appearance and taste was so appealing that readers of the novel were desperate to get the recipe. Since it had not been created, bakers set out to create a cake that mimicked Wister’s excited yet vague description from the book.”

 In his novel, Wister wrote:

"I should like a slice, if you please, of Lady Baltimore," I said with extreme formality. I returned to the table and she brought me the cake, and I had my first felicitous meeting with Lady Baltimore. Oh, my goodness! Did you ever taste it? It's all soft, and it's in layers, and it has nuts - but I can't write any more about it; my mouth waters too much. Delighted surprise caused me once more to speak aloud, and with my mouth full, "But, dear me, this is delicious!"

*****

The first printed recipe is said to have appeared on December 24th 1906 in the Daily Gazette And Bulletin newspaper of Williamsport, Pennsylvania (shocking!):

Lady Baltimore Cake (1906)
Beat the whites of six eggs. Take a cup and a half of granulated sugar, a cup of milk, nearly a cup of butter, three cups of flour and two teaspoonfuls of good baking powder. Sift the flour and baking powder together into the other ingredients, adding the eggs last of all. Bake in two buttered pans for fifteen or twenty minutes.

For the frosting: Two cups of granulated sugar and a cup and a half of water, boil until stringly, about five minutes usually does it. Beat the whites of two eggs very light, and pour the boiling sugar slowly into it, mixing well. Take out of this enough for the top and sides of the cake, and stir into the remainder for the filling between the two layers, one cup of finely chopped raisins and a cup of chopped nuts. This is delicious when properly baked.

 

Lady Baltimore Cake (1952)
Quick-Mix Method

Rich, fruit-nut Lady Baltimore filling and frosting decorate this queenly three-egg-white cake. Blend shreds of coconut right into the batter, for a change, to give you a rich, chewy treat.

BAKE at 350° F. for 25 to 30 minutes.
MAKES two 8-inch round layers.
All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Sift together . . . 2 cups sifted Pillsbury Sno Sheen Cake Flour
2 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar

Add . . . 1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Beat . . . for 2 minutes, 300 strokes, until batter is well blended. (With electric mixer blend at low speed, then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.)

Add . . . 1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg whites, unbeaten

Beat . . . for 2 minutes.

Pour . . . into two well-greased and lightly floured 8-inch round layer pans, at least 1 1/4 inches deep.

Bake . . . in moderate oven (350° F.) 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and frost with Lady Baltimore frosting, page 51.

COCONUT SURPRISE CAKE

Prepare Lady Baltimore Cake, folding in 3/4 cup shredded coconut (chopped slightly if shreds are long) before pouring into pans. Frost with almond frosting, page 51.

(SOURCE: pg. 20, “Kate Smith chooses her 55 Favorite Ann Pillsbury CAKE RECIPES” published in 1952 by Pillsbury Mills, Inc.)

Lady Baltimore Cake (pre-1980)

For cake
8 oz. butter, softened to room temperature
14 oz. sugar
¼ oz. vanilla extract
¼ oz. almond extract
13 oz. cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
8 oz. milk
7 oz. egg whites
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and almond extract, scraping down the bowl often.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix to smooth consistency.

In clean bowl, whip eggs whites and cream of tartar. Slowly add sugar. Whip to soft peaks. Fold whipped whites into reserved batter.

Divide mixture into three 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cakes cool on wire rack.

For icing
16 oz. sugar
6 oz. water
pinch of cream of tartar
6 oz. egg whites
¼ oz. vanilla extract

Combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar in saucepan. Use a candy thermometer to cook the sugar to 265 degrees F.

Whip egg whites on high speed to medium peaks.

Very slowly pour cooked sugar into whipped egg white. Whip to slightly cool. Add vanilla.

For filling
3 oz. pecans, lightly toasted
5 oz. dried fruit, chopped
(raisins, figs, currants, candied cherry)

Combine ingredients. Reserve for cake assembly.

Assembling Lady Baltimore cake:
Transfer one-third of the frosting to a medium bowl. Stir fruit-and-nut filling into the frosting.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate, and add half the frosting-and-filling mixture. Add a second cake layer on top. Spread second layer with remaining frosting-and-filling. Place third layer on top. Frost top and sides of cake with plain frosting.

Garnish with dried fruit and nuts.

(SOURCE: Recipe by Chef Jan Bandula, Stratford University's Baltimore campus; via http://chesapeaketaste.com/index.php/recipes/665-recipe-lady-baltimore-cake )

Seven Minute Frosting (1949)

2 unbeaten egg whites

1 ½ cup sugar

dash of salt

5 TB water

1 ½ tsp light Karo corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in top of double boiler.  Mix well.  Place over rapidly boiling water; beat constantly with rotary egg beater and cook 7 minutes or until stands in peaks.  Re move from the water. Add 1 tsp vanilla and beat until thick.  Makes enough to cover tops and sides of two nine inch layer cakes or one loaf cake.  Orange juice can be used instead of water and add grated orange rind and yellow coloring.  This makes a good orange frosting.  Coconut can be added in plain white.

(SOURCE: Recipe by Maebelle F. Stokes, from Favorite Recipes Tried and True, compiled by Wesleyan Service Guild, Methodist Church, Reform, AL, 1949)