A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [51]
1784
A market comes to Fell’s Point, now part of Baltimore. Still going strong, the Broadway Market sells fresh seafood, meats, fruits, vegetables, and breads.
1787
Maryland abolishes the importation of slaves.
Jonathan Lucas builds a water-powered rice mill, which streamlines rice production in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
1789
Revolutionary War general and Virginia gentleman farmer George Washington is unanimously elected America’s first president; he serves for two terms.
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FLORIDA BLACK BEAN SOUP
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Right out of Columbia Journalism School, I shared the top floor of a Greenwich Village brownstone with two other recent graduates. But only one of them—the girl from Tampa—is relevant here. She talked incessantly about Ybor City (the Cuban quarter) and the marvelous black bean soup served there. She even tried to make it herself—with unsavory results. When an article assignment sent me to Tampa, I tried several different versions of the famous black bean soup, scribbling notes as I sampled.
1 pound dried black beans, washed and sorted but not soaked
12 cups (3 quarts) cold water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, olive oil, bacon, ham, or pork drippings
1 large Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 large whole bay leaves, preferably fresh
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup dry sherry
¼ cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley
2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled, the whites coarsely chopped and the yolks sieved
1. Bring the beans and water to a boil in a large, heavy, nonreactive kettle over high heat. Adjust the heat so the water bubbles gently, cover, and simmer for about 1½ hours or until the beans are nearly tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil for 1 minute in a large, heavy, nonreactive skillet over moderately high heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry for 10 to 12 minutes or until limp and lightly browned. Mix in the tomatoes, bay leaves, salt, oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes, and black pepper, then set off the heat.
3. When the beans are almost tender, stir in the skillet mixture, cover, and simmer for 1½ to 2 hours, stirring now and then, or until the beans are mushy; remove and discard the bay leaves. Cool the soup for 20 minutes, then purée in small batches in the food processor or in an electric blender at high speed.
4. As each batch is puréed, pour into a clean large, nonreactive kettle. Add the sherry, then set over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often, or just until the mixture steams. Taste for salt and adjust as needed.
5. To serve, ladle into heated large soup plates, then sprinkle with the parsley, chopped egg whites, and sieved yolks, dividing the amounts as evenly as possible.
The corn is full of kernels and the colonels are full of corn.
—OLD KENTUCKY SAYING
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1790s
Sugar and cotton replace tobacco and indigo as Louisiana’s top crops.
Between a fourth and a third of the whites now living in Virginia are German-speaking.
On a swing through South Carolina, President George Washington tours the rice plantations of George Town and Charles Town. His diary includes this entry: “…we were recd. under a salute of cannon & by a company of infantry handsomely uniformed.” He also writes of being “introduced to upwards of 50 ladies” at a tea party given in his honor.
1791
The French Market, today a lively indoor-outdoor sprawl of eateries, shops, and farm stands covering several city blocks, first opens in New Orleans. It is America’s oldest public market. Located here is the famous Café du Monde.
1792
New Orleans bakers are fined for short-weighting loaves of bread, and barrels of spoiled flour are dumped into the Mississippi.
George