• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

9. To assemble: Place one cake layer upside down on a large round platter and spread with one fourth of the frosting. Add a second layer, right side up this time, and spread with another one fourth of the frosting. Add the third and final layer, right side up, then swirl the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.

10. Let stand until the frosting firms up a bit, then cut into slim wedges and serve.

* * *

TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1979

Chef Paul Prudhomme opens K-Paul’s Cajun restaurant in New Orleans and quickly adds two new classics to our culinary repertoire: blackened redfish and Cajun popcorn.

Baltimore-based McCormick, the world’s largest spice company, opens a plant in Bedford, Virginia, to produce frozen onion rings under its Golden West label.

1980

Franklin Garland plants 350 European filbert and holly oak seedlings inoculated with black Périgord truffle spores on his farm near Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Harborplace, a complex of shops, boutiques, and restaurants featuring such local specialties as fried oysters, crab imperial, and deviled crab, opens in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

1981

Bill Neal, a self-taught cook, becomes chef at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. By reinventing the recipes he grew up with in South Carolina, Neal creates “the New Southern Cooking.” Craig Claiborne calls him “a genius at the stove.”

* * *

IDA’S HEIRLOOM FRUITCAKE

MAKES 13 POUNDS OF FRUITCAKE OR TEN 55/8 × 3 × 2-INCH LOAVES

Ida Friday, wife of Dr. William C. Friday, who for three decades was president of the University of North Carolina, is famous for the fruitcakes she makes, decks with pecans and glacéed fruits, and distributes among friends each Christmas. My own family always looked forward to Ida’s fruitcake—dense, dark, delicious, and unlike any we’d ever eaten. The fruitcake mixture is baked in a huge roaster, stirred every 15 minutes, then packed into buttered pans; no further baking needed. When I asked Ida if I might include her recipe in this cookbook, she brought me a small loaf to sample as well as the typed recipe. She told me that the recipe comes from her Orangeburg, South Carolina, ancestors and that it’s well over a hundred years old; it may even date as far back as the Civil War. Speaking of which, Ida’s grandfather was four years old when Sherman’s troops began their march through South Carolina torching houses. The day Yankees rode into her grandfather’s yard, the little boy ran up to a dismounted soldier, hugged him around the knees, looked up, and asked, “Are you my papa?”

“No, son. But I hope he comes home safe,” the Yankee replied, leaping upon his horse and leading his troops away. The boy’s home was spared and his father did come home safe. Note: Some of the ingredients in this archival recipe are called for by “rounded cups;” I’ve taken the liberty of converting these to today’s more precise measurements.

Ida told me that you need two helpers when you make this fruitcake, not only to prep the fruits and nuts but also to pack the mixture into the pans while it is still hot. “One to scoop,” she said, “and two to pack.” For her, making fruitcake is a two-day project. Day one is devoted to preparing the fruits and nuts, which are then covered overnight. Day two is for making and baking the fruitcakes, for decorating, and wrapping. Although Ida makes fruitcakes of different sizes and shapes, sometimes even packing the mixture into muffin pans, I find 5 5/8 × 3 × 2-inch loaves perfect for gift giving. Tip: If these fruitcakes are to compact properly, the pieces of fruits and nuts must be small.

Fruits and Nuts

7 cups shelled pecans

1 pound glacéed green cherries, each cherry quartered lengthwise (from stem to blossom end)

1 pound glacéed pineapple, cut into ½ × ¼ × ¼-inch rectangles

1 pound glacéed citron, cut into ¼-inch dice

Two 15-ounce boxes golden seedless raisins (sultanas)

One 15-ounce box dark seedless raisins

8 ounces pitted dates, cut into