A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [38]
I visited Avery Island not so long ago and was surprised to learn that it isn’t an island. It’s a salt dome and nature preserve of primeval beauty. I toured the Tabasco plant, too, eyes tearing.
There was only one Tabasco sauce then. Today there are six that climb the Scoville heat scale from tepid (Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce compounded of jalapeños) to explosive (Habanero). The original Tabasco brand Pepper Sauce ranks somewhere in the middle.
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LITTLE BAY OYSTER STEW
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
One summer at our cottage on an inlet of Chesapeake Bay I made a deadly (well, almost) discovery. I was allergic to oysters. Here we were in the land of Chincoteagues and I couldn’t touch them. Old Farmer Johnson, the caretaker for our little cottage, taught my mother the Virginia way to make oyster stew. Everyone says it’s delicious.
1 pint freshly shucked oysters, drained and their liquor reserved
Oyster liquor plus enough cold water to total 1 cup
4 cups (1 quart) milk or 2 cups each milk and half-and-half
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, cut into pats
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
1 cup coarsely crushed soda crackers
1. Place the oysters and the oyster liquor mixture in a large, heavy, nonreactive saucepan, set over low heat, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or just until the oyster skirts ruffle.
2. Add the milk, butter, salt, and pepper and without stirring, slowly bring to a simmer. Do not allow the stew to boil or it will curdle. Add the crackers, again without stirring, set the pan at the back of the stove—off direct heat—and let the stew stand uncovered for 20 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.
3. Ladle the oyster stew into heated soup plates and serve at the start of a full-course dinner or as the main course of a light lunch or supper.
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1741
South Carolina’s rice crop begins to fail, intermittent wars block shipping lanes (the War of Austrian Succession, the French and Indian War), and rice planters suffer a 25-year depression.
1742
Eliza Smith’s Compleat Housewife is published in Williamsburg, Virginia. But the author and recipes are English.
1745
Founded only 27 years earlier, New Orleans already has six cabarets.
1747
The British gain control of the Caribbean.
1750
The discovery of the Cumberland Gap, a natural pass through the Appalachians, encourages southern colonists to push westward beyond the mountains.
Of America’s 280,000 slaves, nearly 60 percent work plantations along the Maryland-Virginia “tobacco coast.”
1751
Jesuit priests bring sugarcane to Louisiana, but the first successful crop isn’t harvested until 44 years later. It fetches $12,000—a fortune in its time.
Local laws allow New Orleans’s six taverns to sell wine and spirits—but not to soldiers, Africans, or Native Americans.
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HATTERAS CLAM CHOWDER
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
Every state within the sound of the surf has a clam chowder, and this one, plumped with potatoes, carrots, and celery, belongs to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It’s a good basic chowder—an easy one, too. Some Banker cooks use a half-and-half mix of oysters and clams in their chowders, but I prefer this one. Note: If you’re unable to buy shucked clams, my Chapel Hill fishmonger, Tom Robinson, suggests that you buy clams in the shell and freeze them; this makes them easier to shuck. You may also get a little more clam juice. Robinson, who makes mid-weekly trips to the coast with his refrigerated truck, is open only at week’s end, ensuring that his seafood is fresh, fresh, fresh.
1 pint shucked clams, drained and liquid reserved (about 4 dozen clams)
4 ounces salt pork, finely diced
1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2 large celery