A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [254]
Winter cress: See creecy greens.
Zephyrinas (“Zeffies”): I must confess that in all my years of living in the South, I’ve yet to meet a zephyrina, let alone taste one. Fortunately, when I was researching the subject, two fellow Southerners, good friends and colleagues, were there to enlighten me: James Villas, who grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Damon Lee Fowler of Savannah. Jim tells me that zephyrinas are wispy-thin crackers made of biscuit (usually beaten biscuit) dough, a Charleston specialty. “I remember as a child eating them there spread with pimento cheese at the wonderful old Henry’s restaurant…I think Mother and Daddy used to love them at Henry’s also with she-crab soup.” He adds that his grandmother would make “extra biscuit dough just to pound it out thin with a rolling pin for zephyrinas—or zeffies.” Jim includes a recipe for them in his engaging cookbook, Biscuit Bliss (2003), giving credit where credit is due. “Bill Neal writes about [zephyrinas] in his book, Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie,” Jim says. “I include the recipe in my biscuit book with an acknowledgment to Bill.” Damon Lee Fowler tells me that zephyrinas, or rather crisp, flat wafers much like them, were a Savannah specialty as well. They differ, he explains, “only in detail and were traditionally served with turtle soup.” While on the zephyrinas hunt, Damon turned up a recipe for them in Sarah Rutledge’s Carolina Housewife (1847). And there they are in the “Breads, Cakes, Etc.” chapter of this predominately Lowcountry collection of receipts, calling for a pint of flour, “a small spoonful of butter,” and “sufficient water to make a dough that may be kneaded, and some salt.” Rutledge directs the reader to roll the dough “not thicker, if possible, than a sheet of paper,” to cut into rounds with a saucer, to prick with a fork, and to bake “in an oven moderately warm. They are baked instantaneously.” I should think so.
Sources
For Most Things Southern
boiledpeanuts.com. Everything from boiled peanuts and benne wafers to MoonPies, sorghum molasses, cane syrup, and stone-ground grits plus canned Brunswick stew, creecy greens, poke sallet, and she-crab soup.
southernseason.com. Grits and grains, parchment-thin Moravian cookies (ginger, sugar, lemon, black walnut), cheese straws hot and mild, wild honeys, barbecue sauces, pickles, and relishes (including the beloved Jerusalem artichoke pickle relish).
thevirginiacompany.com. Peanuts every which way, cheeses, cheese biscuits, crab cakes, Smithfield hams (even ham biscuits), smoked bacon and sausage links, fruit butters and spiced peaches, cookies and candies as well as some of the Old Dominion’s best wines.
Heat-And-Eat Barbecue, Brunswick Stew, and Other Savory Classics
barbarajeans.com. Crab cakes large, medium, and mini—all lump crabmeat, no fillers. Southern Living magazine calls them “the best.” Also she-crab soup.
carolinacurlytailbbq.com. Smoky, sweet-sour, hand-picked Eastern North Carolina barbecue by the pound and homemade Carolina Brunswick stew by the quart.
chesapeakebaygourmet.com. Maryland-style crab cakes, crab imperial, crab-stuffed mushrooms or shrimp, tomato-based Maryland crab soup, and more.
virginiatraditions.com. Barbecued ribs, breaded oysters, crab cakes, Virginia Brunswick stew, and so forth.
Bakeware
bakerscatalogue.com. Pan shapes and sizes not often available in retail stores.
cooksdream.com. Hard to find 7-and 8-inch tube (angel food cake) pans plus a variety of decorative pans both large and small.
Cakes and Pies, Cookies, and Candies
byrdcookiecompany.com. Headquarters for benne wafers, butter thins, Key lime coolers, peach cookies, and more. A Savannah tradition since 1924.
cajunpecanhouse.com. Mardi Gras king cakes, Cajun fruitcakes, pecan pies, and butter-roasted pecans plus sugared, cinnamon, or praliné pecans.
cakesbyjane.com. Moist, feathery, from-scratch pound cakes baked in some half dozen flavors (almond, Key lime, lemon,