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North Carolina’s Soups
and Stews
by Beth Crist
North Carolina has a rich culinary heritage that reflects American Indian,
African American, German, English, Scots-Irish, and other influences.
A number of traditional soups and stews popular in North Carolina and
throughout the South today date back to the colonial period.
Hominy Soup
Long before Europeans arrived in the southeastern United States, American
Indians in the region were growing corn. Squash, beans, and corn made
up the “three sisters,” the staple foods of many southeastern
tribes. American Indians shared corn—and their technique of growing
it alongside squash and beans—with European settlers. Corn quickly
became an essential food for the settlers, who soon adopted the cooking
techniques of nearby tribes. Both American Indians and European settlers
made many dishes from corn, such as hominy, succotash, cornbread, soup,
grits, and cornpone, that we still eat today. Indeed, corn remains an
essential ingredient in southern cuisine.
Hominy soup represents one traditional way the Cherokee Indians used
corn.
Recipe:
Use hominy corn to make hominy soup. Put the corn in lye until the skin
slips. Beat the corn in the corn beater [a very large mortar and pestle],
sift the meal to remove the larger particles. Store this soup in a pottery
jar; it turns sour like buttermilk by the next day.
From Cherokee Cooklore,
edited by Mary Ulmer and Samuel E. Beck (Cherokee, N.C.: Museum of the
Cherokee Indian, 1951).
Pot Liquor
Collards, okra, black-eyed peas, benne seeds, watermelon, and eggplant,
were among the foods Africans brought to this country in the 1700s. Pot
liquor is the liquid left after cooking collards or other greens. Slaves
stretched this nutritious broth by adding the pot liquor left after cooking
beans or meat and topping the mixture with cornmeal or flour dumplings.
Today southerners enjoy pot liquor as a soup, accompanied by a piece of
cornbread for dunking.
Recipe:
Thoroughly wash two pounds of fresh greens, trim off the stalks, and
immerse the leaves a few at a time in one and a half gallons of boiling
water, to which has been added a quarter-pound piece of seasoning meat
(ham hock or salt pork). Stir in one tablespoon of salt (more if needed).
Cover the pot and simmer for one hour or more, or until the greens are
tender. As with cabbage or beans, additional seasonings such as onions
and red pepper pods may be put into the pot. This amount of greens will
boil down from a large mass to a more manageable amount—about
enough to serve four people. [After removing the greens, serve the liquid
remaining in the pot as soup.]
From Southern Food
by John Egerton (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1987).
Pine Bark Stew
This stew was popular in the Carolinas and Georgia in the nineteenth century.
Despite its name, pine bark stew contains no pine bark. Theories about
the origin of the name abound. Some say that cooks in the eighteenth century
used the small, tender roots of the pine tree as a seasoning. Others believe
the stew was so named for its brown color, which resembles bark. A third
possibility is that early settlers learned the recipe from American Indians,
who made the stew thick enough to be served on slabs of pine bark. Still
another theory claims that early cooks primarily used pine bark to fuel
the fire over which they cooked the stew. Regardless of the origin of
its name, this stew takes advantage of the many freshwater fish available
in the region.
Recipe:
Cut six strips of bacon into small pieces and fry crisp over low heat
in a large heavy pot. Drain bacon on paper towels and pour off all but
about three tablespoons of the grease. Sauté two cups of diced
potatoes in the pot and add one cup of minced onions when the potatoes
are beginning to soften. Continue cooking and stirring until the onions
are soft. Season to taste with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and
thyme. Place two pounds of seasoned freshwater fish fillets (bass, perch,
trout, bream, or whatever) on top of the onion-potato mixture and cover
with four to five cups of boiling water. Simmer for thirty minutes.
Then add one and a half cups of peeled, cored, and chopped tomatoes
(fresh or canned) and continue simmering for about ten minutes more.
Stir carefully, trying not to break the fish into small flakes. When
the fish is tender, add the bacon bits and serve. There should be enough
for four to six helpings.
From Southern Food
by John Egerton (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1987).
Fish Muddle
Like barbecue, fish muddle is the name of both a recipe and a gathering.
Popular on the North Carolina coast, a fish muddle is a seafood stew usually
cooked outside and shared by a large group. Food writer Craig Claiborne
attributed the fish muddle—muddle being the term for a mess of fish—to
early immigrants who settled on the Outer Banks. Popular in North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Virginia in the colonial period, fish muddles are
still enjoyed today.
Recipe: Serves 6
For the muddle:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, trimmed, rinsed and thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, trimmed and sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed and thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed and thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups diced tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup fish stock or bottled clam juice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
18 fresh mussels, scrubbed with beard scraped off
18 littleneck or cherrystone clams, scrubbed
18 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
18 sea scallops
1 pound monkfish, trimmed and cut into slices ¾inch thick
1. For the muddle, heat the
olive oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium high heat. Add
the leek, celery, green and red bell pepper, and sauté over medium
heat, stirring frequently, for five to seven minutes, or until the vegetables
are lightly browned, Add the white wine to the pan, and stir to dislodge
any vegetables, Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, tarragon, salt
and pepper, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower the heat,
and simmer the stew, stirring occasionally, for thirty minutes.
2. While the stew is simmering,
place the clams and mussels in another saucepan. Discard any that do
not firmly close when tapped. Place the pan covered over high heat,
and steam the mollusks for three minutes, shaking the pan a few times
but not uncovering it. Remove the pan from the heat, and discard any
clams or mussels that did not open. Remove them from the pan with a
slotted spoon, and set aside, covered. Strain the liquid through a sieve
lined with a paper coffee Filter or cheesecloth. Add the liquid to the
stew.
For the garnish:
2 egg yolks
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads (crushed into 1 tablespoon hot water)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
6 slices toasted Sally Lunn or French bread
3. To make the garnish, combine
the egg yolks, garlic, and saffron with its liquid in a blender or food
processor fitted with the steel blade. Puree, and then slowly add the
olive and vegetable oils in a very slow stream through the feed tube,
scraping the sides as necessary. The sauce should have the consistency
of a mayonnaise.
4. To serve, place the shrimp,
scallops, and monkfish into the simmering fish stew. Stir gently. When
the stew returns to a boil, cover the pan, turn off the heat, and let
the pot sit undisturbed for five minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls,
and arrange the clams and mussels on the top. Spread the saffron sauce
on the toast, and place one on top of each serving.
Note: The fish stock base
and sauce can be prepared up to one day in advance and refrigerated,
tightly covered. The toasts can he made in advance and kept loosely
covered at room temperature. Reheat the stew to boiling, and cook the
seafood just prior to serving.
From Christiana Campbell’s
Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg (http://www.history.org/visit/diningExperience/christianaCampbells/)
Brunswick Stew
Like pine bark stew, this dish has a number of possible origins. If you
ask a Virginian, he’ll probably respond that an African American
cook named Jimmy Matthews invented a squirrel stew for his master, Creed
Haskins, in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1828. Georgia natives will
most likely tell a different story, one in which the first stew was made
in 1898 on St. Simons Island. North Carolinians will contend it originated
sometime in the 1800s in Brunswick County, North Carolina. More likely,
the dish originated long before the 1800s. With the original ingredients
of squirrel and corn and slow simmering over an open fire, it’s
typical of American Indian dishes. However it originated, the dish has
changed over the years; squirrel is usually left out in favor of meats
available at the grocery store, and more vegetables are added. Although
there are more answers about how Brunswick stew should be made than how
it originated, it generally features chicken or a combination of several
meats (usually chicken, beef, and pork), onions, corn, tomatoes, and perhaps
lima beans, peas, and okra.
Recipe:
1 large stewing or baking hen (5 pounds or more)
1 pound lean veal or beef
1 rabbit or squirrel, if available
Water to cover
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cups whole-kernel fresh white corn
4 cups small fresh lima beans
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
3 teaspoons salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce or to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup butter
Stew chicken and meat together
in salted water to cover until the meat falls from the bones. Cool;
shred with the fingers, discarding skin, bones, and fat. Put meat back
into strained broth and continue to simmer.
In another pot, cook potatoes
with onion, corn, lima beans, and tomato sauce in water to cover for
about twenty minutes or until the potatoes are done. Combine with meat.
The mixture will be thin like soup. Simmer for several hours, stirring
occasionally, until thickened. Watch to prevent burning. Season with
salt, pepper, hot pepper sauce, and Worcestershire. Add butter. Makes
four quarts.
From North Carolina and
Old Salem Cookery by Beth Tartan (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1992).
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