Archives for Heritage Recipes category

This hot, spicy relish has been a fixture on Southern tables since at least the 1860s. Serve it with a bowl of pintos, a cake of corn bread and some sweet onion!
5 red bell peppers, diced
2 large green tomatoes, diced
2 large sweet onions, diced
1 small head cabbage, diced
1/4 cup pickling salt
3 cups sugar
2 cups [...]

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Cracklin corn bread is made with cracklings, which are bits of roasted pork skins. You can make your own, or you may be able to find them at small Mom & Pop groceries.

1 1/2 cup white cornmeal
1/4 cup oil or bacon drippings
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to [...]

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Hush Puppies

The story goes that folks frying fish would drop bits of corn meal into the hot oil and throw them to the hound dogs to keep them quiet and away from the kettle of fish. A true Southern delicacy.
2 cups self-rising cornmeal
2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 large onion [...]

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Sweet potato biscuits are another gift to Southern cooking from African Americans. The recipes go back to before the Civil War; during the wartime food shortages, they became familiar to all southerners as the sweet potatoes were used to stretch out flour, which was scarce in the last years of the war.
The biscuits are [...]

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Beaten Biscuits

These traditional Southern biscuits date back to the days before baking powder and baking soda were available. Pearlash, which was used as the main leavener at the time, gave biscuits a bitter taste. Cooks found that by pounding and folding unleavened biscuit dough enough times, tiny air pockets formed in the dough and leavened it.
When [...]

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Corn Pone

You heard Granny talk about it, now make your own!
3 cups cornmeal
3 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
2 1/2 cups boiling water
3 teaspoons salt
Melt lard in 10 inch cast iron skillet and swirl to coat. Pour remaining fat into other ingredients and mix. Bake at 350¼ F for 45- 50 min. or until golden brown. [...]

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Collard Greens

4-6 bunches of collards
5 slices of salt pork or bacon
1 ham hock
1 large onion, chopped
Soul Food Seasoning to taste
Black pepper to taste
Water to cover
Place collards in kitchen sink. Fill sink with water, pushing leaves under running water as sink fills. Allow to soak for five minutes; drain water, rinse collards under running water and fill [...]

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This Cajun treat takes its name from the brown appearance of the rice after it is fried and mixed with chicken giblets. It has a rich, flavorful taste and goes well with chicken, duck, turkey or game.
Serves 6 to 8.
1 quart water
1 pound chicken livers or livers and gixxards
3 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup [...]

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Quick Greens

Quick Greens served with hot corn bread and Pinto beans were a staple at my house when I was growing up. They go well with any dish you care to [...]

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A spicy Cajun dish of smothered corn and seasonings (pronounced mock shoo)

12 ears fresh corn
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 medium-sized green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 cup milk

Scrape off corn kernels into a bowl; [...]

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