• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

5. Remove the torte from the oven and cool in the upright pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

6. To serve, cut into large squares and drift each portion with some of the whipped cream topping.

It’s as good as a pig eating slop.

—OLD NORTH CAROLINA SAYING

* * *

TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1960s

Martha White Flour of Nashville, Tennessee, introduces Bix Mix and invites customers “to make the world’s best biscuits” just by adding water.

1961

Wowed by Hardee’s success, Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawls, Jr., of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, open a fancier Hardee’s. Charcoal-broiled burgers cost 15 cents, cheeseburgers a nickel more. Today there are nearly 2,500 Hardees at home and abroad.

Herman Lay merges his southern snack food company with the Frito Company of Dallas, forming Frito-Lay, Inc.

With embargos on Cuban products, sugar refining booms in Florida.

1962

Diet Rite goes national and within 18 months is America’s fourth best-selling cola.

Planters introduces dry-roasted peanuts, shaving calories from one of America’s favorite snack foods.

1963

Coke introduces a new diet cola called TaB.

The Thomas J. Lipton Company establishes a tea research station on Wadmalaw Island near Charleston and over time proves that the South Carolina Lowcountry is an ideal habitat for high-quality black tea.

* * *

EAST TENNESSEE STACK CAKE

MAKES A 6-LAYER, 9-INCH CAKE, ABOUT 16 SERVINGS

This old family recipe comes from my good friend Florence Gray Soltys, who grew up on a dairy farm just where the Tennessee foothills rise toward the Smokies. “The recipe was a favorite of my Aunt Rhoda Gray,” Florence says. “I often add bourbon to the apple mixture and serve with whipped cream.” Note: Some dried apples need to be washed, usually those bought at roadside stands or farmer’s markets.

Dried Apple Filling

1 pound dried apples, washed well if necessary (see Note above)

10 cups water

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup bourbon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

Pastry

6 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or vegetable shortening

2½ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

1 cup heavy cream, whipped until stiff with 2 tablespoons confectioners’ (10 X) sugar

1. For the filling: Place the dried apples in a large nonreactive saucepan, add the water, and cook uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes or until the apples are soft enough to mash and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the apples into a large heatproof bowl and mash thoroughly. Mix in all remaining filling ingredients and cool to room temperature. Note: You can make the filling several days ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. When ready to proceed, arrange two racks about 4 inches apart as near the middle of the oven as possible. If yours is a small oven, place one rack in the middle. Preheat the oven to 450° F.

3. For the pastry: Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside.

4. Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer briefly at low speed and then at high speed for about 2 minutes or until fluffy. Beat the eggs in one by one.

5. Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry and beating after each addition only enough to combine.

6. Divide the dough into six equal parts, shape into balls, then place each on a sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil and cover with a sheet of floured wax paper. Roll two balls of dough into rounds about 9 inches across. Peel off the wax paper, then flour the rim of a 9-inch round layer cake pan and using it as a “cookie cutter,” cut each circle of dough into a perfect 9-inch round. Gently pat any scraps of dough into