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By Root 1067 0

or swabbed with “antibacterials.” To make salt-rising bread, there must be airborne microbes and a medium in which they can proliferate. Because I adore salt-rising bread, I reprint a recipe for it that appeared in From North Carolina Kitchens: Favorite Recipes Old and New, an uncopyrighted little paperback published some fifty years ago by the North Carolina Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs:

In the evening, take a pint of milk and heat almost to the boiling point. Into this put one handful (¼ cup) each of meal and flour. Add a teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of soda, and a pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon). Put into this seven white beans, let rise overnight in a warm place.

In the morning, take out the beans, add enough flour to make it thick, having warmed the flour and yeast. Set in a warm place to rise. After it has risen (and smells ruined—the worse it smells, the better the yeast), mix with 2 quarts of flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of lard, 4 teaspoons of salt, and enough warm water to make a soft sponge. Make into loaves. Keep covered in a warm place and let rise to about twice its size. Bake in a moderate oven.

The seven white beans are not a hoax, as you might think, but are to make the bread rise, not sink.

—Mrs. J. E. Gentry, Ashe County, North Carolina

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PAIN PERDU (LOST BREAD)

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Known elsewhere as French toast, this Louisiana brunch and breakfast classic deliciously recycles stale French bread. In New Orleans, I’ve even seen it made with brioche. The recipe here is my attempt to duplicate the Pain Perdu made to order every morning at a funky little motel near Bayou Teche; I spent a week there years ago while on article assignment in Cajun country.

¼ cup light cream or half-and-half

4 large eggs

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

12 slices stale French bread, each measuring about 4 inches across and 1 inch thick

1 quart vegetable oil (for deep-fat frying)

Confectioners’ (10 X) sugar (for dusting)

1. Beat the cream, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, and nutmeg in a large electric mixer bowl at moderately high speed for about 2 minutes until thick and creamy.

2. Place 3 to 4 bread slices in the egg mixture, let stand for 15 seconds, then turn the slices and soak the flip sides for another 15 seconds. Transfer the dipped slices to a wax paper–lined baking sheet. Repeat until all slices are saturated with the egg mixture. Cover with foil or plastic food wrap and refrigerate for several hours.

3. When ready to proceed, pour the oil into a large, deep skillet and insert a deep-fat thermometer. Set over moderate heat and bring the oil to a temperature of 380° F. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250° F. Also line two baking sheets with foil and set aside.

4. When the oil reaches 380° F., ease three slices of soaked bread into the skillet and fry until a rich golden brown; this will take 1 to 2 minutes per side if you keep the temperature of the oil as close to 380° F. as possible. Drain the browned slices on paper toweling, then transfer to foil-lined baking sheets and set in the oven to keep warm. Repeat until all of the slices have been browned.

5. To serve, overlap two slices of Pain Perdu on each of six heated plates, dust with confectioners’ sugar, and serve at once with heated cane syrup or maple syrup.

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1949

Ed and Edie Obrycki take over the little crab house that brother-in-law Melvin Alexander had started a few years earlier in Baltimore and rename it Ed Obrycki’s Olde Crab House. It is soon a local landmark.

1950

The Junior League of Charleston, South Carolina, publishes Charleston Receipts to raise funds for the Charleston Speech and Hearing Center. Still selling well, it is the quintessential community cookbook because its recipes and voice are distinctly local.

1950s

With bananas a major New Orleans import, restaurateur Owen Brennan challenges his chef Paul Blangé to do something