The Southern Food & Beverage Museum

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Well, you knew there had to be a southern food museum somewhere, and there is! A great one!

Celebrate the food culture of the South by checking out The Southern Food & Beverage Museum online, or by visiting them in person in New Orleans!

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is a nonprofit living history organization dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of the food, drink and the related culture of the South.

…Not only are these guys collecting menus from every restaurant throughout the South and Southern-inspired restaurants everywhere in the world, they also create cool exhibits. Their newest exhibit, SPOILED by Tom Varisco, chronicles the tales that refrigerators told in the post-Hurricane Katrina clean-up.

Speaking of clean-ups, there is a great post at Southern Foodways on how the recent oil spill has effected the lives of folks who make their living on the water. Read it here.

Southern Foodways Goes Whole Hog

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“Southern baking is not only a way of survival: it is an expression of love, empathy, and celebration. Food brings families together at mealtime, celebrates the gathering of communities at traditional “dinner on the grounds,” consoles friends when a loved one dies, and offers topic for conversation at holidays. It represents the resourcefulness and ties that bind southern families and communities together…”

Therefore, it makes sense that these traditions should be preserved for future generations…

The Center for Public History and The Southern Foodways Alliance have completed an oral history project exploring Southern baking traditions. They have conducted over thirty interviews, created a traveling exhibit, and conducted a number of public programs at their exhibit locations, finely tuned for the special audiences in their community.

Please enjoy exploring their diligent work at The Center for Public History, University of West Georgia (View the on-line exhibit here.)

…And for hours of incredible education and entertainment, check out the The Southern Foodways Alliance‘s “Potlikker” documentary films online, here. With titles like “Whole Hog” and “Hot Chicken” you know can’t go wrong with these films!

Festiveness, Stacked Up Southern Style

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Just looking at the photo of this layer cake makes me salivate. I wonder If I have the patience to create something with this many layers! If I do, trust me, I’ll post about it…right after I eat it!

THREE LAYERS? WHY BOTHER? Martha Meadows of Slocomb, Ala., with her little layer cake with boiled chocolate icing. She will make 10 of them this year.

Festiveness, Stacked Up Southern Style

IN this corner of the country, where cotton and peanuts pay the bills and the Florida border is a morning’s walk away, the worth of a cook can be measured in cake layers.

All across the South at Christmas, layer cakes parade across virtually every sideboard. But in the small towns of southeast Alabama, they are more than holiday tradition.

They’re currency, comfort and status. Everyone knows whose cakes are tender and whose consistently reach 12 layers or more.

“Three or four weren’t nothing to brag about,” said Franklin Peacock, who has been eating layer cake here since the 1930s. “Five or six is about where you’d want to start talking about your cake.”

Martha Meadows, 77, learned to bake 15-layer cakes from her mother, who cooked each layer one at a time in a cast-iron hoe-cake pan…

For the complete article from The New York Times, please click here.

Pastriology

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Now here’s a project we can get behind, considering it’s entirely based on pastry (both the good and the bad): “Pastriology,” a feature documentary by Alexis Krasilovsky.

SYNOPSIS:

Pastriology takes a global view of the perils and pleasures of pastry.  How can something that can make you sick and even kill you be such a sweet expression of cultural values and love?  Pastry is a luxury for some, a fast substitute for meals for others, and in today’s economy, it’s a comfort food for more and more Americans at a loss.  Pastriology addresses the planetary emergency of too little food, while seducing the viewer with the lavish traditions and beauty of pastry- and cake-making that call us back to the roots of our childhood.

For more information about the film, click here to visit the site.

 

Cafe Campesino turns out fresh muffins, scones, cookies daily…

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Today, our hungry eye is on a coffee shop in Atlanta owned by our friend Maria Moore-Riggs, an extraordinary southern baker!

Coffee and treats sweeten Sweet Auburn market

Cafe Campesino turns out fresh muffins, scones, cookies daily

By C.W. Cameron (For the AJC)

The popularity of a neighborhood coffee shop often has as much to do with its sweet treats as the quality of the coffee. Standing next to the pastry case while you’re waiting to order, it’s hard not to be tempted by something you see on display. How about a muffin with that cappuccino? A scone with your chai latte? A cupcake with your hot chocolate?…

Cocoa Mocha Love Cakes are a vegan creation by Cafe Campesino owner Maria Moore-Riggs.

(Cocoa Mocha Love Cakes are a vegan creation by Cafe Campesino owner Maria Moore-Riggs.)

Hummingbird bran muffins, which play off hummingbird cake, are flavored with coconut, banana and pineapple.

(Hummingbird bran muffins, which play off hummingbird cake, are flavored with coconut, banana and pineapple.)

Chai spice scones deliver spicy chai flavors in a baked treat.

(Chai spice scones deliver spicy chai flavors in a baked treat.)

Cafe Campesino is one of the newest coffee shops in town, open since November at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market in downtown Atlanta. Owner Maria Moore-Riggs has a background in professional baking and massage therapy and a master’s degree in psychotherapy. She says running a coffee shop calls on all her professional skills because it’s all about building relationships and nurturing people.

One of the ways she nurtures her customers is by freshly baking scones, cookies, biscotti and more each day. She turns out a surprising number of treats from a 2-by-3-foot counter and a microwave-size convection oven in a tiny corner of the shop.

Cafe Campesino is a partnership with the Americus-based coffee roaster of the same name. The 100-percent organic and fair trade coffee comes from a green coffee importing cooperative. The folks in Americus roast coffee every day, and once a week Moore-Riggs gets a delivery of freshly roasted beans…

For the complete article from Access Atlanta, click here.

Maria’s original recipes for the delectable treats you see above can be found by clicking here, or by clicking “Continue Reading” below…

(Photo credit: Elissa Eubanks, eeubanks@ajc.com)

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Durham NC’s Watts Grocery Bakes

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Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes

The New York Times April 20 Dining section has a great story about the flowering of restaurants in Durham, North Carolina (Durham, a Tobacco Town, Turns to Local Food).  When I lived there in the 1970s, the food was great, but the range of cookery was nowhere as bountiful as it is today.

Watts Grocery represents the best that Durham has to offer these days, and that’s alot –  Frommer’s gives it 5 stars:

“…this down-home eatery run by Durham native Amy Tornquist serves the best farm-fresh fare in the area. The chef-owner believes in serving the best of Piedmont produce, and every rib-sticking dish is homemade. You can get fried chicken gizzards here just like grandma used to make when she wasn’t baking those red velvet cupcakes. Sandwiches, burgers, and salads dominate the luncheon menu, featuring a fried green tomato BLT, even (our favorite) hand-cut buttermilk onion rings with a chipotle-blue cheese dipping sauce. At night it gets fancier with entrees ranging from braised rabbit in red wine to yellowtail snapper filets stuffed with crabmeat. Buttermilk pancakes and shrimp and grits highlight the breakfast menu.”

Amy gave us her recipe for Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes that ran in the NY Times, and now that I have baked up a batch, I can affirm that this is a wonderful and unusual dessert that perfectly represents the new style in Southern cooking.  Enjoy making and eating them.  If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about your next trip to North Carolina to visit this restaurant!

Time: One hour, plus at least 3 hours’ cooling

9 ounces unsalted butter, plus extra for pans

1 cup pecans, toasted and cooled

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for berries (optional)

3/8 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

7/8 cup white cornmeal, plus extra for pans

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

8 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Berries, for serving

Ice cream or whipped cream, for serving.

1. In a small pan, simmer butter over low heat until light brown and toasty, 8 to 10 minutes. Strain and set aside.

2. In a food processor, rapidly pulse pecans, confectioners’ sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar until finely ground.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Mix in cornmeal and salt. Mix in pecan-sugar mixture.

4. Whisk egg whites and vanilla together just to combine and whisk into dry ingredients. Whisk in melted butter. Refrigerate batter at least three hours or overnight.

5. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thickly butter 10 four-inch tartlet pans or a muffin-top tin. Dust well with cornmeal. Fill each a little more than halfway. If you have extra batter, make a second batch.

6. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes in pans, then immediately turn out on a rack. Serve warm, topped with berries (if you like, stir with a little sugar and set aside for a few minutes), ice cream or whipped cream.

Yield: 8 to 12 small cakes.

Thank you Amy Tornquist and the Watts Grocery, located at 1116 Broad St, Durham, NC – call 919/416-5040 for reservations.

Strawberry Shortcake Done Proper

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And old pal from childhood, Chris Ellinger, agreed to offer up his secret recipe for strawberry shortcake. According to Chris: “There’s a hundred versions of strawberry shortcake. Some use those store bought sponge cakes, some use lady fingers, some just use regular cake. These are all WRONG! You are cheating yourself if you don’t make it proper! You can use a regular biscuit recipe with a little extra sugar added, but if you want an extra rich real south Georgia shortcake, the secret is hard boiled egg yolks!”

So, listen close to some real strawberry shortcake expertise –

Preheat your oven to 425

 and sugar up your strawberries! Make sure to save some big’uns for the top!

Dry ingredients:
3 cups low-protein or all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
Wet ingredients:
1/3 cup COLD butter
4 egg yolks, hard boiled
1 1/4 cup whipping cream

Directions

Cut your butter and yolks into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender (NOT a mixer!). Don’t mash it up too much, just a coarse blend.

Add in the whipping cream and mix with a fork until all the dry is wet.

Knead and fold it out on the counter – not too much! The more folds you have the more layers you’ll get!

 You can either do individuals with a biscuit cutter or you can put it in a greased cake pan. I like to brush the top with a little whipping cream or buttermilk before baking.

Keep in oven until they are just turning gold on the edges – usually about 15 minutes.

Let cool on wire rack. If you made the cake pan size, remove from pan right away!

Whip up your cream with some sugar and a squirt of vanilla!

 Split your cake or biscuits in half and slop on some sugared berries. Whip cream and whole berries on top – Bingo.

(Thanks Chris!)

It smells good in here….

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As far as we’re concerned, there is nothing better than Southern style baking.  That means breads, biscuits, pies, cakes and cookies.  The South is a big place, and its foodways have influenced people all over America – all over the world for that matter.  While we will celebrate traditional Southern baking in a big way here, we have an eclectic approach to cooking, baking and eating, so you can expect to find a great many variations on a Southern theme in these pages.

If you bake, if you have recipes passed down to you by family and friends, if you want to let us know about the best bakers, bakeries and restaurants that bake, we want to hear from you.  Write to us.  Send pictures.  We’re always hungry!