Hoppin’ John and Collard Greens, It's Tradition

Hoppin' John, recipes below

I am doing a RV trip and field work in the South this holiday. Today we are in South Carolina about to visit Charleston and Sullivan's Island. When South Carolinians relocated to places like New York, St. Louis, and Chicago, African American Southern migrants brought with them a tradition of church membership and Watch Night services which was a well-attended service where down-home southern cooking was available in abundance for free. Southern superstition established the tradition of serving hoppin’ John, black-eyed peas (cowpeas from West Africa) and rice and collard greens in addition to other traditional dishes depending on where the southern migrant community was from. Hoppin’ John was black-eyed peas and rice, beans, red peppers, and salt pork cooked to a stew like consistency. It is probable that hoppin’ John evolved out of the rice and bean mixtures such as dab-a-dab (the rice, beans, vegetables, meat, palm oil, and pepper dish) that West African slaves survived on during the middle passage. Many southerners believed that the black-eyed peas symbolized coins and and the greens dollars. Many believed that eating them insured economic prosperity for the coming year. A similar tradition exist in Latin America where the Atlantic slave trade resulted in the forced migration of thousands of enslaved African there too. Below are Hoppin’ John recipes.

Traditional hoppin’ John: http://blog.syracuse.com/entertainment/2009/12/hoppin_john_a_traditional_dish.html

Vegan hoppin’ John: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=406

Pork Seasoned Collard Greens: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/collard_greens_with_bacon/

Vegan Collard Greens

Ingredients

1 bunch of greens: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, or chard
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt, depending on the saltiness of your stock

Liquid smoke or smoked paprika

Method

Wash the collards good in plenty of slightly salted water, strip the leaves off the steams, discard the steams and cut the greens into small pieces. Start out with 3 bunches which will serve 6 people, they are big but they cook down like spinach. I steam mine in a pressure cooker 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 or stock. 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-licker and let them marinade for 30 or more minutes.


African Heritage in South Carolina: http://www.sciway.net/hist/chicora/slavery18-2.html

Anthony Bourdain in South Carolina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsuKTebbbM

Those Who Passed in 2011: Joe Frazier the Wizard of Boxing

Ali and Singer Arthur Prysock in the kitchen eating a burger at one of his Champburger franchises in Northwest Miami, 1969

Last month boxing legend "Smoking" Joe Frazier died. The son of  a South Carolina sharecropper, Frazier migrated to Philadelphia where he came up through the ranks as an extremely disciplined hard working and hard hitting no flashy stuff boxer. He stood in stark contrast to his handsome, charismatic, poetic, and militant arch rival Muhammad Ali.  As a Muslim Ali refused to be drafted into the U. S. army during the Vietnam War, telling a reporter, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Congs. No Viet Cong ever called me Nigger.” His position resulted in Federal charges of violating the U. S. government’s Selective Service Act, a sentence of five years imprisonment, and a fine of $1, 00,000. He appealed the decision consequently keeping out of jail. However, The World Boxing Association stripped him of his title and boxing license and the government forced him to surrender his passport thus preventing him from earning money as a professional boxer at home or abroad. Growing up in my black power (mom) and race man (dad) home we lampooned Frazier because Ali openly ridiculed him as ugly and an Uncle Tom.  Years later my view of Frazier changed as one my students did a research paper in which he found that like Booker T. Washington, Frazier had another side to him that few knew: he  admired Ali stance against the war and support of the civil rights and black power movements; insisted Ali accept his financial when he went broke why banned from boxing; and he lobbied hard to get the ban lifted. If Washington was the Wizard of Tuskegee, Frazier was the Wizard of Boxing. During Ali's almost penniless time in his life he later signed a restaurant franchise deal that netted him $900,000 from the Champburger Company for the use of his name and image and a 1% royalties on the company’s annual profits. In 1968, Champburger stock sold for $5 a share. The licensing contract he signed stipulated that all franchise menus sell Muslim friendly food thus in addition to the all beef Champburger, the menu including all beef “hot dogs, fried chicken, fried fish, boiled fish, and Mr. Champ soda. 

Remembering Joe Frazier And An Epic Boxing Rivalry: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142123491/boxing-legend-joe-frazier-loses-cancer-battle

Ali’s recipes for life: http://lybio.net/muhammad-ali-recipe-for-life/boxing/

Daily News Remembrance of Joe Frazier: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2058866/Joe-Frazier-obituary-The-little-guy-shocked-The-Greatest-Muhammad-Ali.html

Never seen Life Magazine photos of Ali vs. Frazier 1971: http://www.life.com/gallery/56541/never-seen-ali-vs-frazier-1971#index/4

Remembering Some Remarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Those Who Passed in 2011: Archibald Clark West

"Arch" West Inventor of Doritos Brand Tortilla Chips Playing gold in Palm Springs, 1970

Related recipe below

I confess in high school I could best be described as a Doritos junkie. Consider by many, but not by Frito-Lay, the inventor of the Dorito brand, Arch West died in September of 2011 at the age of 97. The child of poor Scottish immigrants, West was born in 1914 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Poverty led his parents to put West and his brother into the Masonic children's home. After graduating high school he attended Franklin College near Indianapolis. He earned  earn his degree and worked for a short stint as a traveling salesman eventually landing in New York City where he joined a Madison Avenue advertising firm. His most notable early work included working on the J-E-L-L-O gelatins and pudding marketing campaigns. He served in the Navy during World War II and after the war he joined the Dallas-based Frito-Lay company in 1960. While on vacation in San Diego in 1961, Frito-Lay marketing executive Arch West purchased some fried Mexican Tortilla chips at a roadside stand. The experience inspired him to develop a market. What became the brand name Dorito based on the word doradito the Spanish word for little golden. Frito-Lay Company took the traditional Mexican snack food and added coloring and flavor enhancers. In 1964, they released the product in Southern California, where it became a hit and nationally in 1966 to rave reviews by customers around the country.  Over time, the company developed a number of flavors.  Most recently in response to health concerns the company reduced amount of salt in the product and transfats from its ingredients. Today Doritos represents Frito-Lay's second-best seller after Lays potato chips with annual sales approximately $5 billion annually.

Related story and recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_18.html

Remembering Some Remarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011


Kick Start the Forthcoming documentary Soul Food Junkie: http://umystic.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/soul-food-junkies/

Those Who Passed in 2011: Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt Part

I have talked about the Black Panther Party’s Free Food Program in earlier post http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_09.html.Former Black Panther Elmer Pratt, who changed his name in 1968 to Geronimo Ji Jaga, died in Tanzania on June 2, 2011 at the age of 63.  Born in 1947 in Morgan City, Louisiana, Pratt joined the Army where he served in Vietnam as a highly directed solider. After the military he migrated to Los Angeles where he attended UCLA on the GI Bill. Pratt joined the Panthers Los Angeles chapter and quickly rose through the ranks to become its Minister of Defense and then its leader. At the time the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program carried out a plan to destroy radical groups like the Panthers, Students for Democratic Society (SDS), The Young Lords, Brown Berets, and others late 1960s groups. FBI documents show that U. S. officials with the help of informants murdered a number of radicals including member of the Panthers and framed others leading to their arrest and incarceration.  FBI informants also fomented schism within radical groups that led to internal conflict and violence. In 1969 the LA police department arrested Pratt in connection with a 1969 SWAT team attack on the LA Panther office. He was held without bail and finally gained release in 1970 after which time he went underground. He went to Texas and set up a secret military training camp for the Panthers. The FBI learned is location arrested him and extradited him back to Los Angeles. 

Louisiana Jambalaya Poem and recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/04/historic-poems-and-food-series.html

Related Links on Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=pratt

Remembering Some Remarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Those Who Passed in 2011: Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Tayloer as Cleopatra in 1963, related recipes below

Elizabeth Taylor is another notable who died in March of 2011. Taylor was born in 1932 a suburb of London in the UK during the Great Depression as the daughter of two U. S. expatriates from Kansas. Her parents relocated back in the United States shortly before the start of World War II eventually settling in Los Angeles. A particular beautiful child, several family friends urged her parents to have their daughter tryout of a Hollywood role. Childhood star in the picture industry, Taylor went on to become an “A” actress who could demand lucrative contracts. In 1960 she became the highest paid actress of her era when she signed a contract with 20^th Century Fox to star in the movie Cleopatra. I remember as a child hearing my mother resenting racist casting practices in Hollywood and how symbolic it was that 20^th Century Fox had white actors playing North African characters in movies like the Ten Commandments and Cleopatra. Now here is the food angle to this post. Elizabeth Taylor demonstrated her foodie credentials during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome when she had buckets of Chasen’s chili ordered as takeout from the Los Angeles based restaurant and flown to Italy. Now that’s star power! Below is a recipe to Ms. Taylor favorite chili, a vegan chili recipe, and some related links about her additional food qualifications.

Chasen’s Chili recipe: http://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/blogs/a-chili-recipe-to-honor-elizabeth-taylor

Vegetarian chili recipes: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/1275/

Chicago Tribune article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-23/entertainment/chi-elizabeth-taylors-food-favorites-20110323_1_elizabeth-taylor-diet-book-debbie-reynolds

1966 movie clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQeJr65CBVE&feature=related

Remembering Some Remarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Jack Lalanne The Pioneering Food Rebel

Jack LaLanne's Cook Book (photo from http://www.jacklalanne.com/blog/)

This week I will be doing some biographies on notable people who died in 2011 through the lens of food. Jack Lalanne died last January at the age 96! Correctly most people associate Lalanne with exercise and fitness (grew up watching him do his thing in his body suit on TV in the 1970s) but he was also what I call a food rebel. Like Dr. Alvenia Fulton http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_21.html, Lalanne was one of the early pioneers in the good food movement. Born in 1914 in San Fransico, Lalanne converted to healthy eating after hearing nutrition guru. Lalanne’s conversion happened at age 15 while attending Paul C. Bragg lecturer at a women’s club that his mother attended in San Fransico. At the time Lalanne had a regular diet of junk food and he had recently dropped out of high school. Bragg inspired Lalanne to go cold turkey and beat his junk food addiction. Lalanne insisted that he made himself both start exercising and eating hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal, soy milk, and fresh fruit for breakfast and for lunch and dinner foods such as raw vegetable salads, egg whites, fish high in omega 3s like salmon and drinking a glass of red wine. Overtime he transformed his body from skinny and out of shape to a rock hard physique. In 1936 at the age of eighteen, in Oakland, California he opened a first of its kind modern gym with equipment he designed, a juice bar that sold raw fruit and vegetable juices, and nutritious baked goods that his mother made. His facility also included and a health food store. As his business grew he turned to television to market his message about the power of exercise and good food first starting on local stations in the Bay area in 1951 and then on national day time television in 1959. With his increased popularity he went on to market his own juicer and warned against the evils of sugar, tobacco, caffeine asking, “You like your dog? Would you get your dog up in the morning and give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a doughnut?” Another memorable Lalanne saying is Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together, and you’ve got a kingdom.” Here are some magnificent videos including one of the old Jack Lalanne show and an interview of Lalanne and his wife when he was 92.

The Jack Lalanne show: http://www.jacklalanne.com/watch-jack/

Jack Lalanne Washington Post video interview: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/05/18/VI2007051800916.html?sid=ST2011012401518

So Are Waffles a Southern Christmas Thing?

Scrumptious Decorative Waffles

My wife grew up in the South with the tradition of eating waffles on Christmas morning. Most likely her mother introduced the tradition from growing up in Pinehurst, Georgia. So are waffles a southern Christmas tradition? The Dutch introduced waffles to the Americas. The majority of Dutch society generally ate pancakes and waffles prepared in frying pans and waffle irons on iron spider legged stands placed over hot coals. From the Netherlands waffle culture spread to other parts of Europe like Belgium where they changed and altered to satisfy local taste and desires. After 1492, the Dutch West India Company shipped these kitchen tools to settlers in the Caribbean and the New Netherlands (New York). From New York pancake and waffle culinary culture most likely spread to other North American colonies visa vise sailors based in the port of New York who traveled on merchant ships to Baltimore, Charleston, Mobil, and New Orleans and introduced waffle irons to the folks who ran boarding houses and inns. As you can see from the photo, waffles, particularly Belgium waffles may have started out as working class comfort food, but it has come in some instances haute cuisine. But for my Christmas breakfast, there is little better than a simple piping hot Belgium waffle eaten with melted butter and hot maple syrup with chunks of strawberries or blueberries in it.

Why My Father Gave To the Salvation Army

Salvation Army distributing Christmas baskets of food, Chicago 1903

As an adult, my Dad Fred Opie Jr. made regular donations to the Salvation Army as homage to the work they had done in the Tarrytowns during the Depression when he was growing up, especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He would periodically say, “If it wasn’t for the Salvation Army, my family would have never survived the Depression.” My Aunt Dot [Dorothy] told me that during the Depression and the war, “I can remember them knocking on the door, and they would bring us food for Thanksgiving and Christmas . . . when we lived” in a cold water flat. During my Dad’s youth in the 1930s and 1940s, the Salvation Army provided food relief to needy families in his working class neighborhood with no regard to ethnicity. As I did during Thanksgiving, I encourage everyone to give your money and or your time to their ministry this Christmas season to help feed families in need.

Cakes on Christmas Have An Old History

Coconut Layer Cake, recipes below

In an earlier story in my Christmas series I talked about Fruit cakes. However cakes with icing on Christmas also a old history. During the antebellum period and for many years thereafter, Christmas would have been one of those rare times that the marginalized—be they enslaved Africans, freedmen, or impoverished whites—ate cake. Why, because the ingredients including the flour, baking powder, sugar necessary to make a cake represented a sum of many that would have taken the average person weeks if not months to earn. Most for example ate far more cornbread than fine flour biscuits which most considered a special occasion food served on holidays or when your family had the honor to host the preacher or some other special guest. I found a source that described how a female slave owner on a plantation in nineteenth century Norwood, Louisiana served her slaves a lavish Christmas meal including “frosted cake” among other special occasion items. Here’s a coconut cake recipe that you might consider for the holidays it derives from the work of my friend food chemist Shirley O. Corriher of Georgia. Here’s link to Shirley’s latest book Bakewise and a video in which she explains why the book is essential reading for anyone serious about baking http://books.simonandschuster.com/BakeWise/Shirley-O-Corriher/9781416560784.
Coconut Cake Recipe:
Ingredients
Pam
Wax paper
2 large eggs at room temperature or substitute
3large egg yolks at room temperature or substitute
½ cup buttermilk or substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cake flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened or substitute
1/3 cup almond oil
Cake Method:
Cake: place oven shelf at the top of the lower third and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 2 round cake pan with Pam; shortening will work too. Note: mixing all the fat with the dry ingredients greases the proteins, which prevents the gluten formation and makes for a very tender cake. Mix eggs, yolks, buttermilk, and vanilla extract in a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a cake mixer on low to moisten dry ingredients. Then increased speed to medium and mix for 1.5minutes. Next introduce the egg mix and beat for 20 minutes. Again until all of the egg mixture is incorporated. Pour into the cake pan and bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for approximately 10 minutes. Loosen the sides then turn upside down onto wax paper and then a cooling rack; be sure the cake is cool before icing.
Icing:
1 ½ cups of sugar
16 ounces of sour cream or substitute
18 ounces flacked sweetened frozen coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing Method: 30 minutes before icing the cake, stir together the sugar, sour cream, coconut, vanilla, keeping 3tablespoons coconut to garnish the cake. Refrigerate mix for 30 minutes. While the cake is still warm, cut horizontally into three layers. Using a tooth pick, poke holes approximately 1-inch apart until entire cake has been poked. Spread 1/3 of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process again. (As you stack layers together stick them with toothpicks to prevent cake from shifting). Garnish the entire cake with remaining coconut flakes. Refrigerate for about 2 hours before serving or over night for best results and serve cold.

BBC Fruit Cake Recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/fruit_cake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_moist_all-purpose_35561

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

BBC Marzipan Christmas cake with butter icing recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

American Fruit Cake Recipes: http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcakerecipes.html

Where Is The Rice?

A bowl of Carolina long grain rice, related recipes below

One year my children and I joined some members of our church in making dinner for male residents of a YMCA in their forties and over. Many of them could best be described as brothers, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers estranged from their families for the holidays for various and sundry reasons. We prepared a Christmas ham and several sides including sweet potato casserole, string beans, biscuits, and pineapple. For dessert we served fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The residents of the Y slowly poured into the make shift dining room in the church’s fellowship hall and started through the buffet line filling their plates. They then sat and enjoyed the food with many raving about how good it all tasted. A short time later, an African American Y resident in his fifties  started through the line filling his plate like the previous men, but stopped half way through the buffet line with a confused look on his face. I asked, what’s the matter? He said with a heavy southern accent, “Where is the rice?” I said you must be from the Carolinas? He said “yup I’m from South Carolina.” The exchange reminded of the centrality of rice in the culinary history of many parts of the Americas where slave traders imported thousands of Africans from the West African rice belt between Cape Verde andthe Gold Coast. I found a similar reaction to Christmas meal in sources on turn of the century Cuba. At a Christmas supper, people of all social classes in Cuba, the Carolinas, and the West Indies would regard but indifferently the sliced ham, boned turkey, or the fish if a huge bowl of rice did not accompany them. So  you don’t forgot the rice this Holiday season I provided some rice stories and recipes below. Please share your related memories in the comment section below, we love to read them!

Rice Pudding: http://www.roadfood.com/Recipes/88/rice-pudding

Vegan Rice Pudding: http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2010/03/veggie-might-vegan-rice-pudding-or-what.html

Mushroom Risotto Recipe:http://schnitzelandthetrout.blogspot.com/2010/09/memorable-mushroom-risotto.html

Vegan Mushroom Risotto Recipe: http://veganventures.blogspot.com/2006/08/mushroom-risotto.html

My Rice and Beans/Peas and Rice Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Rice+and+Beans%2FPeas+and+Rice+Series

You've Come A Long Way Dumpling!

Apple dumpling, recipes below

Dumplings and their multitude of cousins—wonton, ravioli, and matzo ball just to name a few—have an ancient history. The term dumpling first appears in written form about the start of the 17^th century. Like its cousins, dumplings most likely originated in the kitchens of peasants (subsistence farmers) and proletarians (wage workers) as a savvy cost saving filler made with vegetables and little bit of meat to season the flour based dumpling. But people also made dumplings with fruit. In short, Various forms of dumplings exist; some filled some not. But they all originated as poor folks attempt to provide an inexpensive, nutritious, and filling meal. In the African American tradition dumplings have their roots all the way back to Africa, the European colonization of the Americas, and the African slave Trade. Who had the stronger influence on dumplings during the colonial period--European settlers or enslaved Africans--depended on what part of the Americas you are talking about and who settled where in what ethnic ratio. For example in the Chesapeake region which was pretty homogenous in terms of Africans and Europeans, Virginia slave Louis Hughes recalled, “Peach cobbler and apple dumpling were the two dishes that made old slaves smile for joy and the young fairly dance.” Here are some apple dumpling recipes:

Video Apple Dumpling recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p6L4qokz-c

Apple Dumpling Recipe: http://www.history.org/almanack/life/food/fdapdump.cfm

Vegan Apple Dumpling Recipe: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/10/vegan-apple-dumpling-cinnamon-rolls.html

Chicken and Dumplings For Christmas

Chicken and Dumplings, recipes below

Making dumplings represented a creative way people have used for centuries to utilize scraps from the production of biscuits and breads to fill the stomachs of a large family and one practiced across the world.  The tradition came up in interviews I did with southerners and the children of southerners who grew up in northern cities. A case in point is that Ruth Thorpe Miller’s mother from Savannah, made chicken ’n’ dumplings for Christmas long after migrating to Harlem in the 1920s. Similarly my great aunt Maggie White from Windsor, North Carolina migrated to Ossining, New York, in Westchester County, 30 minutes north of New York City. During the Great Depression she kept her “big boned” children filled with chicken ’n’ dumplings during the holidays. And Joyce White tell us that in the 1940s, Christmas as a child in Alabama would be filled with the “warming aroma of Chicken ’n’ Dumplings, which was made with a big hen,” in her mom’s kitchen. Below are some chicken ’n’ Dumpling recipes. Please share your dumpling stories from your childhood in the comment section below. I know that many people have them and I and others read them  with great interest. 


Traditional Chicken ’n’ Dumpling Recipe: http://www.ifood.tv/network/chicken_dumplings_southern_style/recipes


Vegan Chicken ’n’ Dumpling Recipe: http://veganchicksrock.blogspot.com/2007/10/vegan-chicken-and-dumplings.html

British Influences on American Foodways: Fruit Cake

A classic British influenced Holiday Fruit Cake, recipes below

While doing interviews for my book Hog and Hominy I found a number of Americans with vivid memories of fruit cake from their childhood. They remind us of the British cultural footprint print left throughout her colonies long after independence. This is another chapter in our continuing series on British influences on the Americas. Clara [Bullard] Pittman, is a terrific cook born in 1948 in the very rural farming community of Pinehurst, Georgia. She recalls that on Christmas her mother made homemade fruitcake from what she grew in her yard. The children of West Indian parents I interviewed also associated childhood Christmas memories with homemade fruit cake. Making Christmas fruitcake was a long process, according to the 84 old Benjamin Outlaw. When asked what Christmas was like growing up in Windsor, North Carolina, Outlaw responded, “Oh boy, it was like heaven.” Mother “would start cooking her fruitcake, sometime about a month before Christmas. And she always made [either apple or grape] wine.” Hattie Outlaw poured the “wine on the cake until Christmas . . . building it up.” This must have worked to season the cake, “because it was the best fruitcake I have ever eaten.” Here are an host a fruit cake recipes the UK and the Americas. We would love to hear about your childhood fruit cake memory in the comment section below.

BBC Fruit Cake Recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/fruit_cake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_moist_all-purpose_35561

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

BBC Marzipan Christmas cake with butter icing recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

American Fruit Cake Recipes: http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcakerecipes.html

British Influences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html

British Influences on North American Foodways: Eggnog Part 2

Recreated old English wooden carved mugs called noggins  (Image from http://www.bushcrafttuk.com/forum.php)

Tavern Scene 1685 by David Teniers, recipes below

Yesterday I shared Part 1 of how of the origins of eggnog. The term eggnog evolved out of two slangs words used in urban areas like colonial New York, Boston, Charleston, and Mobile: colonist referred to rum as grog; bartenders served rum in small wooden carved mugs called noggins as shown above. Thus the drink eventually became egg-n-grog and over time eggnog. When the American Revolution resulted in dwindling trade between North America and the Caribbean, Americans began to substitute locally distilled spirits or moon-shine for rum in their eggnog. Abraham Oakey Hall traveled to New Orleans about 1898. He had this to say about related culinary culture of New Orleans: “I tremble to think of the juleps, and punches, and nogs, and soups, and plates of fish, and game, and beef and loaves of bread, that I have seen appear from side doors and vanish . . . among the waiting crowds at the long counter; or of the piles of dimes that each devoted . . . barkeeper” took in. In 1910 Harnet County, North Carolina we found that after opening presents on Christmas morning, young Erwin Stephens and his brother “went to the kitchen where eggnog spiked with whisky was served, the only time in the year.” Here are some contemporary egg-recipes for the holidays and some other related links to the series on British Influences on North American Foodways. Love to read your thoughts on the piece in the comment section below.

Traditional Eggnog: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/eggnog/

Vegan Eggnog: http://www.egg-nog.info/Vegan_Egg_Nog_Drink_Recipe.html

Almond Milk Eggnog and shortbread recipe: http://dreamaboutfood.blogspot.com/2010/12/almond-milk-eggnog-and-holiday.html

British Influences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html

British Influences on North American Foodways: Eggnog Part I

Glass of Eggnog, recipes below

Colonial British North American Tavern

As part of my series on European influences on North American foodways let's turn to a classic holiday beverage—eggnog. I grew up associating with Christmas. I came across sources that mentioned “nogs” and “eggnog” that made me curious about the history of this Christmas drink. Eggnog has its roots in the winter drinkways of the British aristocracy back in Europe. Commoners would not have had the resources to have access to fresh milk and eggs. In the winter, the wealthy would at times drink their warm milk and egg beverage seasoned with pricey spices such as ground nutmeg and cinnamon and expensive liquors like brandy and sherry to keep it from spoiling. The concoction traveled across the Atlantic in the 18th century with several modifications after it arrived in colonial American taverns and homes. In colonial North America the abundant availability of dairy products and traded rum from the Caribbean made the drink popular among free commoners, white indentured servants, and enslaved Africans. Rum—the drink of the marginalized—became the substitute for the heavily taxed brandy and wine in the colonies. Here are some recipes you can try. More on this tomorrow.  

Traditional Eggnog: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/eggnog/

Vegan Eggnog: http://www.egg-nog.info/Vegan_Egg_Nog_Drink_Recipe.html

Almond Milk Eggnog and shortbread recipe: http://dreamaboutfood.blogspot.com/2010/12/almond-milk-eggnog-and-holiday.html

British Influences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html


http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html