• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Topping

¾ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

¾ cup unsifted masa harina, preferably white (see Note above)

½ cup unsifted stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

¾ cup unsifted confectioners’ (10 X) sugar

1 large egg

1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Butter a shallow 3-quart baking dish (it should be no more than 2 inches deep) and set aside.

2. For the blackberry mixture: Mix all ingredients in a large nonreactive bowl; set aside.

3. For the topping: Sift the flour, masa harina, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, and salt into a large mixing bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and confectioners’ sugar in a large electric mixer bowl at moderate speed for 1 to 2 minutes or until fluffy; beat in the egg. With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour and beating after each addition only enough to combine.

4. Scoop the batter (it will be quite thick) into a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip and pipe over the berries in a lattice pattern, spacing the rows 1½ inches apart.

5. Slide the cobbler onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

6. Serve hot, or, if you prefer, cool the cobbler to room temperature before serving.

The inside was dim, and what light did come in the little windows and the door fell in beams through an atmosphere thick with the dust of ground corn.

—CHARLES FRAZIER, COLD MOUNTAIN

* * *

TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1957

Mississippi-born Craig Claiborne becomes food editor of The New York Times and quickly changes the way newspapers cover food.

Promising quality food at low prices, Food Town opens in Salisbury, North Carolina. Known today as Food Lion, it operates more than 1,200 supermarkets throughout the South and mid-Atlantic.

1958

Georgia-based Royal Crown Cola test-markets Diet Rite, America’s first diet cola. But only in the South.

1959

The first of the Fat Boy’s barbecue chain is established at Cape Canaveral.

Castro refugees swarm into Miami and soon create “Little Havana” on Southwest Eighth Street (Calle Ocho), an area chock-a-block with Cuban restaurants, bars, and clubs.

1960

Wilbur Hardee opens a little “walk-up” burger joint in Greenville, North Carolina. There are no tables and the menu is limited.

* * *

WILD PERSIMMON PUDDING

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

I first tasted wild persimmon pudding when I was an assistant home demonstration agent in Iredell County, North Carolina, and I have loved it ever since. Back then, every farm woman had a pet recipe for this pudding and served it year-round even though wild persimmons were in season only from late September until Christmas. Whole families would go out and gather bushels of fallen fruit (the best indication that they were ripe and honey-sweet), prep them, and freeze the pulp (see About Wild Persimmons, Chapter 5). This particular persimmon pudding is adapted from a recipe given to my niece Linda by her friend Laura Frost, who was the chef at Sleddon’s, a “fine-dining” restaurant in Southern Pines, North Carolina—now closed, alas. Note: If wild persimmons are unavailable, you can buy wild persimmon purée (see Sources, backmatter). You can also substitute the big orange Japanese persimmons for the wild. But the pudding will taste different.

1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 extra-large eggs

¼ cup sugar

1 cup wild persimmon pulp (see headnote)

7/8 cup milk

1½ tablespoons butter, melted

Topping

1 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks with 2 tablespoons confectioners’ (10X) sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 tablespoon Cognac)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly coat a 1-quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray and