Athens, Georgia Barbecue Legend Bill and Geraldine Walker

Georgia barbecue sandwich with some serious sauce, recipe below

While doing research for my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/tableOfContents, I came across some fascinating stories about successful entrepreneurs during the Great Depression. Here is a story I found in the archives of the Library of Congress which I used in the chapter  of my book on the Great Depression titled the Beans and Green of Necessity. African Americans Bill and Geraldine walker started a barbecue stand that specialized in hot pork sandwiches in Athens, Georgia. Bill Walker first started accumulating capital in Athens working for “white folks” at the age of ten. He later migrated to nearby Atlanta where he worked briefly at a barbecue stand, a fraternity house, and other sundry places for two years. “I was saving my money all that time to set up a barbecue stand of my own some day,” he told a WPA writer. After Bill married Geraldine they opened a pit barbecue stand. “When we sure opened up for business, I had 500 circulars distributed in a radius of 10 blocks around here, and then we went to work, day and night, to build up our trade.” Despite the Depression, flyers and word of mouth had the couple doing a brisk business in ten-cent barbecue sandwiches, corn bread, and other items including drinks. Here is a Georgia barbecue sauce recipe.

Georgia Barbecue Sauce Recipe: http://www.fastrecipes.com/recipe/georgia-barbecue-sauce-2009051722727/

Barbecue Sauce Eastern North Carolina Style

East Carolina Barbecued pork and greens, barbecue sauce recipe below

According to Mt Vernon, New York’s Reginald T. Ward, Barbecue in Bertie, County, North Carolina means “chopped barbecue.” Ward, who I interviewed for my book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/excerpt migrated to New York from Robbinsonville in Bertie County in the 1960s. In North Carolina Ward grew up barbecuing a whole pig chopped up with different spices “like vinegar and red pepper.” The word barbecue varies from region to region even across a state. Historically the folks in Bertie County, in eastern North Carolina, used a vinegar based sauce. Here is an Eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce recipe you can try this Memorial Day weekend.

Eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce recipe: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/291/NorthCarolinaEasternStyleS64780.shtml

Alabama White Barbecue Sauce

White BBQ sauce on apple brined chicken, recipes below

Here is a great discussion of both sauce and barbecue I found in the Alabama State WPA Records and stories generated for the America Eats Project during the Great Depression. In Alabama no barbecue was considered done unless the meat was “saturated with blistering sauces.” Cooks repeatedly basted the barbecuing meat for hours until it was an “aromatic brown,” Good barbecue in short is meat cooked slowly and frequently basted. What is unique about Alabama is the states trade mark white mayonnaise based barbecue sauce that Big Bob Gibson created in Decatur, Alabama. The story goes that in 1925, Gibson started selling barbecue out of his backyard and the demand for his product eventually led to start of a family owned barbecue restaurant that is still open today. Attached is a link to several Alabama white barbecue sauce recipes followed by an oral history Big Bob’s barbecue on video.

Alabama barbecue sauce recipes: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/2015/

Video Oral history Big Bob’s Barbecue:

http://www.southernbbqtrail.com/big_bob_gibsons_slideshow/big_bob_gibson.shtml

Crawfish étouffée: a luscious tomato based sauce with history

Crawfish étouffée served with rice and cornbread, recipe below

Crawfish étouffée is another dish with lots of sauce and history. The dish shows the influence of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans on new world cookery and it’s one of the first simple but tasty soul food dishes in Louisiana cuisine. The French settlers from Vendée, Poitou, and Brittany who eventually became known as Acadians and Cajuns brought with them the foodways of commoners in France who developed sauces intended to make simple dishes more appetizing and stretched their nutritional and filling values. In colonial Louisiana Africans shared the tradition of one-pot-meals with poor whites that lived among and around them. Africans also shared the ubiquitous habit of eating rice with most meals. Native American added the use of tomatoes in Crawfish étouffée; tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas. The word étouffée comes from the French word “to smother” and it means a luscious tomato based sauce. Here is link to wonderful crawfish étouffée like the delicious one I ate pictured above in New Orleans.

Crawfish étouffée recipe: http://www.louisianafishfry.com/recipes.php?action=submit&id=34

Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Sauce: Moorish Foodways and the Atlantic World

Moroccan-Salmon with sweet and spicy barbecue sauce, recipe below

Many of the innovations in Atlantic foodways, particularly the introduction of exotic ingredients from the East, occurred as a result of 800 years of North African cultural imperialism in the Iberian Peninsula after they seized power in 711 A.D. In the first chapter of my book Hog and Hominy (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/webFeatures) I talk about how the Moors introduced a number of spices and herbs obtained through the Arabian spice trade into Iberian cookery and eventually to African cookery. Moorish seasoning techniques called for using sugar, spices, and herbs to enhance, not dominate the flavor of vegetables, poultry, red meat, and fish. These spices and cooking philosophies of Moorish and Iberian origins became important to African cooks. Moorish seasoning techniques directly influenced Iberian cookery from 711 to 1491 A.D. This, in turn, indirectly influenced African cookery. Here is a link to an incredible North African sweet and spicy barbecue sauce served with salmon. My wife made the recipe for me in our first year of marriage and the sensational taste of the sauce just smacked my mouth with pleasure. The recipe below also includes side dishes

Moroccan-Salmon recipe: http://www.oprah.com/food/Moroccan-Salmon-with-Cabbage-and-Couscous

Tartar Sauce on Corn Meal Fried Fish is a Wining Combination

Tartar sauce on cornmeal fried fish, recipes below

Poet Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis but she spent many of her childhood years living with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas which was a rural farming community. “The summer picnic fish fry in the clearing by the pond was the biggest outdoor even of the year. Everyone was there,” writes Angelou. All churches were represented, as well as the social groups. . , professional people . . ., and all the excited children. The key to a good fried fish is in how one seasons it. Some use a wet beer batter or a dry corn meal which is my southern style. I recommend passing a fork held piece of fresh fish through corn meal seasoned with spices such as paprika, finely ground sea salt, and dill weed. I also recommend adding a Goya Adobo all purpose seasoning which can be purchased in a variety of spice and herb combinations. Great seasoned fried fish is essential, but another essential is a great tartar sauce.
Tartar Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise substitute or regular mayonnaise
¼ cup of sweet pickle relish (or more depending on your preference)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
Salt and pepper for seasoning (optional)
Method
Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper if you like and allow time to chill in the refrigerator before serving.

Foraging for Mushrooms for Survival and Sauces

Mushroom sauce over steak and potato along with some greens, mushroom gravy recipes below

In The African Heritage Cookbook culinary writer Helen Mendes explains, “sauces and gravies are as intrinsic a part of Soul cooking as they had been of West African cooking. . . . Soul food is not dry food. With almost all meals some type of sauce or gravy is served. These like the West African sauces, are well seasoned,” She writes. To survive people in Africa, Europe, and the Americas have historically foraged in forest for edible berries, herbs, tubers, wild greens and mushrooms. Lately I’ve had a taste for a mushroom sauce. Here’s a southern one from Tennessee that serves about 3 to 5 people. This mushroom sauce works equally well over a barbecued steak, baked potato, or brown rice. I also provide a link to a easy but sensational port-wine mushroom sauce that goes well with various meat and vegan meat substitutes.

Tennessee mushroom sauce recipe

Ingredients

½ cup butter or butter substitute divided

2 (8-ounce) containers of fresh mushrooms ( I like portabella, shiitake, and or what’s on sale)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh scallions or Vidalia onions

3 tablespoons whole wheat or white flour

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 cups soy or regular milk

2 teaspoons hot sauce

¾ teaspoon sea salt

¾ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Method

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add mushrooms, and sauté 12 to 14 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Add onions and sauté for two minutes. Remove from heat. Melt remaining 1/4 cup butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute; whisk in dry mustard. Gradually whisk in milk and next 3 ingredients; cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Stir in mushroom mixture, and cook until thoroughly heated.

Port-wine mushroom sauce recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=223410