she-crab soup is better!

On Jan 11, 2007, at 10:39 AM, Melinda Skinner wrote:

> While I'm waxing nostalgic about Virginia food...
> does anyone else love peanut soup?
>
> --
> Melinda C. P. Skinner
> Writer and Wonderer
>
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe <[log in to unmask]>
>> Buttermilk gives to southern baking (and cooking) what cream adds
>> to French
>> and northern Italian cuisine:  a light sweetness and the rich
>> flavor of
>> animal fat.  Much of the flavor in food, as I am told by a gifted
>> medical
>> anthropologist, is derived from what kind of fat you use, how high
>> you heat
>> it, and how you heat it.
>>
>> It is important to remember that southern cuisine was created for
>> a society
>> where most of its members burned 3,000-4,000 calories a day
>> without benefit
>> of automobiles, washing machines, and air conditioning.  The high
>> caloric
>> and high fat content of southern cooking was part of its appeal to
>> the
>> average southerner in say 1900.
>>
>> If I had eaten the dinner my Virginia-born grandfather took down
>> into the
>> Pennsylvania coal pits six days a week for thirty years, I
>> wouldn't be here
>> to write to you.  For my comparatively sedentary way of life,
>> about half of
>> the pork chops, greens, and yams my grandfather ate, with perhaps
>> a bit less
>> meat and more vegetables is suitable.  But I still want butter on
>> my yams,
>> vinegar on my greens, and real pork with a thin slice of fat on
>> the lean for
>> the flavor.
>>
>> Harold S. Forsythe
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Excalibur131" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 4:12 PM
>> Subject: Re: some recipes
>>
>>
>>> See my last post about what to do with southern biscuits. Yummy!
>>>
>>> Buttermilk is one of the key ingredients, perhaps the key
>>> ingredient, to
>>> great southern biscuits. I wonder how many people have ever had
>>> buttermilk,
>>> much less bought any? I wonder how many have ever cooked with it?
>>> I don't
>>> know what it is or how to describe it, but buttermilk gives southern
>>> biscuits something special. Maybe a twang? Maybe something in the
>>> texture?
>>> Maybe some taste that's there so faintly, yet is so wonderful? I
>>> don't
>>> know,
>>> but I sure love them.
>>>
>>> I've also been taught that when you say "knead lightly" that is
>>> exactly
>>> what
>>> you mean; none of this pounding and beating until the mixture
>>> turns into a
>>> big dough ball.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>> Eastern Shore & More Forum
>>> http://www.easternshoremore.com/forum/
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 2:03 PM
>>> Subject: some recipes
>>>
>>>
>>>> All this food talk made me get out my old family recipes, so before
>>>> we run out of our allotted 50 posts for today:
>>>>
>>>> SOUTHERN BISCUIT RECIPE
>>>>
>>>> 2 c flour
>>>> 2/3 tsp. salt
>>>> 1/2 tsp soda
>>>> 3 Tblsp. shortening
>>>> 3/4 c buttermilk
>>>>
>>>> Combine flour, salt, and soda. Cut in shortening until it resembles
>>>> coarse crumbs (I use two table knives- it is important to get it
>>>> crumbly, this adds to the light texture- this is also the secret to
>>>> light pie crusts). Add buttermilk and stir till well blended. Turn
>>>> onto floured board and knead lightly, 3 or 4 times. Roll to 1/2"
>>>> thickness, cut with a 2" biscuit cutter, drinking glass, or small
>>>> juice glass. Place on lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 450
>>>> for 12-15 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.
>>>
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