AMERICA's DISAPPEARING FOODWAYS
 

Yesterday I read through a fascinating book about the regional foodways of the Appalachians and learned a lot about the traditional, regional dishes, recipes, and traditions that are unique to the peoples of the Appalachian mountain regions. Are there any memories or dishes that you know are unique to where you live? A lot of these are rapidly disappearing and I would love to hear your stories.

[QUOTE=mensplace;423767]Yesterday I read through a fascinating book about the regional foodways of the Appalachians and learned a lot about the traditional, regional dishes, recipes, and traditions that are unique to the peoples of the Appalachian mountain regions. Are there any memories or dishes that you know are unique to where you live? A lot of these are rapidly disappearing and I would love to hear your stories.[/QUOTE]Well it is not where I live now, but one food that is from North Carolina where my 1/2 my family is from is dry sausage. Never saw it outside of NC and even in NC it is virtually gone now. Same with country cured hams, the old style you had to scrub with a brush and soap to remove the crust and boil at least twice to remove the excess salt.

Black Pepper Encrusted Ham
 

For the longest time here in Miami at a flea market we used to get these 1/4 inch coated hams that were from Smithfield.Now that the Asians bought the company who knows if they will continue or not.

It used to be that country hams were so heavily salted primarily for preservation. There was salt, smoke, and then a dry room. The hams were later soaked in many changes of water to restore them rope that is the standard...and costly. Too, few are aware of the difference between hams from the different states. My favorite is KY..

Smithfield used to be almost a standard...until they got so big. I have lived in several areas of NC, but never ran across the dry sausage. Would love to hear more. Bet not many here ever had fried livermush for breakfast.

While talking about N.C....Lexington, N.C. BBQ is great, but I was raised on low-country eastern style whole hog, hickory smoked, cooked all night over a pit and basted until it falls apart. NO sauce needed.

Once of my great pleasures as I traveled every week throughout the U.S. & Europe was finding those special local foods. There was a time when traditional, family or local foods were seen at every gathering. Franchise food or restaurant is just not the same! It was in Oklahoma that I discovered there was something besides red-eye gravy and it was white gravy served over chicken fried steak in a little roadside place by an OLD lady who had been cooking it all her life. DELICIOUS

[QUOTE=mensplace;423814] I have lived in several areas of NC, but never ran across the dry sausage. [/QUOTE] It is a regional delicacy. Mostly North East North Carolina, but I hear it used to be more common throughout the South. I have been told, with no way to know if it is true or not, that NC is the last state that this particular style dry sausage is legal to make and sell.:?!?: If true, that may be part of the reason why it is only found there, and might have been a heritage food common throughout the South years ago before my time. All I can say 100% for sure though, get the right batch made from the right forest finished pork, and you'll have tasted by far the best sausage you ever even thought of eating.:yes:

[URL="http://www.ncfolk.org/macs-air-dried-sausage/"]Mac’s Air Dried Sausage[/URL]

PS: To cook it you first boil to hydrate it, then fry it like any other breakfast sausage links. Make sure you pierce the skin with a fork to let the extra fat cook out. If it is the real mccoy, the fat will be a very deep yellow color, almost orange, not clear white.

My dad still home cans his grandmother's recipe for stuffed peppers. They are Hungarian hot wax stuffed with grated cabbage and pickled. He gave me a jar of them today. This is what they look like: [URL]http://i.imgur.com/UMQdcQK.jpg[/URL]

I'm wondering whether they reflect any particular heritage or are simply a regional item. Too, what would they be generally served with? To me the story behind the food is just as interesting as the dish itself. So many of our foods reflect historic cultures that were brought from other places and in many areas those cultures are still celebrated. My dad from upstate NY used to talk about a very pungent fish dish that I could only spell the way he pronounced it...lutefisk.

Looked at the article about the dried sausage. That used to be common up in Wisconsin and was often venison. Throughout Europe they have different versions, all of which cost a fortune here. Most often it was dried in a smokehouse. I wonder how many today even have smokehouse, never mind cold cellars or spring houses. I remember long ago on the Victory Garden there was an episode where he was burying all of the late root vegetables with layer after layer of straw that was then covered in snow. Most have lost the knowledge of how to preserve foods, but the FOXFIRE series is an excellent source for a lot of the knowledge of things folks used to take for granted.

Lutefisk is Norwegian it is dried cod treated with lye.
My neighbor lady is Norwegian and her mother made it.
dried sausage smoked is alive and well in Texas.
Liverworst I love but is losing popularity.
I dont see lindburger cheese in the store anymore.
All of my beloved foods from Germany are now gone.
I used to get a wonderful sauerkraut imported from Germany I haven't seen in years.
The stuff they sell in the cans made here in the USA is garbage.
Pickled beets only one brand.
I miss my mom's sauerkraut and pickled beets.

Every time I go to the store more stuff is missing and more store brand garbage taking it's place.
the beans I used to buy are missing now.

I dont see cumpuats anymore either.
I could be on the subject all day.
no one eats rabbits anymore here.
So one rabbit will cost 25 dollars if you can find one.

Worth

Worth

ALL of which makes me glad to have grown up in the fifties when there was still self-sufficiency and flavor. When my grandmother made chicken and rice it came from a yardbird. Everyone used to have a small chicken coop in the back. When she mad pound cake, she drove out into the country for fresh churned butter and combined that with fresh eggs. FLAVOR! The uncles always brought in quail they had hunted that morning and it was covered with pan gravy. That low-country food was a memory I treasure, but it was always combined with family. Even snapping beans in a rocking chair on the porch was an occasion for aunts, uncles, & cousins to get together. The holidays brought pig-pickings and every conceivable side dish. Occasionally the uncles would get together and go out to the hunting lodge to cook up a huge pot of "pine bark stew" that was served over rice. Rice was served in an almost endless number of ways...even as the basis for callas to go with STRONG coffee in the morning. Just north of me in GA they made large cauldrons of hog's head stew. ON January 1, we ate Hopping John, almost religiously, as it was the duty of every righteous southerner to remember when they were left with nothing but rice, dried beans and some greens. The stories that were passed down were a direct link to the past and were expected to be remembered.

[QUOTE=Redbaron;423826]It is a regional delicacy. Mostly North East North Carolina, but I hear it used to be more common throughout the South. I have been told, with no way to know if it is true or not, that NC is the last state that this particular style dry sausage is legal to make and sell.:?!?: If true, that may be part of the reason why it is only found there, and might have been a heritage food common throughout the South years ago before my time. All I can say 100% for sure though, get the right batch made from the right forest finished pork, and you'll have tasted by far the best sausage you ever even thought of eating.:yes:

[URL="http://www.ncfolk.org/macs-air-dried-sausage/"]Mac’s Air Dried Sausage[/URL]

PS: To cook it you first boil to hydrate it, then fry it like any other breakfast sausage links. Make sure you pierce the skin with a fork to let the extra fat cook out. If it is the real mccoy, the fat will be a very deep yellow color, almost orange, not clear white.[/QUOTE]


Italians have been making air dried sausages probably for centuries--salami, sopressata, etc. used to all be air dried with no preservatives added. Mom and dad still make all their own sausages and while most are frozen to be eaten fresh, a portion get a little extra salt and then hung in the basement to dry. Once fully dry, they get packed in oil for longer term storage. There's no way these would ever be allowed to be made and sold this way,.

They still cook a lot of the traditional foods from the old country, and us kids are on a mission to learn how to make as many of them as we can before it's too late.

Yum, liverwurst :)

The availability of these foods in your average supermarket is certainly declining. The good news is many of these foods that are/were dying are being made by small artisan producers which don't have the ability to get into your average supermarket.

In some ways I think this is a good and needed evolution, the shift from supermarkets having everything to smaller producers in niche markets. The Limburger cheeses, liverwursts, dried sausages, etc. that you find in the stores are generally low-quality anyhow. The smaller producers I have come across are less interested in scale and more so in traditional methods and quality.

Having said all that it can be tough to stay in business for said small producers these days. And even with more of these small shops at work, many many recipes and types of foods will still be lost IMO.

Beef ,, can't afford much of it

[QUOTE=Siberian;426734]Yum, liverwurst :)

The availability of these foods in your average supermarket is certainly declining. The good news is many of these foods that are/were dying are being made by small artisan producers which don't have the ability to get into your average supermarket.

In some ways I think this is a good and needed evolution, the shift from supermarkets having everything to smaller producers in niche markets. The Limburger cheeses, liverwursts, dried sausages, etc. that you find in the stores are generally low-quality anyhow. The smaller producers I have come across are less interested in scale and more so in traditional methods and quality.

Having said all that it can be tough to stay in business for said small producers these days. And even with more of these small shops at work, many many recipes and types of foods will still be lost IMO.[/QUOTE]

I grew up eating Stiglmeier Gänseleberwurst (goose liver sausage) you cant find it at the store anymore.

Worth

Worth - Try Fiesta Mart for your German products. I believe they have a store in Austin. Also,if you have a brand name of a product I am sure there are retailers on the web that carry it. Heinz Brown Mustard is unique to Western Pennsylvania and I grew up using only that mustard. Down here I found it Big Lots when Heinz changed the packaging but no other time. So I googled it, bought 12 bottles and am happy now.

MikeInCypress