Homemade Ice Cream

Ice Cream!

Miranda & Maddy 04/27/2016

While ice cream itself doesn't claim its roots in the South, it does have a cultural significance here. As everyone knows, summers south of the Mason-Dixon line are hot. People have been turning to the sweet, cold treat for years, particularly during the summer. While the process for making it might have changed, the love of it has not. It's not just a sweet treat, however. As we enter May and the june bugs start making their appearances, history brings us back to how ice cream has influenced the South itself. From the Royal Ice Cream Sit In to the more recent listeria catastrophe, ice cream appears in numerous articles and dinner conversations that have nothing to do with the flavor. Today, Maddy and I decided to serve this cold confection in one of two ways: an old-fashioned (okay, electric so maybe not) ice cream maker and ice cream in a bag! My recipe is essentially chocolate ice cream with a hint of Milky Way. Yum!

Banana Pudding

The story of banana pudding coincides with the story of the Southern icon ambrosia. Both use once-exotic ingredients  that became more popular towards the end of the 19th century.  This change in availability occurred after the Civil War, when steam ships became faster and new trading firms brought in increasing amounts of fruit from the Caribbean and Central America. This lead to banana pudding moving from a high status to a common place dessert.

The earliest recipe for banana pudding was a simple entry int he New York Times in 1878. In 1921 Mrs. Laura Kerley contributed a recipe to the Bloomington Illinois Pantograph. The recipe called for one pound of vanilla wafers. By the 1940s Nabisco was publishing a recipe for banana pudding on the side of its Vanilla Wafers boxes.

During the early 20th century, banana pudding recipes were published in newspapers across the United States, and the desserts was not portrayed as Southern, After World War II, banana pudding gained a Southern identity. Several theories exist as to why this change occurred. Some note that a lot of bananas came through New Orleans and so the fruit was widely available there. Others point to Southerners' sweet tooth, and the fact that it can be made without heating up a kitchen on a hot summer day. Also social event are an integral part of life in the South and food is usually present there, especially dishes like banana pudding that can easily be made in bulk and does not have to be kept warm.

Here is a link to an article with more information:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/history-southern-banana-pudding.html

Recipe 

Total Time:  45 min

Prep:  30 min

Cook:  15 min

Yield:8 servings

Ingredients

4 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon plus a pinch salt

2 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
30 to 40 vanilla wafers
3 to 4 medium ripe bananas

Directions
Separate the yolks from the whites of 3 of the eggs; set aside the whites. Add the remaining whole egg to the yolks.
In a saucepan, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar, the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in the whole egg and 3 yolks, and then stir in the milk. Cook uncovered, stirring often, until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Spread a thin layer of the pudding in a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Arrange a layer of vanilla wafers on top of the pudding. Thinly slice the bananas crosswise, about 1/8 inch thick, and arrange a layer of banana slices over the wafers. Spread one-third of the remaining pudding over the bananas and continue layering wafers, bananas and pudding, ending with pudding.
To make the meringue, beat the reserved egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until the whites will not slide out of the mixing bowl when it is tilted.
Spread the meringue over the pudding with a spatula, making a few decorative peaks on top, and bake until the meringue is lightly browned, 5 minutes.

Bourbon Pecan Pie

The South's Most Delicious Pie 

The history of pecan pie actually begins with the Native Americans, who introduced European settlers to the nut for the purpose of survival as a form of endearment. Many will argue that the pecan pie was introduced by the Karo company in an effort to promote the sale and production of their product. This makes sense, of course, as the Karo company has become one of the world's largest producers of corn syrup. Others will argue, however, that the origins of pecan pie actually date back to a much earlier time. The introduction of bourbon, however, is in fact a more recent development, and many who prepare the pie will argue that it simply brings out the flavor of the other ingredients.
While the pecan pie has become one of the most important dishes to appear on the Thanksgiving table, many stray away from the dessert as a result of its high sugar, fat, and caloric content. Nonetheless, this pie is one to remember, especially being my late grandfather's favorite dessert.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 eggs beaten
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- 1 unbaked pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F 
2. Mix the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter together in a bowl. Stir in the corn syrup, eggs, and bourbon; fold in the pecans. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees F; continue to bake until the pie is set, about 25 minutes more. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Bananas Foster Pancakes, Cheese N' Eggs, and Sliced Tomatoes

Breakfast is a peculiar meal. It doesn't really have any rules, although there are typically mainstay dishes. However, it really doesn't have boundaries. The ways IHOP serves pancakes and the way Waffle House serves "Steak N' Eggs", you really wouldn't be able to tell due to the sweetness or the heartiness.

With that in mind, I decided to try and pick out some of my favorite southern breakfast foods for my meal, which became more of a challenge due to my opinion of breakfast's flexibility. However, southern food is marinated in tradition, and so I decided to keep it simple and within the typical idea of breakfast food.

But that's about as far as I reigned it in. Typical pancakes and eggs don't really feel southern, and neither does a standard fruit salad on the side. So, to have fun and embrace a heavier southern influence, I decided to go with a bananas foster topping for the pancakes, go overboard with the cheese for "Cheese N' Eggs" and thought of my father's favorite side dish when we visit Tuscaloosa's traditional southern breakfast restaurant, Waysider: sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper.

BREAKFAST HISTORY

Bananas Foster and Pancakes

• Pancakes were first being prepared somewhere around 500 B.C. by the ancient Greeks. 
• The original pancakes were pretty different than what we eat today. Rather than limit themselves to sweet flavor with the fluffy discs, they used a variety of ingredients and ideas to create savory pancakes as well as sweet ones.
• The Greeks called their version "tagenias".
• Bananas Foster was invented much, much later. In 1951, an employee of Brennan's in New Orleans, LA created the original bananas foster, which is a similar sauce use in this recipe, but just over ice cream instead.
• The dish is one of the most popular in New Orleans, and it not being a particularly hard dish to make is responsible for that popularity. 
• One can learn how to make the original Brennan's recipe here.

Cheese N' Eggs

• Eggs are one of the oldest foodstuffs to be in the human diet, dating back before 7500 B.C.E.
• Cheese is nearly as old, but the earliest confirmation has been around 5500 B.C.E.

Sliced Tomatoes

• The tomato's native region is between South and Central America.
• Mesoamerican peoples were the first to start eating tomatoes, starting in 500 B.C.

Pancake Recipe 
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 ½ cups milk
2 tbsp butter, melted

Stir the flour, baking powder(or baking soda if you prefer) and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk, and then add it to flour mix, stirring until just smooth. Then stir in butter. Grease a griddle with butter. Heat pan on medium for about ten minutes. Pour batter to form pancakes of whatever size you like. Cook first side until bubbles form on top, about three minutes; then flip and cook other side until it, too, is brown, about two minutes. 

Bananas Foster Sauce Recipe

1/4 Cup of Melted Butter

2/3 Cup of Brown Sugar

2 Teaspoons of Rum Extract

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

1/2 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1//2 Cup of Pancake Syrup

2-4 Bananas(depends on how much banana you want)

Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, rum extract, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Bring to a simmer, the stir in the pecans and continue simmering for 1 minute. Stir in the pancake syrup and bananas, continue cooking until the bananas soften, about 4 minutes.

Cheese N' Eggs Recipe(Per Individual)

1/2 Tablespoon of Butter
2 Eggs

2 quarter-inch slices of cheese(Either use Kraft Singles or cut to that size with real cheese)

1/4 Cup of Milk

Heat 10-inch pan over medium heat, possibly medium-to-high heat. While heating up, beat the eggs in a bowl until the yolk is broken apart. Add 1/4 cup of milk to beaten eggs. When pan is heated and ready, drop 1/2 tablespoon of butter into it. After the butter is coated on the pan, add eggs. Cook till preference of runny, intermediate or fried. Turn heat to low and add slices of cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and all in the eggs.

Sliced Tomatoes

1 Tomato
Salt and Pepper

The most simple thing in the world. On a cutting board, slice tomatoes vertically, giving each slice about 1/2 inch in width. Plate, then add salt and pepper.

Sources:
Council, Mildred. Mama Dip's Kitchen. University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Sweet Onion Cornbread, Cabbage and Conecuh sausage, and Fruited Mint Tea

Sweet Onion Cornbread

Background of Cornbread:

• Cornbread dates back to the Native Americans.
• There are many kinds of cornbread including blue cornbread made with blue cornmeal and Mexican cornbread which did not actually originate in Mexico but in Texas where peppers were used in many dishes.
• Northern cornbread is known to be sweeter and have more of a cake-like texture while Southern cornbread has little to no sugar and crumbles easily. 
• Variations such as adding onion, jalapeno peppers, and eating cornbread with pinto beans is a particularly southwestern tradition. 

Recipe:

2 cups finely chopped onion

1/4 cup butter melted

1 1/2 cup self-rising

2 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. dillweed 

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (2 cups, 1 cup to sprinkle over top)

2 eggs well beaten 

1/4 cup milk 

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1 8 oz. sour cream 

1 can cream-style corn 

1 dash of hot sauce 

Saute chopped onion in melted butter in a large skillet until onion is tender and set aside.

Combine cornmeal, sugar, and dillweed in a large bowl. Add sauteed onion, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (1 cup), beaten eggs, milk, vegetable oil, sour cream, cream-style corn, and dash of hot sauce, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. 

Spoon mixture into a greased 10 inch cast iron skillet (or two regular tin pans). Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle cornbread evenly with remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (1 cup), and bake cornbread an additional 5 minutes. Yield 8 servings.

Cabbage with Conecuh Sausage

Background of Cabbage and Conecuh:

• Cabbage was likely domesticated somewhere in Europe before 1000 B.C. possibly from Ireland
• Conecuh sausage located in Evergreen, AL. in Conecuh county
• Name is derived from Indian term meaning "Land of Cane"

Recipe:

1 pack of Conecuh sausage  

1 Cabbage

Vegetable oil to cover bottom of skillet 

Medium-thin sliced sausage. Layer conecuh sausage into boiler/skillet and keep stirred until brown over medium-high heat. Cut and wash Cabbage. Place cabbage in boiler/skillet with sausage and keep stirred over medium heat until cabbage is tender with light crunch. Enjoy!

Fruited Mint Tea

Background of Fruited Mint Tea:

• In 1795, South Carolina was the first place in the U.S. where tea was grown and is the only state to have ever produced tea commercially. 
• Tea has been served cold at least since 19th ce. 

Recipe:

1 Quart water

5-7 fresh mint sprigs 

8 regular tea bags (4 family size)

2 cups sugar 

1 12oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed and undiluted

1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Place water in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Add 7 mint sprigs boil 2 minutes (4-5 minutes). Remove from heat. Add teabags. Cover and let stand 10 minutes (20-30 minutes). Remove mint and tea bags. Stir in sugar.

Combine tea mixture, orange juice concentrate, and lemon juice. Add enough water to make 1 Gallon. Serve 24 hours after making (chilled). 

References: Southern Living Cookbook and Family recipes

Enjoy!! -MeShellai McWilliams

Pound Cake: Created in Europe, Rooted in the South

      

           Pound cakes have long been a southern staple. The recipe my family uses has been handed down for 100 years. The reason that it’s called pound cake is because the original recipe called for a pound of each ingredient. This made a huge cake that was able to serve multiple families. The cake itself is actually a British creation better known as sponge cake, but it is the Southern version of it that has been a source of debate for centuries. The first known cookbook written by an African American, Abbie Fisher, contained 2 recipes of the popular dessert! It was called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking (Stradley).

            This recipe is over a hundred years old and has been handed down in our family from my grandmother, Ida Milton Stewart Webb, who was born in Birmingham, AL in 1887. Ida's father, Jack Stewart, developed an inflammation of the lungs (probably emphysema) which the doctor blamed on Birmingham's sooty air. A repairing lease was recommended in the country, and the family moved from Birmingham to Atmore when Grandmother Ida was a girl. The sideboard with the marble top in our dining room came from Birmingham, and still has soot on the back!  Jack died in Atmore not long after they moved, leaving his wife, Abbie McQueen Stewart, alone and with no means of support. Abbie took in boarders and ran a millinery shop, making hats for women, to put food on the table for her two young girls. The dining room table in our house, which lets out to 22 feet in length when all the leaves are in it, is from Abbie Stewart's boarding house in Atmore. This pound cake recipe was frequently served to boarders as Sunday dessert, along with fresh berries and cream.

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened to room temp.

5 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Measure 2 cups sugar into a bowl. Sift the sugar three times on wax paper. Beat butter and sugar together in large bowl until creamy. In a separate bowl, beat the 5 eggs until they are light and frothy.

Measure 2 cups of flour. Sift flour three times. (Measure and THEN sift!) 

Add beaten eggs and sifted flour to creamed butter and sugar, alternating, until the mixture is beaten and the flour and the eggs are all added. Add the vanilla and beat thoroughly.

Grease tube pan on all sides and down the middle tube, then dust with flour. (I use about 1/4 cup flour to dust the pan) Shake flour all around the greased pan until all sides are coated, and knock the extra flour into the sink or garbage. 

Add creamed cake mixture to the pan and shake it gently until it is evenly dispersed. 

Bake in a COLD oven at 325 degrees for one hour. DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN. Put the cake in the cold oven and turn it on. This is what makes the yummy crust.

When cake is done, rest the cake pan on a cookie rack or trivet for 30 minutes and then remove cake from pan and cool completely.

References:

Stradley, Linda. "Pound Cake - History of Pound Cake." Pound Cake History, Whats Cooking America. What's Cooking America©, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.

and my mother!

Moon Pies and Memories

Moon Pies are cultural staples in the South, traditionally consumed with a cold RC Cola or thrown from floats during Mardi Gras parades. But how did this odd chocolate-covered, graham cracker, marshmallow fluff cookie sandwich come about? In the Project Muse article from which I pulled this blog post title, Lee Smith writes, "Earl Mitchell invented the moon pie in 1919 when he worked for the Chattanooga Bakery. While visiting a company store at a coal mine in Kentucky, Mitchell asked miners what kind of cookie they would like in their lunch pails. They said they preferred a big one. Mitchell then asked what size the cookie should be, and the miners pointed to the moon." 

Doug Marlette, a southern author, cartoonist, and (probably) Moon Pie enthusiast, writes that the pies are "part of our marinade", a consistent element of the cultural backdrop as weird, mystical, and somehow still unremarkable as the kudzo or humidity. 

The recipe we used in class follows, although I ended up changing it a little, because what is cooking if not calculated substitutions (full transparency, I also just googled "Moon Pie recipes" and picked the one that looked best to me). I subbed graham cracker crumbs for half of the flour in the cookies and decided I didn't need to buy cream of tartar for the fluff.


Moon pies

For the Cookies:
8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt

For the Marshmallow Filling:
2 egg whites
Pinch cream of tartar
Pinch salt
2/3 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

For the Chocolate Coating:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
¼ cup vegetable oi

DIRECTIONS:

1. To Make the Cookies: With a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, add the egg and the vanilla extract, and beat to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and the salt, and mix just until a soft dough forms. Divide the dough in two, shape into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line at least two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2½-inch diameter round cutter, cut out the rounds and place them on the prepared baking sheets, about ½ an inch apart. Refrigerate the cookies (on the baking sheets) for 10 minutes.

3. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on the pans for a couple of minutes, and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

4. To Make the Marshmallow Filling: Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the the egg whites with the cream of tartar and the salt until firm peaks form, gradually increasing from medium-low speed to medium-high speed as the egg whites gain volume. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, boil the corn syrup over high heat without stirring until it registers 230 to 235 degrees F on a candy thermometer (thread ball stage). Slowly drizzle the hot corn syrup into the egg whites and beat at high speed until glossy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, beat in the vanilla extract and the powdered sugar.

5. Using either a pastry bag or a spoon, mound about 1½ tablespoons of marshmallow filling into the center of a cookie. Top with another cookie and press lightly to spread the marshmallow to the edges. Add another mound on top of the second cookie, and top with another cookie, again pressing slightly to spread the filling to the edges. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

6. To Make the Chocolate Coating: Using a double boiler or in the microwave on 50% power and in 30 second increments, melt the chocolate and vegetable oil together until completely smooth. Place the assembled cookies on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax paper. Spoon the melted chocolate over each cookie so that it runs down the sides and covers most of the cookie. Allow to set at room temperature for about 2 hours (or refrigerate to speed up the process). Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Happy cooking! 
-Madeleine Lewis