Split Pea Soup, Pg. 57; Garlic Bread, Pg. 198

Before Christmas, I was a Charleston Receipts machine! I made three receipts in one week - and I still have to blog about all of them.

Post-Christmas, however, I'm bedridden with the stomach flu and can't even watch Food Network without clutching the toilet. However, I'm going to try to blog about food - for all y'all our faithful followers - without becoming nauseous.

Although D.C. did avoid this week's East Coast Snowmageddon, we did get a few inches earlier this month and I while I spent a day tucked away in our Georgetown apartment, I whipped up a (rather large) batch of split pea soup, receipt courtesy of Mrs. William Dotterer (Sue Bolt).

Brent and I ate glazed spiral ham that week and - for lack of anything better to do with this huge ham bone - I made this soup, which called for one.

It turned out absolutely delicious and Brent said, without a doubt, it was his favorite receipt since we started the project.

Although Mrs. Sue was a little vague on what seasonings to add, I included fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, a few cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. I let the whole pot simmer for several hours, until mushy, as she so precisely recommends.

Alongside the soup, I served Mrs. Thomas A. Huguenin's (Mary Vereen's) Garlic Bread, which was really only a baguette, some melted butter and minced garlic. A simple and delicious accompaniment. 

Wow! It's so shiny!

And, in closing, I must send out all my best wishes to my co-blogger and best friend Christine - who became engaged to her long-time beau Andrew on Christmas Eve! (Engaged in Charleston, no less!) I guess her attempt to serve him mock terrapin didn't drive him away - either that, or he had already bought the ring!

Nevertheless, we'll look forward to celebrating many times over this year and this really provides a perfect opportunity to try out the Charleston Receipt for "Champagne Punch for the Wedding!"

-Lauren

Lowndes Street Potatoes au Gratin

I am writing this post from home using my mother's much more loved and worn Charleston Receipts. (she has the 1976 printing). I love being able to look at her cookbook and note which pages have tabs and are dog earred. I learned that my mother prefers the Very Thin Benne Seed wafers (there are a lot of varities in the cookbook). Also, her version seems to have a slightly different layout since I believe they have added a few new forwards since 1976. But one thing that remains the same, the cover. My biggest complaint about the cookbook has to be about the plastic binding and cover. My mother's cookbook has not had a cover as long as I can remember. My cover is already starting to come out of the plastic binding. I wish it was a hard bound copy without that plastic binding. Oh well. On to the receipt itself!

   I made the Lowndes Street Potatoes au Gratin (by Mrs. C. Stuart Dawson, May Hutson) actually several weeks ago. I must admit I did not give the receipt the attention it deserves. I made it the same night I made the dreadful terrapin soup and I was a bit tired of cooking by the time I got to this dish. After laboring on fake turtles, all food became unappetizing.  It is a pretty standard gratin dish. I think the pototes were a bit too mushy for my liking. I almost just wanted to make them into mashed potatoes instead of slicing them. I think I was too tired to slice the potatoes thin enough. I usually cannot get enough of potatoes au gratin. (especially a recipe that calls for 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and a 1/2 pound of cheese!) I hope to make it again on another night when I am not so tired. I might not let the pototaoes boil for quite so long.  I am going to try to make some desserts from Charleston Receipts to take down to Charleston for my sister's wonderful Christmas Eve party. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday!
xoxo
Christine

Before the 1/2 pound of required cheese was added

'Tis the Season for...Simple Egg Nog, Pg. 23

Simple (and Delicious) Egg Nog

I've been waiting for an excuse to crack into the cocktail section of this book - what better than a day full of work and hectic holiday shopping?

I have to say that Mrs. Augustine T. S. Stoney's Simple Egg Nog would have totally fit the bill had it been slightly more stiff. As it was, this receipt calls for only one tablespoon of "good whiskey or brandy" (or in my case, very marginal whiskey) for each drink. Not quite enough, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, the drink was tasty. It was very similar to slightly-less-sweet melted vanilla ice cream. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by "rich milk" so I watered down some half-and-half. Same concept, I guess.

I also had to fudge a little on the "fresh country egg." The closest I could get was a cage-free egg from Trader Joe's. They were brown, though, which - for some reason - makes them seem a little more "country."

C'est la vie in the city! Cheers!

- Lauren

Hominy Surprise, pg. 156

Hominy Surprise could also be aptly named "Not so surprising grits." Or "Not so cheesy grits." Or "Not worth the two hours it takes to make these grits."

What is actually more surprising than the outcome of this hominy surprise is the fact that I had never made grits before. My dear, old friend Leah Burchfield Mantini (a true G.R.I.T.S. herself) stayed with me last weekend and so my pool of guinea pigs grew by one.

As I was stirring the pot of grits in the kitchen, I asked Leah "Does this look normal?"

She said, "Um, no."

I should have known.

Hominy Surprise!

Mrs. Jack W. Simmons (Irene Robinson) suggests cooking the grist until thick, about 30 or 40 minutes. I cooked mine probably 20 minutes, but they looked pretty thick to me (chalk that judgment call up to my obviously extensive experience with this ingredient). Then, I stirred in 2 raw eggs, 1 cup of cheese, pepper, Worcestershire, milk and butter.

She then instructs to "bake 1 hour, or longer."

WELL WHICH IS IT? DO I BAKE THIS ONE HOUR? OR LONGER THAN ONE HOUR?

I swear, these recipes are driving me to distraction. Apparently, I was supposed to bake for longer than one hour because instead of setting up like a casserole, these grits were as soupy as they had been straight out of the pot.

And instead of offering you all a Christine-style dissertation on this week's failed receipt, I'm just moving on to the next one.

-Lauren

Mock Terrapin Soup, Uncommon Nonsense

Last week I ventured into the unchartered territory of mock terrapin soup. Now you might be asking what exactly is mock terrapin soup, and who would eat it? Well, I can tell you what it is, but I am still not sure if I can find anyone to eat it.

Our mock terrapin- beef (what is not for dinner tonight)

    

  Apparently terrapin soup was very popular in the 19th century. So popular in fact that terrapins (turtles) were severely over-hunted.

    Without terrapins, those crafty folks turned to a mock terrapin soup. Mock terrapin in our case is a lean beef, but I found an ancient NY Times recipe that called for beef liver and other recipes call for brains, so I guess it could be worse. If you google mock terrapin soup, you will also come upon some beautiful terrapin soup bowls. The terrapin soup was so popular that a whole silver genre grew up around it. I will take some of these.

Not some of that....

adding my butter to my beef

Lewis Carrol based the mock turtle on the soup. "'Well, I've never heard it before', said the Mock Turtle, 'but it sounds uncommon nonsense'." -Lewis Carroll.  That sums up how I feel about the soup.

      How would I describe this soup. In one word: nasty. Based upon the ingredients, which consists of an odd mixture of boiled beef, butter, cream , milk, flour, mustard, and nutmeg (substituted for mace), I thought I was not going to like it. Thankfully I halved the receipt. Another problem with the receipt, I would let the beef stock cool down quite a bit before you add the milk. As could be predicted, my milk curdled. I should have foreseen that, but I was just following the vague instructions provided. I don't think this soup could have been grosser. Thank goodness Andrew is a another brave taste tester. He confirmed my thoughts of gross! Maybe I should look for some real turtle for the cooter soup recipe! Perhaps that is what this recipe is missing. I did have a friend stop by while I was cooking and I explained I was making mock terrapin soup, and he laughed and said he grew up eating turtle soup during his childhood in Tennessee. Apparently, there are some terrapins around to eat, and some people still willing to eat them!

On another note, Mrs. Alston Pringle dominates the soup section with her contributions of mock terrapin soup, calf''s head soup, white soup, and onion soup. And don't get your hopes up, I am not Johnny Knoxville, I will not be trying calf's head soup.  Mrs. John Simonds (Frances Rees) put above the receipt this quote about Mrs. Alston Pringle, "Mrs. Alston Pringle's reputation as a fine cook was so well established that it is still spoken of almost reverentially. In fact, a colored cook who worked in her household once remarked, 'When she puts in de buttah, ah turns ma back'." 

Luckily for us this receipt just contains 1/4 pound of butter and 1/2 pint of cream. 

   So here is my usual dorky history research about the person behind the receipt. I was curious as to who this revered fine cook, Mrs. Alston Pringle was. A quick google search brought up a Mary Motte Alston Pringle, who lived from 1803-1884 and who was married to William Bull Pringle. I believe Mary Motte Alston Pringle was the daughter of Mary Brewton Motte and Col. William Alston and granddaughter of Rebecca Brewton Motte, who is perhaps the most famous woman of the Revolutionary War in SC. At first I thought Mary Motte Alston Pringle must be our woman. But than I realized if it is a Mrs. Alston Pringle, perhaps it is a daughter in law of Mary Pringle, since Mary Motte Alston Pringle had 13 children and also since a 19th century lady would be known by her husband's name, and not her own.  Regardless of the mystery, below is  summary of the Alston-Pringle matriarch. It makes me want to read the book. And to further solve my cooking mystery.

To quote from the website about Richard Cote's book on Mary Motte Alston Pringle,  Mary's World: Love, War, and Family Ties in 19th Century Charleston by Richard N. Cote

 "Born to affluence and opportunity in the South's Golden Age, Mary Motte Alston Pringle (1803-1884) represented    the epitome of Southern white womanhood. Her husband was a wealthy rice planter who owned four plantations and 337 slaves. Her thirteen children included two Harvard scholars, seven world travelers, three socialite daughters, a U.S. Navy war hero, six Confederate soldiers, one possible Union collaborator, a Confederate firebrand trapped in the North, an expatriate bon vivant in France, and two adventuresome California pioneers. Mary's World illuminates in lavish detail the world and psyche of this wealthy, well-educated, well-intentioned woman and her family in the antebellum South."

Mary Pringle's grave. This woman was was rich, had  2 children at an ivy league, war heroes, socialite daughters...whew....I am feeling quite inadequate! And maybe she or her daughter in law was an excellent cook!

    The Alston-Pringle families owned the famous Miles Brewton home. Mrs. Rebecca Motte inherited the mansion when her brother died at sea and it was passed on through her grandchildren to the Pringle family. If you have ever been past the house, you will surely recognize it.

Here is some background from the Charleston County Library website:

His sister, Mrs. Rebecca Brewton Motte, resided here during the Revolution, when it became the headquarters for Sir Henry Clinton and Lords Rawdon and Cornwallis. Tradition says Mrs. Motte locked her three young daughters in the attic while the British were in the house. Another tradition says a British officer etched Clinton's profile and the picture of a full-rigged ship on one of the marble mantels. Mrs. Motte's three daughters married, respectively, John Middleton of Lee's Legion (see 14 George St.), Gen. Thomas Pinckney (ditto), and Capt. William Alston of Marion's Brigade. Alston bought the house after his marriage and made it his town residence for nearly 50 years. He raised thoroughbred horses at his Waccamaw plantation, which was visited in 1791 by President George Washington. The house was inherited by Alston's daughter Mrs. William Bull Pringle, during whose ownership the house was occupied in 1865 as the headquarters of Union Generals Mead and Hatch. The house has continued to be owned and lived in by members of the related Brewton-Motte-Alston-Pringle-Manigault families. (Simons & Lapham, Early Architecture, p. 36-50; Chamberlain & Chamberlain, Southern lnteriors, p. 104-106; Iseley & Cauthen,Charleston Interiors, p. 48-50; Smith & Smith, Dwelling Houses, p. 93-110; Deas, Early Ironwork, p. 40-41; Whiffin, American Architecture, p. 7; Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys, p. 69-70; Ravenel,Architects, p. 49-53; Severens, Southern Architecture, p. 66-68; Stockton, DYKYC, Feb. 17, 1975; Stoney,This is Charleston, p. 61.)

If anyone has a tip as to which Alston Pringle this receipt refers to, let me know! hope you enjoyed your history lesson and your warning to stay away from those mock terrapins!

xoxo

christine

Another Charleston Receipts Blog to Read!

Hello readers!
  I hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. It was my first thanksgiving not in South Carolina, but luckily for me, a bit of the South came to visit. My sister and her in laws rented an apartment on the upper west side (a block from Lauren's old apartment) and we enjoyed the parade and catching up. I confess I did not employ Charleston Receipts recipes for the Thanksgiving feast. But I did stick at least to the Junior League theme by using Birmingham Junior League cookbooks (who make my next to favorite junior league cookbooks).
  Speaking of Junior League, the Charleston Junior League is also busy celebrating their wonderful cookbook and they have a blog, Cooking in the South, devoted to its receipts as well. I hope everyone adds it to their blogger readers!
  And get excited, tonight I made mock terrapin soup. And yes, it really did feel like a science experiment. You will have to stay tuned to find out how that one went. Ingredients- boiled beef, cream, butter, nutmeg, mustard. I bet you can guess! At least I didn't have to kill a turtle!

Caesar Salad, Pg. 211

The "Ice Cream" section of Charleston Receipts is longer than the "Salad" chapter. Shocker.

Undaunted, I charged forth this evening in my quest to initiate a post-Thanksgiving health kick with this cookbook in hand. (Definitely too much road trip fast food, too many leftovers, and way too much wine over the holidays.)

I chose Mrs. John McGowan's receipt for Caesar Salad, the "Charleston Adaptation." It was definitely delicious. Healthy, not so much.

"Drain on brown paper, until crisp."

There are fried croutons (yum.) Anchovies packed in olive oil (yum.) Parmesan Cheese (double yum.) A couple of raw eggs (trust me, it works.) Oh yeah, and lettuce, too.

The receipt called for tarragon vinegar and I found some with actual tarragon in it!

I served the salad with a rotisserie chicken (as Ina would say, "How easy is that?") and my husband loved it. He doesn't even like anchovies, but this salad doesn't have a fishy taste at all. I used my food processor to combine the lemon juice, anchovies, egg, tarragon vinegar and oil to ensure that the dressing was as smooth as possible. Next time, I may reserve a few of the anchovies, rough chop them and throw in the larger pieces into the salad. I do love anchovies.

Finished product

Bottom line - I don't want to attempt to calculate this receipt's calorie count (let alone the sodium), but it did offer up a vegetable in a raw, crunchy, non-casserole form. Anything is an improvement over the Thanksgiving smorgasbord.

On a final note, we have 13 followers - at least a third of whom are family members, but after returning to Spartanburg this past week for the holidays, I can't tell you how many of our faithful readers approached me complimenting us on this blog! Thank you all for reading!

-Lauren

Well...I liked the Crust.

scooping out some pumpkin guts, unaware of the disaster ahead

Yep, that sums up this pie. Meaning my guests only liked the crust of a store boughten pie dough. Which also means, I experienced my 2nd week of a row of Charleston Receipts failure.
  This week, an in anticipation of my sister and her in-laws visiting me in NYC for thanksgiving I decided to make Mrs. S. Edward Izard Jr.'s (Ann Kirk) Pumpkin Pie. It appeared straightforward and I thought if it turned out well I would make it for the Baileys when they visited next week. Well, glad I gave this one a test run!

steaming the pumpkin for mashing

 
   I really have no idea what went wrong here. I followed the receipt to a T. I must admit that I have never stewed a pumpkin and have always relied on Libbys Pumpkin Pie Mix. Last year, if you recall, there was a random shortage of Libbys Pumpkin Pie. So I scavenged 3 grocery stores in Spartanburg looking for the magical stuff. I ended up with a lot of canned pumpkin. We had pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin roulade. What can I say, my father and I love pumpkin. We went twice last weekend to Shake Shake for pumpkin pie concretes.

Overflowing!

Leftover Pumpkin Pie Filling, I think enough for another pie itself!

    So I really have no idea what went wrong. I think I stewed the pumpkin properly. I scooped out the guts. I believe I used the proper sugar pumpkin required for pies. I knew that when I added the 2 cups of milk I was going to have a problem. It was WAY too much liquid. Perhaps the pie should have been deep dish. Not sure, but when I poured the ingredients in the pie shell (premade, I admit) it poured all over and out of the dish. There is no way it would all fit. It was a HUGE mess. And unfortunately the beaten eggs, I believe due to their slimy texture, were the first to run out of the pie. I literally put the pie in the oven and scooped some eggs out of the spillover from the baking sheet I put below and put it back in the pie in the oven.
  The receipt did not mention how long I should cook the pie. I can't recall how long I baked it for. All I know is that I was about to go to bed and give up on this disaster and it finally looked finished. But it took an unusually long time and created a mess! And tasted not so yummy.
  So long story short. I tried making the pie the old fashioned way. And I honestly I miss my Miss Libby's. Oh well. Can't say I didn't try!

just a glance at some of the mess of prepping for a pumpkin pie

I have no idea what that gross white stuff is, egg perhaps?

xoxo

christine

Likker Pudding, Not To Our Liking

the finished product, twenty minutes before it was thrown away

So this week I decided to make Mrs. W.T. Hartman's(Betty Blaydes)Likker Pudding. I figured, well I love sweet potatoes, I love liquor, what is there not to like? Well, a lot apparently. While Lauren had great success last week, I had no such luck this week.
    First, it takes forever and a day. I am not sure if this could have been accomplished with a food processor or not, but if it can, do it. I don't own one (I only own pyrex dishes, a skillet, and very dull knives to whip up culinary wonders with). When you grate a sweet potato, whatever you do, don't cut it in half to grate. I thought it would be easier to hold and grate that way. It is not. It is much, much easier to grate if you just keep the entire peeled potato whole. I learned this the hard way after spending 45 minutes grating and also loosing a thumbnail and almost my thumb!

some rum to add

  Once you have all the potatoes ready, it still takes 2 hours to bake. 2 hours is a long time in my book for something involving sweet potatoes.
   And the main reason I think I did not like it was actually the liquor. I made a dish very similar to this one for thanksgiving last year. I think it was from the 'Pon Top Edisto cookbook. It also involved sweet potatoes and liquor. I made the mistake of using the only bourbon I could find, which was fighting cock. Let's just say that is the only thing anyone could taste, meaning my father was the only one who liked the potatoes. I used rum this time, but I ran across the same problem. I don't really like dark liquor, so it shouldn't be a surprise to me that I would not like it. But poor Andrew dutifully took a bite and said, "this is really sweet". And I replied, "It is awful, I know, you can only taste the liquor, and I didn't even put it all in." And he agreed and looked relieved that he did not have to eat it.

   So this is where the Likker Puddign ended up: the trash! And it takes a lot for me to throw away something that took 3 hours of my time. It was that bad!

likker pudding meets its maker

Chocolate Souffle, Pg. 242

Best Charleston Receipt. Ever.

Let the pictures speak for themselves:

These are stiff peaks if I've ever seen them.

Pre-Bake - the ingredients made enough for four perfectly-sized ramekins.

Rising....You can do it! You can do it!

Post-Bake. Aren't they beautiful? I was so proud!

Spongy. Delicious. As good as it looks.

Buy this cookbook for this receipt. It was awesome! And it worked perfectly!

For some reason, I thought you were always supposed to cook souffles in water baths, so I put these in a makeshift one. I ended up cooking them about 15 minutes longer than the receipt suggested, but when I talked to my dad (the chef!) about it, he said I shouldn't have used the water bath because the souffles need the dry heat to rise.

Anyway, I'll definitely be making this one again. Thank you, Mrs. Mary Huguenin Bailey!

-Lauren

Baked Squash, pg. 179

yellow squash

It is fall up here in the big apple. Well sorta. The leaves are a beautiful golden, while the weather this week has been muggy, sticky, and feeling not quite like autumn. But the fall veggies at the grocery have been inspiring me. I decided to make Mrs. Gerald Thomas's (Lottie Johnson) baked squash. Now I honestly have never even eaten squash. Never appealed to me. But since I am trying to be more grown up and to eat more veggies (albeit veggies stuffed with butter, bread crumbs and bacon), I thought this oh so fall dish fit the bill.
   I was a bit worried that I did not get the right kind of squash. I saw some huge beautiful squash for sale at the Whole Foods in Chelsea and I started loading up on these beauties and a sugar pumpkin for a pie. But then I saw the express line snaking its way through the grocery and retreated quickly. Those squash would have to be gold coated for me to wait in that kind of line. Ok, maybe not since I am currently changing diapers for money and gold covered squash probably would be a financial boon. But you get my point. It was a terrible line. So off to gourmet garage for the smaller squash (I need an entire post on grocery shopping here. It is simply a huge ordeal that takes forever!).

squash guts

   The squash at Gourmet Garage were much smaller. I decided to google squash to make sure I was somewhat on the right track. Not sure if you knew this, but there are a ton of different kind of squash. The receipt asks for yellow squash. Not sure if they meant that variety literally, but that is what I ended up with. and I think it works best. The beautiful large squash at Whole Foods I believe would have been too big.

pork tenderloin, rice pilaf, and baked squash- easy weeknight fall meal

  The receipt is pretty straight forward. Andrew liked it with the addition of green peppers, and I liked the bacon in it. It was easy and is something that could be made ahead and baked right before dinner which is nice. Verdict on the squash: they are ok. I was not blown away by the dish so probably will not make again. But it was easy, and even when cut in half it made a lot.
   Hope everyone has a happy halloween! I don't even have a costume yet and it is my favorite holiday!! Off to figure that out!

French Dressing, Pg. 218

There are a few receipts for "French Dressing" in the cookbook, and I noticed for the first time tonight that I chose the only one not attributed to a League member. I'll never know who to credit for this tasty condiment - a mystery for the ages!

Full Disclosure: I make most of my salad dressings. Just chalk it up to the Martha in me. More than anything, though, it's the fact that I usually get sick of a full bottle before it runs out. (How many half-opened bottles of salad dressing do you have in your fridge???)

Not to mention that it's super-cheap to make on your own. Anyway, enough expostulating on the merits of homemade dressing and to the specific receipt at hand.

These were some of the veggies I used with the dressing.

This French Dressing isn't at all similar to the orange-colored one readily available in most grocery stores. This receipt, made with salt, sugar, mustard, black pepper, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, was a mellow yellow. I used extra virgin olive oil, which I'll switch out for regular olive oil next time because the olive-y taste was too strong in this batch. I also ended up adding more vinegar and mustard and a touch of honey. I generally like more vinegar in my dressing than most people.

I poured the dressing over steamed green beans, which I ate cold. I obviously ate it with lettuce. I went a little overboard with veggies at the farmer's market and made good use of the dressing all week. The receipt made a hefty batch. 

So hefty, in fact, that I predictably grew sick of it. I'll definitely make it again, I'll probably just halve the ingredients. 

On to the next culinary adventure!

-Lauren

Huguenot Torte....is it Really French? Or Even Southern?

This week I decided to tackle the Huguenot Torte. Apples are in season and looking so delicious I felt I needed to make something with them. The great thing about the Huguenot torte is other than the apples, I had everything already in the pantry. And pantry might even be an exaggeration as my apartment has one cabinet to store food. The torte is very easy to make. It is sorta like a cheater's apple pie. And last but not least, it was quite tasty.  I still prefer an apple pie, but this had a crispy top and sticky apple goodness to it. And the recipe suggest serving it with whipped cream, but I would suggest ice cream instead to counterbalance the stickyness, and nothing is better than warm sugary apples and vanilla ice cream. I would not serve it cold, because it must be hard as a rock this morning with the sugar in it. Also, I halved the receipt as I was only feeding 3 boys, and one of whom refused to even try my desserts (calling you out Andrew!).

Before the torte goes in the oven!

  When I made this dessert I figured it must be a very old receipt passed down from one of the numerous Huguenot families that made Charleston their home after fleeing France. I have always found huguenot history fascinating, and aren't we glad we have some streets with funny names to tell immediately when someone is from "off". But this my ladies is a huguenot imposter! Sit down for this crazy news, but the huguenot torte Mrs. Cornelius Huguenin (Evelyn Anderson) contributed is really the Ozark pudding. This interesting NY Times article features the Huguenot tort and traces its origins. Apparently French desserts do not contain baking soda, so that gave it away as a faux french. The culinary food historian John Tyler went so far as to track down Ms. Huguenin in a nursing home and inquired to the name. Apparently Ms. Huguenin had eaten Ozark pudding while on a trip to Texas, and decided to make it and submit it to Charleston Receipts under the name Huguenot Torte.
   I have to quote Amanda Hesser in the Times article, because she sums up the dessert very well:
 "When I tasted Huguenot torte, a recipe that ran in The Times in 1965, I had but one thought: Why isn't everyone making this weekly? The torte is easy to assemble, goes on a transformative journey as it cooks and pleases everyone who tastes it. The silky batter, which blends apples, pecans and vanilla, billows in the oven, then just when it seems as if it might spill over the sides of its pan, it begins retracting until it sinks down into itself like a crater. You and your guests will get past the slight appearance problem when you taste the warm finished cake: the brown crust is like the ideal macaroon, and the center has the gooey, custardlike texture of a proper pecan pie."

my finished project

The Time's Presentation of how it should look like

 I think this is one I will make again, but next time I will get to tell the guests it's unique history and remind any ladies submitting recipes to the local church bazaar cookbook or junior league cookbook that in 50 years someone might track them down to learn, now just why did you call it that?

-christine

Mrs. Ralph Izard's "Awendaw"

 miss emma gaillard witsell, this must feed a very very hungry 6-8 people!

Last week I decided to explore the chapter titled: Hominy & Rice, Cheese & Eggs. I loved the quote at the beginning that said- "Never call it 'Hominy Grits'/Or you will give Charlestonians fits!'

   I made this to accompany chicken saltimbocca  (by Virginia Willis from Bon Appetit Ya'll) with a blue cheese salad and parmesean cheese twists. It was a perfect mix of salty goodness and sweet salad. Nothing beats the combo of country ham and grits!

This was a dish I will definitely make again. It was really easy. It was super super filling and the 2 hungry boys I fed could not even go back for seconds, which was great because I ate it for breakfast the whole week. It keeps well for leftovers. It is thicker than a usual grits casserole due to the addition of cornmeal and eggs. I added some cheddar on top of mine (because I can never ever resist!). As usual, the receipt did not specify how long to cook the hominy, but I compared it to the baked hominy receipt, and decided about an hour should be good.

seriously, this is how much I had leftover after 3 people.

Ok, ya'll will have to endure my inner history dork for this receipt. When I saw the namesake for this receipt, Mrs. Ralph Izard, it had me thinking about if this was the Mrs. Ralph Izard I have seen frequently in portraits. One of my favorite coffee table books is In Pursuit of Refinement, Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860. I have a small obsession with portraits and this book has all the 18th century heavy hitter portrait artists. The cover of the book is this beautiful portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard by John Singleton Copley. I plan to have my portrait  like this in my living room one day. ha. Can you imagine?

Did this pretty lady invent this delish hominy recipe? hmmm

And here is another beautiful portrait of Mrs. Ralph Izard by Gainsborough that is at the Met.

  However, this Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice Delancey) is from New York. Did a Yankee create our awendaw hominy? We do have other Mrs. Ralph Izards in the history books. Besides this senator's wife, we have his son. The other Mrs. Ralph Izard, (maiden name Eliza Lucas Middleton Pinckney) might be the creator of yummy dish. This is a mystery for the ages....
  Stay tuned, next week I think I am going to attempt Chicken Country Captain, or maybe even risk some grease burns and fry me up some chicken!

-christine

Bread, Pg. 193

I chose to make Mrs. John Andrew Hamilton's (a.k.a. Elizabeth Verner's) receipt for bread this week before I had a chance to check the calendar.

Oops. It's less than two week's until my sister-in-law's wedding. In true Lauren fashion, that, of course, means no carbs. Or, to be precise, minimal carbs. Lots of eggs. Lots of cheese. Handfuls of cashews. No bread.

Add cheese and this makes Christine's favorite meal.

The receipt - which unusually calls for the dough to rise in the icebox (a.k.a. fridge) - was tasty (Okay, yes, I tasted it) but too labor intensive.

It called for two eggs - is that normal? I didn't know bread had eggs. Anyway, I made the dough - which never really rose "like mad" - into two loaves. (One is tucked away in the freezer, to be enjoyed post-wedding.) Mrs. Hamilton also provides instructions on how to make the dough into rolls or coffee cake.

To be honest, though, I probably won't try either.

I can buy a baguette for $2 dollars at the grocery store - and canned cinnamon rolls and biscuits for not much more. Does this make me a lazy cook? Probably.

My favorite part about this receipt was this particular line: "the smell of it makes your family feel home is really the place it's cracked up to be." I think there's a typo in there somewhere, but no matter. I got Mrs. Hamilton's point.

I'll admit it did make our apartment smell great - and just smelling it costs me no carbs at all.

-Lauren

Lemon Meringue Pie, pg. 264....Easy as Pie

Sorry for the long absence away from the blog. I actually had some form of employment this past couple of weeks (no, don't get too excited, it is babysitting, not anything that puts those months of studying for NY and SC bars to use). And since I am starting to get more on a schedule with temporary employment, I need to get back to the kitchen!

   The last receipt I made from our beloved cookbook was Mrs. Walter A. Davis's Lemon Meringue Pie. I made it while out in Darien for the weekend and I chose it for a couple of reasons. One being, Mrs. Lloyd had all of the ingredients already, and two, Mr. Lloyd is allergic to peanuts. And many of the desserts in Charleston Receipts favor a nut of some sort. It is great having a dessert receipt that doesn't require a trip to the grocery store.

   I decided to make the pie crust from scratch because I do think they taste better. And I had access to Mrs. Lloyd's food processor. For those who fear the handmade crust, fear not. I found the best recipe for novices like me in Virginia Willis's great cookbook Bon Appetit Ya'll . She combines classic french techniques with the southern recipes she was raised with. It is a beautiful book too, and I would highly recommend it. The real key to the crust is keeping the butter and crisco ice cold. I found the pie crust receipts in Charleston Receipts as a bit iffy. I know I need to try them out in the adventurous spirit of the blog, but on this day I needed something bulletproof. 

     Anyway, back to the Charleston Receipt. I was amazed the receipt only required one lemon, but it tasted very lemony (is that a word?). I think the addition of the lemon zest adds a lot of flavor. The only problem I had was with the meringue. I was beating happily and getting peaks, but then I noticed when reading the directions I still needed to add the sugar. The cookbook reads as follows: "Beat egg whites very stiff. Add 1/2 cup sugar slowl, beating all the while." Well those eggwhites did not want to rebeat after I added the sugar, so it sorta made a less pretty meringue pie. I probably should have added cream of tartar to aid the limping peaks. Oh well.

  We were in a rush to take the train back to the city, so we ate the pie quickly and I never got a picture of it either. But it is an easy pie, and a receipt I would recommend. (though I prefer a good chess pie, and I am shocked this cookbook doesn't contain such a classic southern dessert).

   One last note, while this is easy, if you are making the pie crust it becomes a bit more time consuming than one expects. The crust requires 30 minutes to chill. 20 minutes to blind bake. 20 minutes to assemble (I am slow at that stuff), and 20 minutes to bake. And you really want another hour or so to cool. But nothing beats homemade!

Please Pass the Sherry- Chicken Tetrazzini

Last week I made Chicken Tetrazzini, pg. 120 by Mrs. Henry P. Staats. Chicken Tetrazzini reminds me of babies and funerals. It is definitely the classic put in the freezer and bring to someone's house kind of dish. But this is a dish I might start making for myself instead. This was delicious and I definitely want to make it again.
   The main reason I think I loved it was the sherry. I didn't realize how much I loved it. I always generously put a  lot of sherry in my she crab soup, or actually I put in all the sherry they put on the table. The receipt called for the mushrooms to be sautéed in butter and sherry (and I also added in all the sherry to the sauce that was not absorbed by the mushrooms). The apartment smelled fantastic.

whisking forever

    Some other notes on the receipt. I used chicken leftover from a rotisserie bird we ate the night before. So it was a lot of dark meat, which I usually don't like but it tasted pretty good in the casserole.  I do think I failed a bit in making the cream. It required continuous stirring for 30 minutes over a double boiler. The apartment gets so hot when cooking that I find it hard to stand over the stove for that long. (anyone who has lived in a tiny ny apartment knows what I am talking about!) But it tasted really great anyways.

only negative, it does not plate in a picture pretty kind of way

   I also halved the receipt because it makes a lot and Andrew won't eat leftovers (high maintenance!).  And this will put some weight on the hips kind of receipt with all the cream, butter, and cheese. This has been my favorite dish, and I am going to seek out the rest of the sherry receipts asap!