Celebrating an old heritage.

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mikael3

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I guess this had to happen eventually.  It appears that the new regional cuisine on everyone’s list is the food of the central Appalachians. 

 


 

Years ago, I read and enjoyed Mark Sohn’s Appalachian Home Cooking, which was a rather analytical look at foodways of the region.  I also enjoyed a lot of the old Foxfire books long ago.  But mostly, I just enjoy eating good country food, as we used to call it. 

 

In ways I cannot number, I have almost nothing in common with Appalachian culture.  I haven’t lived there in decades, and I can’t really imagine going back.  I’m bookish, I’m aloof (without actually wanting to be that way, but I can’t help it).  I’m impatient with ignorance, and I’m gay as Christmas. 

 

And yet, those mountains of Virginia are my heritage and my true home.  And the one connection that I have never lost is the food.  I still yearn for a mess of good greasy backs or pink-tips or half-runner bean, all of which are now almost impossible to find.  And real pork, home-churned butter, real cornbread, real grits, Rambo apples, ramps, morels, kilt lettuce, creasy greens, soup beans with a spring onion —I’m about to start crying here.
 
nothing better than

real pork,home churned butter (straight from the cow!)& soup beans! I've had all of those in the last 7 days here in Kansas. Morel season is coming quickly-note my name here on the forum. I read Foxfire when I was a kid and loved them! Did you eat fried squash blossoms too? Delicious but morels are hard to beat! I'm bookish and aloof too but I'm a straight 40-something woman and have always lived in the country. Those traditions are still here and lots of us still enjoy these foods today! Slowly, I fear a few generations down the road will only read about these traditions!
 
I loved many of the southern fried foods that I grew up on, until I realized that they were about to give me a heart attack or stroke. Had a bad physical, the only time in my life I had a doctor literally yell at me. I turned everything around, luckily I'm still standing now. Don't get me wrong, I do love some if those foods but I just can't have a steady diet of them.
 
Appalachian food isn’t really “Southern” in the usual sense of that word.  When I think of food from my childhood, I think of the garden.  And lots and lots of pinto beans!!
 
Good Grief

I cook about all that stuff, I cant live without a mess of Kilt Lettuce at least once a year!! And Greasy Back beans, I wish I could find some seed, I would plant a row,It may kill me, but I don't drink or smoke, damned if im giving up my good old country cooking.
 
Both sides of my family came from Kansas and Missouri and I grew up on country food. My Grandma and my Mom used to make green beans cooked in a large pot for hours with ham hocks and red new potatoes. The meal was served with cornbread that was split and buttered and served on the plate along side the beans and hocks. We would spoon the pot liquor over the buttered cornbread and eat it with a fork. This was a family favorite. In fact Grandma was absolutely convinced that you couldn't cook green beans without cured pork of some kind. I make this dish every once in while, but mine never tastes as good as Mom's or Grandma's. I guess it's the memories that really taste good if that makes any sense.
Eddie
 
The main difference

In Southern and Northern cooking, is we cook our vegetables done!..Green beans are not supposed to be crunchy..LOL!Cabbage, however, I like with a little crunch..
 
So-called “Northern beans” aren’t particularly Northern.  They’re more of a trendy ’70s thing that just won’t go away.  The problem is, short cooking only works with a certain type of bean: the classic, very thin, very small, authentic French haricots verts.  Those are delicious when cooked for just a few minutes, and they are fantastic tossed with a vinaigrette and served as a salad. 

 

They are NOT, however, routinely available in any supermarket I’ve ever visited.  And they are NOT the same as “string beans”, although they are similar. String beans are okay when cooked briefly, but they are much better cooked for a while with some pork in the pot.

 

Old-time green beans are entirely different from any of those supermarket beans: they have thick, heavy pods, with large but tender beans inside.  They are inedible without long cooking. 
 
You can have

The Haricot Verts, My Grandmother wouldn't have anything but White Half Runners, I like Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, but ohhh for some Greasy Backs again!!!
 
Don’t give up too fast on little haricots!!!  They really are good! <!-- [if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Greasy backs are the best of the Appalachian beans.  Delicious!!!  Do your remember pink tips?  Those seem to be unfamiliar to a lot of people.  Half-runners, though, were what people grew the most, way back when.  They were good producers, as I recall.
 
My mom was born in Tulsa, but was definitely of the "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" generation. About the only country food which we would have was fried okra and fried green tomatoes while in season. Vegetables would be cooked only till crisp...etc etc. She never kept solid shortening in the house (anything which was baked was either made with oil, butter or margarine), and bought olive oil back when Pompeian was the only brand you could find in the regular supermarket.
 

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