A version of the following article appeared in the Spring 2005 Oxford American. Carolina Gold February 2004. It was raining to beat hell, and we had come from all over the place — and all walks of life — to get to Middleton Plantation south of Charleston on that dreary morning to plan a symposium focused on the once illustrious rice that the fortunes of the lowcountry were built on. We were introducing ourselves and staking...
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“When Rickey was upset, he almost always made cheese straws. They were one of the few things he had ever learned to cook, and making them seemed to comfort...
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Boiled Peanuts and a Sense of Place “I never eat boiled peanuts except when they are in season (July through September), because they are only good when made from freshly dug ‘green’ peanuts – and the small, red-skinned Valencias are the best.”When I wrote my first book about the cooking of the South Carolina coastal plain (Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking, 1992), I was trying to present as honest a survey...
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I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Cajun and Creole roots run deep and where every recipe, it seems, begins, “First, you make a roux.” Though my parents were from Tennessee, they loved food and wine, and they fit in well among the justly renowned home cooks of the bayou country. Gumbo was daily fare in Louisiana for New Orleans socialites, LSU professors, and gator wrestlers alike. It was true that you needed roux to make it,...
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Parts of this story appeared several years ago in Country Home magazine. Rosie and Me “Ready or not, here I come!” I can hear Rosemary calling out as clearly as though it were yesterday, though it’s been over 40 years. For most of the day for most of our early childhood, she and I were inseparable. It was a magical time of great freedom, of daily adventures that would form who we would become as adults. We never knew locked doors,...
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some of the following essay appeared in The Washington Post on January 17, 2007: Charcuterie The ancient Greeks, Romans, Sumerians, and Chinese all made sausages, and Amerindians made jerky and smoked fish. Preserved meats such as these, as well the more elaborate p?t?s and terrines that were developed in the Renaissance, are all considered charcuterie, the late 15th century French term that distinguishes the meat preservers from the...
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