A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [211]
Asked by President Ronald Reagan to plan an American menu for the economic summit held in Williamsburg, Virginia, New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne features barbecue from Lexington, North Carolina.
Using his mother’s cheesecake recipe, one oven, and one baker, 21-year-old Adam Matthews of Louisville starts a business that now sells cheesecakes all over the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Mexico. Its name? Adam Matthews.
1984
“Hee Haw Honey” Mackenzie Colt settles in Nashville to write songs but gets into the candy business instead. Colts Chocolates fans now include everyone from Dolly Parton to President George W. Bush.
Don Pelts realizes a lifelong dream by opening Corky’s Ribs & BBQ in Memphis. With its 1950s ambience and pork shoulders pit-roasted 22 hours over hickory chips, Corky’s soon becomes the talk of Tennessee. Today there are branches as far north as Illinois and as far south as Florida.
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LANE CAKE
MAKES AN 8-INCH, 4-LAYER CAKE
Open any southern community cookbook and you’re likely to find Lane Cake. Or rather, one of the many versions of this popular Alabama white cake. Some are three-layer, nine-inch cakes, others a towering four layers but only eight inches across. Mainly, however, it’s the frosting and the egg yolk–thickened coconut filling that vary. Most fillings also contain bourbon (or brandy), pecans, and raisins, plus a few glacéed red cherries or maraschinos. Some recipes call for frosting the cake with the filling as well as spreading it between the layers because “it’s the best part of Lane Cake.” In my search for authenticity, I find that the older Lane cakes include not only recipes for a rich fruity filling but also one for boiled icing. Originally called “Prize Cake” because it had won a prize at the Alabama State Fair, this classic later took the name of its creator, Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Alabama. Mrs. Lane published the Prize Cake receipt in her cookbook, Some Good Things To Eat (1898). But according to Cecily Brownstone, longtime food editor of the Associated Press and a friend of Mrs. Lane’s granddaughter, that recipe was “vague in the extreme.” Does this explain why there are so many different Lane cakes? The recipe here is an especially good one. Do as Southerners do and serve it at Christmastime. It’s a delicious substitute for fruitcake. Note: To finesse the sticky job of chopping raisins, I use dried “currants.” They are actually Zante raisins, a variety so small they need no chopping. Tip: For this cake (indeed for most cakes), southern cooks would use one of their beloved “soft” flours such as White Lily or Martha White.
Cake
31/3 cups sifted cake flour (see Tip at left)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (no substitute)
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk mixed with 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Filling
8 large egg yolks
1½ cups sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup moderately finely chopped pecans
¾ cup dried currants (see Note at left)
1/3 cup moderately finely chopped glacéed red cherries (optional)
¼ cup bourbon or brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing
2 cups sugar
½ cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour four 8-inch layer cake pans well, tap out the excess flour, and set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside also.
2. Cream the butter in a large electric mixer bowl, first at low speed and then at high for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and silvery. With the machine at moderately low speed, add the sugar gradually and continue beating for 1 to 2 minutes or until fluffy.
3. With the mixer at low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three batches, alternating