 Ole Timey Recipes |
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| Pot Liquor |
Pot liquor is the liquid left after cooking collards or other greens. Southerners enjoy pot liquor as a soup, accompanied by a piece of cornbread for dunking. Recipe: Thoroughly wash two pounds of fresh greens, trim off the stalks, and immerse the leaves a few at a time in one and a half gallons of boiling water, to which has been added a quarter-pound piece of seasoning meat. Stir in one tablespoon of salt (more if needed). Cover the pot and simmer for one hour or more, or until the greens are tender. As with cabbage or beans, additional seasonings such as onions and red pepper pods may be put into the pot. This amount of greens will boil down from a large mass to a more manageable amount—about enough to serve four people. [After removing the greens, serve the liquid remaining in the pot as soup. |
| Pine Bark Stew |
This stew was popular in the Carolinas and Georgia in the nineteenth century. Despite its name, pine bark stew contains no pine bark. Theories about the origin of the name abound. Some say that cooks in the eighteenth century used the small, tender roots of the pine tree as a seasoning. Others believe the stew was so named for its brown color, which resembles bark. Still another theory claims that early cooks primarily used pine bark to fuel the fire over which they cooked the stew. Regardless of the origin of its name, this stew takes advantage of the many freshwater fish available in the region. Recipe: Cut six strips of bacon into small pieces and fry crisp over low heat in a large heavy pot. Drain bacon on paper towels and pour off all but about three tablespoons of the grease. Sauté two cups of diced potatoes in the pot and add one cup of minced onions when the potatoes are beginning to soften. Continue cooking and stirring until the onions are soft. Season to taste with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and thyme. Place two pounds of seasoned freshwater fish fillets (bass, perch, trout, bream, or whatever) on top of the onion-potato mixture and cover with four to five cups of boiling water. Simmer for thirty minutes. Then add one and a half cups of peeled, cored, and chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned) and continue simmering for about ten minutes more. Stir carefully, trying not to break the fish into small flakes. When the fish is tender, add the bacon bits and serve. There should be enough for four to six helpings. |
| Brunswick Stew |
Like pine bark stew, this dish has a number of possible origins. If you ask a Virginian, he’ll probably respond that an African American cook named Jimmy Matthews invented a squirrel stew for his master, Creed Haskins, in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1828. Georgia natives will most likely tell a different story, one in which the first stew was made in 1898 on St. Simons Island. North Carolinians will contend it originated sometime in the 1800s in Brunswick County, North Carolina. More likely, the dish originated long before the 1800s. However it originated, the dish has changed over the years; squirrel is usually left out in favor of meats available at the grocery store, and more vegetables are added. Although there are more answers about how Brunswick stew should be made than how it originated, it generally features chicken or a combination of several meats (usually chicken or beef), onions, corn, tomatoes, and perhaps lima beans, peas, and okra. Recipe: 1 large stewing or baking hen (5 pounds or more) 1 pound lean veal or beef 1 rabbit or squirrel, if available Water to cover 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced 1 large onion, diced 4 cups whole-kernel fresh white corn 4 cups small fresh lima beans 2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce 3 teaspoons salt or to taste 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce or to taste 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1/3 cup butter Stew chicken and meat together in salted water to cover until the meat falls from the bones. Cool; shred with the fingers, discarding skin, bones, and fat. Put meat back into strained broth and continue to simmer. In another pot, cook potatoes with onion, corn, lima beans, and tomato sauce in water to cover for about twenty minutes or until the potatoes are done. Combine with meat. The mixture will be thin like soup. Simmer for several hours, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Watch to prevent burning. Season with salt, pepper, hot pepper sauce, and Worcestershire. Add butter. Makes four quarts. From North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery by Beth Tartan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992). |