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By Root 892 0

and slick. I have since queried countless southern friends about the dumplings their mothers made and nearly all say that the dumplings they knew as a child were flat. Certainly the dumpling recipes I’ve found in my collection of southern community cookbooks are of the noodle variety. Some are heavily seasoned, usually with bacon drippings and poultry seasoning. Others are perfectly plain and these, I think, are better because they complement rather than overpower the chicken. Note: For this recipe, you’ll need 5 to 5½ cups of slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces of cooked chicken and 8 cups (2 quarts) of chicken stock (see Stewed Chicken, Chapter 3).

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons salt, or to taste

1/3 cup firmly packed lard or vegetable shortening

1/3 cup milk (about)

8 cups (2 quarts) chicken stock or broth

1 chicken bouillon cube, if needed to boost the flavor of the stock

½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

½ teaspoon rubbed sage

½ teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled

5 to 5½ cups slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces of cooked chicken meat (see Note at left)

¼ cup coarsely chopped parsley

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of the salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in the lard until the texture of coarse meal. Whisking hard with a fork, drizzle in just enough milk to form a soft but manageable dough. Scoop onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a ball, cover, and let rest for about 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place the chicken stock, bouillon cube, if needed, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, the pepper, sage, and thyme in a large Dutch oven or stockpot and set over low heat.

3. Roll the dumpling dough as thin as pie crust on a lightly floured surface, and cut into 1½-inch squares. Gather any scraps, reroll, and cut.

4. Add the chicken to the Dutch oven, bring quickly to a boil, then ease in the dumplings, a few at a time. Adjust the heat so the stock barely bubbles, cover, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes or until the dumplings are done, stirring gently now and then.

5. Add the parsley, taste for salt and pepper, and adjust as needed. Ladle into heated soup bowls and serve.

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1885

J. Allen Smith of Knoxville, Tennessee, develops a premium finely ground, triple-sifted flour and within ten years brand-names it White Lily (his wife’s name is Lillie). Even today, many Southerners swear that they can’t make decent biscuits without White Lily. (See White Lily Flour, Chapter 5.)

F. F. Hansell of New Orleans publishes Lafcadio Hearn’s La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for Its Cuisine. He defines Creole cooking as a “blending of the characteristics of the American, French, Spanish, Italian, West Indian, and Mexican.” Hearn is the first to write a Creole cookbook.

1886

Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton concocts a nonalcoholic dark brown syrup as a nerve tonic. At Jacob’s drugstore nearby, it is mixed with carbonated water and sold as a revivifying beverage: Coca-Cola. (See box, Chapter 1.)

1887–88

C. F. Sauer, a 21-year-old Richmond, Virginia, pharmacist, decides to bottle the flavorings and extracts that cooks need and sell them at prices they can afford.

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CHICKEN BOG

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

In The Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection (1992), food historian Karen Hess suggests that chicken bog may have descended from la soupe courte of Provence, “an ancient festival dish, calling for mutton, petit salé or other cured pork, onions, aromatics, saffron, and rice.” It is, she continues, “not a soup but a very thick stew or a rather wet pilau.” Her theory is that with the deletion of saffron and substitution of chicken for mutton, a new dish emerged. “Several sources,” Hess writes, “including Amelia Wallace Vernon, formerly of Florence County, South Carolina, have described what sounds like a similar dish using chicken instead