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4. Ladle the cheese sauce over the sandwiches, dividing the total amount evenly. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan, again dividing evenly.

5. Slide the pans into the broiler, setting them 4 to 5 inches from the heat, and broil for 2 to 3 minutes or until bubbly and flecked with brown.

6. Crisscross 2 slices of bacon over each portion and serve.

TURKEY PURLOO

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Purloo is the Lowcountry word for pilau or pilaf and since plantation days when rice was king, purloos have been a popular way to recycle leftovers—especially turkey and chicken. Actually, this isn’t a true purloo because the creamed turkey and mushrooms are ladled over cooked rice, not cooked with it. No matter; it’s a popular South Carolina dish.

3 tablespoons butter

½ pound small mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered

1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup roast turkey (or chicken) drippings, bacon drippings, or vegetable oil

7 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups chicken broth or water

3½ cups bite-size chunks cooked turkey (or chicken)

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

2 tablespoons moderately coarsely chopped parsley

2 cups long-grain rice, cooked by package directions

1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat; add the mushrooms and onion and sauté, stirring often, for 5 to 8 minutes or until the mushrooms release their juices and these evaporate. Set off the heat and reserve.

2. Blend the drippings and flour in a large, heavy saucepan, set over moderately low heat, and cook, stirring all the while, for 5 to 10 minutes or until a rich rust-brown. Add the broth and cook, whisking constantly, for about 3 minutes or until thickened and smooth.

3. Add the reserved mushroom mixture, the turkey, salt, and pepper; adjust the heat so the sauce barely bubbles, and simmer uncovered, stirring now and then, for 15 minutes or until the flavors mellow. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed. Stir in the parsley.

4. To serve, bed the hot cooked rice on a heated platter and ladle the turkey mixture on top.

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Heirloom Recipe

TO ROAST A ’POSSUM

…first catch the ’possum. Dress it and soak it in salt water for 12 hrs, then wash and parboil it in salt water until tender. Have ready some sliced sweet potatoes which have been boiled until done in clear water. Lay ’possum out flat in roasting pan, put slices of sweet potatoes all around it, add pepper and sufficient stock. Bake in quick oven until a nice brown. Serve on a platter using potatoes and parsley for garnishing.—Mrs. W. T. Tatum, Iredell County, North Carolina

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1897

Nashville builds an exact replica of the Parthenon for its Tennessee Centennial Exposition, a world’s fair on a grand scale with pavilions from as far afield as Egypt. The Parthenon still stands in this “Athens of the South.”

1898

Georgia bubbles up its own Brunswick stew. A plaque on a 25-gallon iron pot just outside Brunswick, Georgia, marks both the spot and the vessel in which it was cooked.

By changing the name of the fizzy stomach tonic he created in 1893 to Pepsi-Cola, druggist Caleb Bradham fixes Pepsi’s official birth date at 1898 (see box, Chapter 1).

1899

Antoine’s owner Jules Alciatore creates an oyster dish so rich he calls it Oysters Rockefeller. The exact recipe is known only to Antoine’s.

Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead of Chattanooga, Tennessee, persuade Atlanta Coca-Cola owner Asa Candler to let them bottle his popular new fountain drink.

Richard L. Lindsey names his Nashville, Tennessee, mill’s finest flour for his three-year-old daughter, Martha White. Southerners who pride themselves on their flaky biscuits and feathery cakes still insist upon soft white flours like Martha White. (See Martha White Flour, Chapter 6.)

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BEAUFORT QUAIL JAMBALAYA