Persimmon pudding only works with a hachiya collapsed to mush
A persimmon pudding recipe that depends on collapsed fruit: how ripe is ripe, getting the pulp, the thin batter, and why the middle is meant to sink.
13 min read
Author: Warren Ashby
Warren Ashby writes about American regional food and the meals that mark the calendar. He grew up between the Ohio Valley and the Carolina coast and has spent years collecting the versions of the same dish that change every two hundred miles.
Burgoo once fed a hundred people at a time
A kentucky burgoo recipe scaled down to a Dutch oven: three meats, the four vegetables that are not optional, and eight hours that do the actual work.
13 min read
Six winter greens that are not kale
Six types of winter greens compared: escarole, mustard, tatsoi, broccoli rabe, chard and turnip tops, with bitterness, cook time and the fat each needs.
13 min read
Appalachian stack cake needs a night in the pantry
An apple stack cake recipe from the southern mountains: six thin sorghum layers, a dried apple filling, and the overnight rest that makes it one cake.
13 min read
Hatch chiles are everywhere for two weeks in September
A green chile stew recipe that makes a gallon, plus how to buy and freeze a bushel during the two weeks in September when the roasters run all day.
15 min read
Virginia and Georgia both claim brunswick stew, and neither one agrees on the meat
Two states claim it and neither agrees on the meat. A brunswick stew recipe for a five-hour Saturday, the constants both sides keep, and the paddle test.
14 min read
Bot boi has no crust, only square noodles
Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie is a square-noodle chicken stew with no crust at all: the rolled dough, the broth that carries it, and the counties that claim it.
13 min read
A hotdish is not a casserole, and Minnesota will explain why
What is a hotdish and where the line falls against a casserole: the starch, the binder, the crunchy top, six Upper Midwest versions, and the tater tot rule.
13 min read
Perloo, pilau, jambalaya: the Carolina coast draws lines between them
A shrimp perloo recipe built on stock from the shells, the Carolina Gold ratio, and a lid that never lifts, plus the lines between perloo, bog and jambalaya.
14 min read