A Culinary Look at Women in History: The Cast-iron Skillet

Corn bread, recipe below

On the morning of this last day of women’s history month, my thoughts turned to all those delicious comfort foods that women have made over the centuries in one of those big old cast-iron skillets. For example my great aunt Maggie from Windsor, North Carolina, made wonderful biscuits, spoon bread, and homes fries in hers. I came across a great story from the WPA's America Eat's project which I found in the University of North Carolina special collections archives. It went like this, In New Orleans, folks called Elizabeth Henry of Garfield Street the “Queen of Fish Fries.” During the Depression she fried fish in a cast-iron skillet and sold them to raise bail money for folks from her neighborhood. I have also seen sources on how African, Caribbean, and Latin America women used them to fry plantains and all kinds of fritters. Finally, for years, women around the world have brandished cast-iron skillet like a weapon against intruders and abusive males in their households. Today I pay homage to women and their creative use of the cast-iron skillet over the years. Here is my recipe from some southern skillet baked corn bread:

Southern Country Cornbread
2 cups of buttermilk (or 2 cups of vanilla soymilk)
½ teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water
2 large eggs
¾ cup corn, canola or vegetable oil
Mix eggs and milk together
Sift in 2 cups of corn meal with a teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of baking powder or use self-rising cornmeal (I add just a little high source of fiber, just a little!)
Mix ingredients and if you’re northerner like me add a ¼ cup of sugar
Spray hot cast Iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray
Preheat oven at 425 then turn down to 375 and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown
Brush with melted butter when done and enjoy!

A Culinary Look at Women in History: Afro Peruvian Women

Turrón de Doña Pepa, recipe below

The Spanish started importing enslaved Africans from the Congo, Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, and others to Peru between 1520- 1530. Enslaved Africans worked in the highland mining industry and on lowland sugar plantations. In Lima, the capital city, enslaved Africans did all types of work including domestic work like cooking. Every October Lima is the site of one of the biggest Catholic processions and feast in the world. Hundreds of people walk the streets of Lima carrying image of a miracle working Black Christ (Señor de los Milagros) that a divinely inspired and gifted enslaved Angolan convert to Catholicism painted on a wall where people regularly gathered for prayer in 1651. Similarly, an enslaved Afro Peruvian women named Doña Josefa Marmanill made an indelible mark on the country’s food and religious life with the creation of a anise based cookie coated with fruit syrup and highly decorated called the Turrón de Doña Pepa. According to Peruvian folklore, Doña Pepa, originally known as Doña Josefa Marmanill, received the recipe as a gift from God in a dream for the feast of the Señor de los Milagros. Here is a recipe for Turrón de Doña Pepa:

Turrón de Doña Pepa recipe: http://yanuq.com/english/recipe.asp?idreceta=423

A Culinary Look at Women in History: Incan Women and the Colombian Exchange

Aji de Gallina, A Peruvian spicy creamed chicken dish/, recipe below

Long before Francisco Pizarro and his band of Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru, Inca women shaped the foodways of the Andean region from modern-day Peru, Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northern Chile, northwest Argentina and southern Colombia. With the Spanish conquest of the Incan empire in 1532, the material food culture Inca women had to trade in markets and prepare as food increased particularly with the addition of new animals like news species of poultry. While the typical chicken did not exist in Peru until after the conquest, Inca women did prepare a poultry dish with a local variety called the hualpa. Below is a traditional Andean poultry and rice recipe the Inca named after the last Inca leader Atahualpa. It’s made with thin roasted chicken strips covered in a creamy yellow spicy sauce and served over rice. There are plenty of vegan poultry substitutes you can use to make this recipe.

Aji de Gallina/Peruvian spicy creamed chicken recipe:

http://latinamericaforless.com/blog/2010/02/09/peru-travel-guide-aji-de-gallina-recipe/

A Culinary Look at Women in History : Afro Cuban Women

Cuban plantain soup, recipe below

Enslaved African women in Cuba prepared a thick soup for themselves reminiscent of cooks in West African societies. In it they put pounded corn, wild tomatoes, and boiled plantains. Nineteenth century travel accounts show us that enslaved Afro-Cubans cooked for themselves and did the cooking in the kitchens of plantations, inns, taverns, boarding houses, ships, and restaurants on the island. In 1881 North American observer James W. Steele had this to say about Cuban cuisine. “Soup is always at the Cuban dinner-table; thick stuff that must be eaten rather than taken as a liquid.” He went on to say, “The word soup, as understood elsewhere, has no application in Cuba. It is rather in the form of a mess [a sloppy preparation of food].” 


Cuban Plantain Soup Recipe: http://www.tasteofcuba.com/sopadeplatano.html

A Culinary Look at Women in History Part 7: Oral Traditions and Seasoning

Seasoning was also learned from oral tradition as one tasted other people’s food and inquired what ingredients and cooking techniques they used. It was during informal “kitchen conversations” that women exchanged family secrets for cooking one dish or another. Some of the secrets were as simple as the use of a seemingly unlikely seasoning or marinade. Various amounts of spices and herbs, particularly salt and pepper, crushed red pepper, bay leaf, sage, and sugar, are partly responsible for the “down-home” flavor associated with southern African-American cuisine. African-American seasoning also makes use of several fresh vegetables, including chopped scallions and/or onions and garlic. Apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces are three liquids that are also staples in seasoning southern dishes. As mentioned earlier, the final component that makes southern African-American food unique is the addition of pork flavor in dishes like collards, kale, and turnip greens and the pork flavored cooking oil used in deep frying. Thus, what’s most southern about southern food is the inclusion of pork flavor in some shape or fashion in just about every dish. You can make great tasting southern food with pork flavored alternatives. I would suggest using smoked paprika, which is expensive, liquid smoke, and or vegan pork flavored products. Here are some useful websites:

smoked paprika: http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/spanish-smoked-sweet-paprika-pimenton-de-la-vera-dulce

liquid smoke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_smoke

vegan pork flavored products: http://www.sustainablog.org/choices/match-vegan-meats

A Culinary Look at Women in History Part 6: Oral Traditions in the Kitchen

Macaroni and cheese, recipes below for the traditionalist and vegans!

In African-American culture, seasoning was an art form that largely women passed down through oral tradition from one generation to the next. It could only be learned through a lengthy apprenticeship with an experienced cook, as well as years of practice, until it became instinctive. From a young age, African-American children, mostly female, began their cooking apprenticeships by closely observing older cooks within their family and extended family. Over time, adults would assign a child chores with ever-increasing difficulty to acclimate the child to the art of cooking. “Because our recipes were seldom written down, we had to rely on momma’s and grandma’s experience and what we could learn by watching as they went about their chores in the kitchen” writes soul food cookbook author Pearl Bowser. “The advantage of learning at grandmother’s elbow is discovering things which are not found in any book.” You learn how to season and cook food by “being there” when momma does it. Then one day somebody finally turns to you and tells you to make something like macaroni and cheese from scratch and you do it. “For this reason the soul food cook usually knows instinctively how much salt to add, when the grease in the pan is hot enough, and how long before it’s time to open the oven,” writes Bowser. Here's a mac and cheese recipe which seems the most appropriate to share with this story:

Southern-Macaroni-and-Cheese Recipe: http://www.macaronicheeserecipes.com/Southern-Macaroni-and-Cheese.htm

Vegan-Macaroni-and-Cheese Recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8295.0

A Culinary Look at Women in History Part 5: The Women of Blaney, South Carolina

Traditional and vegan recipes included below

In my book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/webFeatures, I talk about the migration of southern women north during World War II. Nora Burns White migrated from Blaney, South Carolina, to New York City in 1942 with two other girls at the age of fourteen. One of the girls lived in the Bronx and she was down in South Carolina visiting her cousin. “Luis was going back with Mary and I said to my mama ‘Could I go?’ and for some reason or another she said ‘yes.’” White’s older sister Luella had already migrated to Harlem the summer before. But, “Luella did not know that I was coming to New York.” White recalls, “My mother was a very smart person. But how she let me come to New York with two other girls,” the same age seems perplexing in retrospect. White’s mother likely realized that her daughter, Nora, would have better opportunities in New York than as the daughter of a single tenant farmer in South Carolina. So she packed a box full of “fried chicken, bread, and cake,” for Nora to eat during the train ride, “enough to last us all the way to New York,” which was a twenty-four hour trip back in 1942. Got to go with fried chicken recipes with this story:

Video of Butter milk fried chicken recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxEhH6MPH28

Video of vegan fried chicken recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te6Cv7RTazU

A Culinary Look at Women in History Series Part I

Photo of Archibald John Motley, Jr.’s [Tille's] “Chicken Shack,” [in Harlem], Still Pictures in the National Archives, College Park, Maryland. Click to enlarge the image, it's rich in detail! 

I am going to take some time out from my stories on Easter and dedicate the coming days to Women’s History Month. What will follow are stories of black women, who like me, love food, and many of them like me, have southern roots. Most of them you have never heard before before I found their stories intriguing. Some became food professionals in the North working as live-in domestics for white families, caterers, restaurateurs, and bakers. Each one brought their food traditions with them and their stories map episodes of southern migration to Harlem and Westchester County. Some of them are my older, southern-born relatives who adapted and mixed their culinary traditions as they moved North and passed them on to our family’s northern-born younger generations. Tomorrow I will start with story of Tillie Eripp who at age eighteen, this poor African-American woman migrated alone from Tampa, Florida, to Philadelphia. Writer Sarah Chavez interviewed her for the WPA Federal Writers’ Project America Eats, which was never published. New York City’s WPA unit called their study “Feeding the City.” In it, Chavez and other writers gathered insightful records about Depression-era food history. 

Historian John W. Blassingame on Food and Religion in the Antebellum South

Nutritious southern collard greens, recipe below

Enslaved Africans did not develop their traditions within a vacuum. In some instances whites, particularly white children had intimate relations with blacks. Through close interaction, whites integrated many African religious, and language elements “Southern whites,” argues historian John W. Blassingame, “not only adapted their language and religion to that of the slaves but also adapted agricultural practices, sexual attitudes, rhythm of life, architecture, food and social relations to African practices.” As masters adopted African foodways, and slaves adopted special occasions material culture from owners, black and white cultures in the South became more homogenous. Take for example a side dish like collard greens. Any native born southerner, white or black, is a green eating corn bread pot-liquor sopping person. If you are a northerner without southern roots, that last sentenced as you puzzled. Here’s a nutritious collard green recipe to round out this southern foodways story.


Collard Green Recipe:

Ingredients
2-3 bunches of collards (try mixing in some kale and or turnip greens)
½ cup chopped onions
1 large diced garlic clove
2 tsp smoked paprika
3 cubes of vegetable bullion
2 tablespoons dried bay leaf
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup olive oil


Method
Wash the collards good in plenty of slightly salted water. Start out with 3 bunches which will serve 6 people, they are big but they cook down like spinach. I parboil/steam mine for 10 minutes until the fibrous leaves are easy to eat. Steaming preserves the water soluble vitamins that are killed when you just boil the greens down like most of my ancestors have done for years. Remove the collards from the pressure cooker and save the water to make the pot-licker. Season the water with 3 cubes of vegetable bullion, dried bay leaf, dried red pepper flakes, little vinegar, and some honey. Had some smoked paprika or a little liquid smoke which most grocery stores sell if you like that smoked meat flavor (the traditional recipe calls for a smoked ham hock or a hunk of smoked fat back). The pot-licker is full of vitamins and great seasoning for the greens. Sauté the steamed greens with chopped onions and garlic in olive oil with your preferred seasonings like pepper, salt, etc. Add sautéed greens to the pot-liquor and let them marinade for 30 or more before serving.

Food and Religion In the Nineteenth Century Kingdom of Ghana

Wild Hare in Tomato Sauce 

Before Africans arrived in colonial America, they had a well-developed religious life that included “iconic foods served in ritualistic ways.” The argument here is that there are several keys to understanding the religious rituals that survived the African slave trade and that would shape how African-American would eventually celebrate religious holidays like Easter. First, West African religions honored and acknowledged God and the community’s relationship to the spiritual world in everyday activities and on special occasions. Second, Africans held a belief that an honorable person showed reverence to God, community leaders, friends, and family through the use of music and food. As a result, West African ancestors incorporated music and food into their religious rituals and celebrations. Examples from different parts of West Africa and during different centuries illustrate this. We’ve already talked about the importance of poultry but other foods also proved central to special occasions in African societies. An English naval officer and explorer, William Allen, observed that just before the planting of yams, villagers along the Niger River contributed an abundance of palm wine and game to a yearly yam planting festival; the inhabitants of the city of Accra, in the Kingdom of Ghana, commonly hunted and prepared wild hare. Here is a rabbit recipe from my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/webFeatures.


Wild Hare in Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
1 young rabbit, cup of
Flour for dredging
Salt and black pepper to taste
Bacon fat
4 scallions with tops, cut up
2 gloves garlic, crushed
Sprig Fresh parsley
4 tbs. Butter
2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato juice
½ cup milk
1 tsp. sweet basil


Method
Roll rabbit pieces in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown in bacon fat. Make a sauce with sliced scallions, crushed garlic, parsley, butter, salt, Worcestershire sauce, tomato juice, milk, and basil, Pour over the rabbit while still hot. Cook 2 hours in a covered pan, remove lid and cook 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the sauce. You can thicken sauce with a little cornmeal mixed in water if it is thin.

Food and Religion in Nineteenth Century West and Central Africa

With Easter approaching I am going to do a series of post on food and African and African American religion. Let’s start out talking about food and religion in sixteenth through nineteenth century West and Central Africa. The Guinea hen was perhaps the most important foreign animal introduced to Africa during the Columbian exchange and the Atlantic slave trade. The lean and dry meat of this game bird was considered superior to chicken and pheasant. Arab traders introduced it principally to cattle-raising societies like the Fulani of northern Nigeria. The Fulani mastered the art of raising large flocks of Guinea hens in the grasslands where they flourished. West Africans also incorporated the Guinea hens into many of their religious celebrations. We know for example that among the Igbo, Hausa, and Mande, poultry was eaten on special occasions as part of religious ceremonies. Most important here is the fact that Africans were familiar with frying, baking, and making soups and stews with poultry before they arrived in colonial America because they traditional made such dishes as part of religious holidays and ceremonies. Here are some fried chicken recipes (traditional and vegan) that seem most appropriate for this piece.

Video a Butter milk based fried chicken recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxEhH6MPH28

Recipe for traditional soul food type fried chicken with audio: http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/fryed-chix.html

Vegan fried chicken recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7534.0