Wild Rice and a History Lesson on Rice- Wild Rice Casserole, pg. 163

About once a week growing up we seemed to have the combo of pork and brown rice. However, I was at the ripe old age of 26 before I realized we weren't eating what others called brown rice. Ha, nothing that healthy in the Fritz household. Instead we were eating white rice with a can of consomme and a stick of butter on top. And let me tell you, it sure does beat the real version of brown rice! So when looking through our cookbook, I found a recipe very similar entitled Wild Rice Casserole (though healthier because it only contains a tablespoon of butter, and wild rice, so I think my mother's is still better!).
    In NYC (and not sure about SC), wild rice only comes in packets already seasoned. So my options were limited. Also, I have no idea what she meant by removing the chaff from the rice. Do people do that anymore? I know that slaves weaved sweetgrass baskets (like the one you see at the market and on highway 17) for the purpose of fanning the rice through the basket to separate the chaff. So is this receipt super old? Anyway, I forgot to pack my specialty sweetgrass basket so that didn't happen. Also, pretty positive modern rice production took that step away. But love seeing these details in receipts that remind us that cooking use to be really quite an ordeal.
  Another comment: I do not know what condense consomme is, and I forgot to soak it for 3 hours. But this rice already had seasoning and I know my mom never does that. The directions were a bit confusing as to when she meant to add the mushrooms because usually baked rice remains undisturbed until than end (I think). So I added the mushrooms and butter before baking. My mom puts the stick of butter at the beginning of her rice and consomme so it made the most sense. Also, my oven runs very hot, so the later step of 300 was not necessary.

And below are quotes from a Yale Website. Sorry, it is the history dork in me!
" Throughout the 1700s the economy of South Carolina was based overwhelmingly on the cultivation of rice. This product brought consistently high prices in England, and the colony prospered and expanded. Rice agriculture has been called "the best opportunity for industrial profit which 18th century America afforded." South Carolina became one of the richest of the North American Colonies; and Charlestown (now Charleston), its capital and principal port, one of the wealthiest and most fashionable cities in early America."


"the South Carolina and Georgia colonists ultimately adopted a system of rice cultivation that drew heavily on the labor patterns and technical knowledge of their African slaves. During the growing season the slaves on the rice plantations moved through the fields in a line, hoeing rhythmically and singing work songs to keep in unison. At harvest time the women processed the rice by pounding it in large wooden mortars and pestles, virtually identical to those used in West Africa, and then "fanning" the rice in large round winnowing baskets to separate the grain and chaff. The slaves may also have contributed to the system of sluices, banks, and ditches used on the South Carolina and Georgia rice plantations


-christine