A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [240]
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1. Place all ingredients in a large, heavy nonreactive kettle—a broad-bottomed one is best—and insert a candy thermometer. Set over moderately low heat and bring to a boil, stirring now and then. Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently, then cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches the jelling point (218° to 220° F.).
2. Meanwhile, wash and rinse 5 half-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
3. Ladle the boiling preserves into the hot jars, filling each to within ¼ inch of the top. Tip: To avoid spills, use a wide-mouth canning funnel. Wipe the jar rims with a damp cloth and screw on the closures.
4. Process the jars for 15 minutes in a hot water bath (185° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
5. Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
The year was 1584…[English captain Arthur Barlowe] was looking for a landfall. He turned toward the perfumed sand banks [in what is now North Carolina] to discover a woven ambuscade of vines bearing golden brown fruit…the “mother vineyard,” home of America’s first grape, the scuppernong.
—CLEMENTINE PADDLEFORD, HOW AMERICA EATS
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
2005
Category-four hurricane Katrina, followed by category-three Rita, lashes New Orleans, closing such famous restaurants as Antoine’s, Emeril’s, and Commander’s Palace, at least temporarily. It also savages Louisiana’s sugar and shrimping industries.
Frank “It-takes-a-tough-man-to-make-a-tender-chicken” Perdue dies at the age of 84 in his home state of Maryland.
2006
By the end of March, nearly 40 percent of the Louisiana restaurants shuttered by Hurricane Katrina were up and running, most of them in New Orleans. Brennan’s reopens in mid May in time for its seventieth birthday.
John Besh, executive chef of Restaurant August, wins the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southeast. This New Orleans restaurant suffered minimal damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and managed to reopen by early fall.
Planters Peanuts celebrates its hundredth birthday.
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FIG PRESERVES
MAKES 8 HALF-PINTS
Whatever figs my mother didn’t pickle, she would preserve, again using an old southern recipe. My favorite way to eat fig preserves was on hot buttered biscuits.
4½ pounds small firm-ripe figs, washed but not peeled or stemmed
6 cups sugar
4 cups (1 quart) water
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1. Prick each fig with a sterilized needle (to keep the figs from bursting) and set aside.
2. Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil in a large, heavy, nonreactive kettle over high heat. Add the figs, adjust the heat so the liquid bubbles gently, then cook the figs uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes until translucent. Set off the heat, cover, and let the figs plump in the syrup overnight.
3. The next day, wash and rinse 8 half-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
4. Set the kettle of figs over moderate heat and slowly bring to a boil. Skim off the froth, then pack the figs as attractively and tightly as possible in the hot preserving jars, filling to within ¼ inch of the top. Ladle in just enough boiling syrup to cover the figs, again leaving ¼ inch head space. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of each jar to release air bubbles; wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure.
5. Process the jars for 20 minutes in a hot water bath (185° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
6. Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
SHENANDOAH APPLE-BLACKBERRY JELLY
MAKES 4 HALF-PINTS
For me one of the loveliest parts of the South is Virginia