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MAKES 6 SERVINGS

I have always been partial to quiche and thought that a perfectly delicious one could be made by teaming Georgia’s sweet Vidalia onions with a good smoky bacon: two southern classics in an easy lunch or supper main dish. This has become a brunch favorite for me and for my friends, who sometimes ask when invited, “Are you doing that Vidalia quiche?” Note: If the filling is to be properly creamy, you must choose a cheese that melts smoothly without “stringing,” a well-aged Emmentaler, for example, or a fontina.

5 slices richly smoked bacon, cut crosswise into strips ¼ inch wide

2 medium Vidalia onions, halved lengthwise, then each half thinly sliced (1 to 1¼ pounds)

4 ounces fontina or well-aged Emmentaler cheese, coarsely shredded (see Note at left)

One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup light cream

½ cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1. Place a large, heavy baking sheet on a shelf in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400° F. This will help crisp the bottom of the pie shell.

2. Fry the bacon in a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until the drippings cook out and only crisp brown bits remain. Using a slotted spoon, lift the bacon to paper toweling and reserve. Also pour off all drippings, then spoon 2 tablespoons of them back into the skillet.

3. Add the onions to the skillet drippings and sauté for 12 to 15 minutes or until limp and lightly browned. Remove the skillet from the heat and cool the onions for 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, scatter the reserved bacon and the cheese evenly over the bottom of the pie shell. When the onions have cooled, scoop them on top of the bacon and cheese, spreading to the edge of the pie shell; do not pack. Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg together until smooth and pour slowly and evenly over the onions.

5. Slide the quiche onto the baking sheet in the lower third of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° F. and continue baking uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes or until the quiche is set like custard.

6. Remove the quiche from the oven and from the baking sheet, set on a baking rack, and cool for 25 minutes.

7. Cut into wedges and serve. This quiche needs nothing more to accompany it than a tartly dressed green salad.

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1828

Brunswick stew is created in Brunswick County, Virginia, by African American cook Jimmy Matthews while on a hunting trip with his master, Dr. Creed Haskins. That original Brunswick stew contained slow-simmered squirrels, onions, stale bread, butter, and seasonings. Today’s chicken-based versions brim with corn, butter beans, and tomatoes. (See recipe, Chapter 3.)

1830

To feed camp meeting crowds, Skilton M. Dennis begins barbecuing pigs in the little East North Carolina town of Ayden. Today his great-great-grandson, Pete Jones, carries on the family tradition at his celebrated Skylight Inn (see 1948).

1831

Twenty-two-year-old Virginia farmer Cyrus McCormick perfects the mechanical reaper that his father had begun. It is the world’s first successful “harvester.”

1833

Dr. Henry Perrine begins cultivating Mexican avocados south of Miami and within a few years plants Mexican limes on Indian Key. These small, tart, yellow citrus fruits are now known as Key limes.

1834

Nancy Green, the model for the original Aunt Jemima logo, is born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky.

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BAKED VIRGINIA HAM

MAKES 12 TO 14 SERVINGS

In Virginia, indeed over much of the South, baked ham means Smithfield ham (see box, Chapter 3) or one of the other good regional hams, mahogany-hued and country-cured. It never means the pink packing-house hams so popular elsewhere. In “The Representative Ham,” a New Yorker short story by North Carolina writer Frances Gray Patton, the author tells how a transplanted Yankee, in a burst of cost-cutting,