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!