AMERICA's DISAPPEARING FOODWAYS

[RobinB]

My mom, who was born in 1922, grew up on a farm in very rural Mississippi. If they didn't raise it, grow it or hunt it, they didn't survive. My grandma canned everything, I remember seeing rows and rows of mason jars in a room off her kitchen. Going to the store was reserved for the very few items that they couldn't produce themselves (or swap their neighbors for). I was lucky enough to spend several weeks down there every summer growing up, and I also remember sitting out on the front porch snapping green beans. Everybody was put to work. The kids were always sent off to gather wild blackberries which were often made into cobblers. Mom had a story she used to tell about her father and brothers processing sorghum every year using their oxen walking around in a circle (somehow). They didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing until the mid 60s, so they smoked meats, canned foods, had a huge veggie garden. They would roll watermelons downhill from where they grew them to a pond to keep them cool. Preserving everything for the coming winter was serious business. Everyday dinners usually included fried chicken (which they raised), special occasions included ham. It's amazing how many memories have to do with food! It was simple, homemade and delicious!

Sadly, Mom and Dad (whose family farmed too) moved away and didn't look back. I don't know for sure, but I think they associated "having" to grow/raise their own food with being poor. My dad made a good living, so they could buy everything we needed.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by RobinB

My mom, who was born in 1922, grew up on a farm in very rural Mississippi. If they didn't raise it, grow it or hunt it, they didn't survive. My grandma canned everything, I remember seeing rows and rows of mason jars in a room off her kitchen. Going to the store was reserved for the very few items that they couldn't produce themselves (or swap their neighbors for). I was lucky enough to spend several weeks down there every summer growing up, and I also remember sitting out on the front porch snapping green beans. Everybody was put to work. The kids were always sent off to gather wild blackberries which were often made into cobblers. Mom had a story she used to tell about her father and brothers processing sorghum every year using their oxen walking around in a circle (somehow). They didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing until the mid 60s, so they smoked meats, canned foods, had a huge veggie garden. They would roll watermelons downhill from where they grew them to a pond to keep them cool. Preserving everything for the coming winter was serious business. Everyday dinners usually included fried chicken (which they raised), special occasions included ham. It's amazing how many memories have to do with food! It was simple, homemade and delicious!

Sadly, Mom and Dad (whose family farmed too) moved away and didn't look back. I don't know for sure, but I think they associated "having" to grow/raise their own food with being poor. My dad made a good living, so they could buy everything we needed.

Robin,
I was raised that way, our neighbor made sorghum and used a mule to turn the mill.
It is a set of rollers that squeeze the juice from the cane and then it is boiled down just like you would maple syrup.
This was in the 60's and 70's.

It was unheard of to buy chicken pork beef or fish from the store.
I never had yogurt until I was in the Marines.

Not until I got out on my own did I realize how expensive the food we raised was.

Worth

[Old chef]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

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.

I have been making my own sopressata and salami for years hanging and curing is a dying art. Few people are still doing it commercially In nyc a company called salumeria Belessie is making fantastic products. I am sure you can find them online
Ps. I also make my own mozzarella

[coronabarb]

"Not until I got out on my own did I realize how expensive the food we raised was."

Worth, I was just thinking about this yesterday after I got done harvesting from the garden. Filled a 5 gallon bucket and two more large bowls with produce. I had just been at the local farmers market and began thinking how much it would have cost me to buy these things. I don't factor in my time because that is enjoyable.

[Cole_Robbie]

And even when cost is no object, a person with unlimited funds still can't get the highest quality and taste in produce, especially tomatoes. Most of the varieties offered at my market are commercial hybrids, or at least garden hybrids. Heirloom tomatoes are hard to find; I'm usually the only one selling them, and customers have to get there early to get them before they sell out. Included among those customers are several of my professors from law school. In terms of financial wealth, they have ten times more than me. But if we defined wealth in regard to the quality of one's tomatoes, I would be the rich one.

[mensplace]

I agree with all. My wife and I just picked eight to ten pounds of tomatoes. Now we have tomatoes FAR better than any grocery or fruit stand..and the bugs and birds certainly had had their share, but that's nature. Even with our share, we have plenty for the two of us for all purposes. Wish she liked them stewed, but we enjoy them cooked with rice, pasta, and even grits and fresh in every way. If you haven't tried rice cooked with one diced small tomato, salt, pepper, butter, and onion, you are missing a treat. some add just a touch of tomato paste, but I think it ruins it. Just that delicate tomato flavor is perfect, but I do start the rice off by putting it in the pan with a touch of butter and cooking till the grains are white and opaque, then add the rest, but don't take the top off until five minutes after your normal rice cooking time and modify your water addition by approximating the amount of juice in the tomato. I don't use the other Cajun holy trinity ingredients or meat. THAT is red rice.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by mensplace

I agree with all. My wife and I just picked eight to ten pounds of tomatoes. Now we have tomatoes FAR better than any grocery or fruit stand..and the bugs and birds certainly had had their share, but that's nature. Even with our share, we have plenty for the two of us for all purposes. Wish she liked them stewed, but we enjoy them cooked with rice, pasta, and even grits and fresh in every way. If you haven't tried rice cooked with one diced small tomato, salt, pepper, butter, and onion, you are missing a treat. some add just a touch of tomato paste, but I think it ruins it. Just that delicate tomato flavor is perfect, but I do start the rice off by putting it in the pan with a touch of butter and cooking till the grains are white and opaque, then add the rest, but don't take the top off until five minutes after your normal rice cooking time and modify your water addition by approximating the amount of juice in the tomato. I don't use the other Cajun holy trinity ingredients or meat. THAT is red rice.

I make it that way all the time....except a bit of basil and tarragon fresh from the garden go a long way to make it even better, especially the fresh tarragon. Just chop it extra fine and throw it in the boiling water.

[Worth1]

I dont see how anyone can eat rice in this 100 degree heat.
About an hour after I eat carbs like that my body starts to heat up and it is almost impossible to cool off.

Worth

[coronabarb]

Cole Robbie, at our farmers market, they grow lots of heirloom tomatoes. One fellow was selling flats of Cherokee Purple - 20# for $25. CP is very popular here. I bought some CP from another fellow (although they were so dark maroon, I'd swear they were a black) for $1.50/lb. Other vendors were selling them for $2, $2.75 lb.

mensplace, I will have to try out your suggestion re rice. I love brown rice, one of my favorite foods.

[Geezer]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

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: http://i.imgur.com/UMQdcQK.jpg

My dad use to stuff bell peppers with homemade kraut. He would slice the top off, remove the ribs and seeds, stuff 'em, put the top back on, secure it with tooth picks and twine, then can them them in wide-mouthed quart jars.

I never heard of anyone doing anything similar until this post.


When I was growing up, we never used "elbow macaroni". It came in a long box just like spaghetti did, and you had to break it by hand as you put it in the pot to boil. I remember the brand was "Red Cross", and the texture and flavor was quite different.

[mensplace]

Originally Posted by coronabarb

mensplace, I will have to try out your suggestion re rice. I love brown rice, one of my favorite foods.

The basic red rice can be enhanced in a lot of ways, but I far prefer just the natural sweetness of the rice and tomatoes, but sometimes use just a couple of tablespoons of ketchup to complement the salt and pepper. If you use any ketchup or even less tomato paste, do so as a part of the liquid addition. You will be surprised to see the rice split after final cooking when you cook the grains in butter first..while stirring constantly on a low to med heat. Don't brown the butter.

One of my favorite memories was eating short grained brown rice at "the Morningstar Inn" near Emory in the Fall of 68 with a bit of sweet soy sauce along with freshly made nutbread and honey and a cup of Lapsang Souchang, before braving the cold outside.

Most have no clue how many different varieties of rice exist and how wonderful the range of flavors. Being from the Carolina low-country, I can think of recipes to eat it three times a day from appetizer to dessert! Bet nobody here ever had callas.

[Got Worms?]

I remember a few things that were commonly found in the fridge when I was a young boy that I don't see around much, any more... Liverwurst in natural casings, pickled lambs tongues, pickled pigs feet, ox tails (for soup), limburger and liederkranz cheeses, (free) chicken gizzards, livers and hearts, hmm... not having much money and living in the city was a prime factor back then. I guess, now that I think about it, I don't miss too much of it, anyway!

I do like a nice tongue sandwich on rye with some spicy brown mustard every once in a while or a liverwurst on a hard roll with a slice of onion and mayo, but I seem to be eating less and less fatty meat and more fish and veggies as I get old...er.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Got Worms?

I remember a few things that were commonly found in the fridge when I was a young boy that I don't see around much, any more... Liverwurst in natural casings, pickled lambs tongues, pickled pigs feet, ox tails (for soup), limburger and liederkranz cheeses, (free) chicken gizzards, livers and hearts, hmm... not having much money and living in the city was a prime factor back then. I guess, now that I think about it, I don't miss too much of it, anyway!

I do like a nice tongue sandwich on rye with some spicy brown mustard every once in a while or a liverwurst on a hard roll with a slice of onion and mayo, but I seem to be eating less and less fatty meat and more fish and veggies as I get old...er.

They sell the devil out of much of the stuff you listed here in Texas.
The exceptions are the pickled lambs tongue, Limburger cheese for some reason you dont see it anymore.

A good liverwurst sandwich with sweet onion, tomato and mayo is to die for.
Ox tails have gone way up in price along with beef shanks.

Worth

[mensplace]

Growing up in the south of the fifties we rarely had beef down in the low country. There, as there always had been, there was land, but the land was used for crops, not beef. That meant that animals that could live on scraps and foraging, such as chickens, guinea fowl, quail, and hogs were the primary source of meat. few bird hunters ever hunted deer as that wasn't considered sporting. Late summer began the long process of "putting up" vegetables. Most everything else was cooked from scratch from the basic staples that didn't require much in the way of storage.

Once we moved to Atlanta things changed. However, back then Atlanta was still a southern town, that had not yet seen the influx of others from the north. There were very few restaurants that offered anything other than traditional southern food. With the advent of frozen foods, vegetables came in those little frozen boxes. Beef was served on special occasions as pot roasts, but the idea of meat with every meal hadn't taken place yet. I don't remember ever having steak at home, that was reserved for very special meals out as a teen.

Eventually, there came international restaurants with the first being Cantonese Chinese, and, a few years later, one Mexican restaurant. Along the way came a few delis...some Kosher and one French. My dad ( from NY) would occasionally order various "stinky" cheeses as my mother called them. Driving to the low country was a major expedition with no highways, no motels, no fast food restaurants, and service stations for other needs. There, it was like stepping back in time in my grandmothers kitchen, but family barbecues with two whole hogs over a pit and watching my cousins pick pieces of pork straight from the hog seemed mighty strange. The heads and other parts that my grandmother wouldn't touch were given away. Side dishes of every sort. I remember my mother sharing the story of when she was in school; the "better" families sent their children with sandwiches on white bread, those who couldn't afford such ate their sandwiches made of biscuits. Now we pay 1.75 for a sausage biscuit.

[Worth1]

Due to what little native American heritage I have I got free food at school.

No one went hungry where I went to school Mrs Crank made sure of that.
She was my friends mother and a native American Choctaw who took the money from the kids as they when through the food line.
When the under privileged children come by she would just give them a nod it didn't matter who they were.
Also her and a few others in town would feed the kids after school at home.
These were the kids that had parents that would rather drink than eat.
Imagine a lady that worked for a low wage at school always had enough to go around.
A fine example of a really good person.
Plus our school would let you go back through the line and eat again and there was always all of the free roles and cornbread you could eat.
And all the milk you could drink plus syrup on the table.
I have seen the school lunches today and they suck compared to what we had.
Most of it is just garbage like pizza and hamburgers.

Worth