Old Fashioned Country Recipes
Let's have some fun with tasty recipes from the good ol' days. In character with life on the farm, these recipes use fresh, natural ingredients, and don't necessarily require scientific measurements.
Apple Fritters (Danish Abelskiver)
1 chopped apple 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 tbsp. butter 1-1/2 cups milk 1 pkg. yeast 1/4 cup warm water 2 tbs. sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon Scald milk and butter. Cool. Dissolve yeast in water and 2 tbs. sugar. Add slightly whipped eggs to milk. Add yeast mixture, cinnamon, flour, and sugar to milk mixture and stir in apple.
Heat Lodge Abelskiver Pan and put 1/2 tablespoon butter in each cup. Add batter into each cup until full. Cook on medium high heat until underside is brown, flip with fork and brown other side.
3 cups tomato sauce 4 tsp. celery seed 1 chopped onion 2 tsp. sugar 6 tbsp. vinegar Garlic salt & hot sauce Mix and simmer ingredients 20 min. Add garlic salt and Hot Sauce to taste. Add water to thin for marinade.
Biscuits
(Cooked in a Dutch Oven)
4 cups flour 1 tsp. salt 2 tbsp. baking powder 1/2 cup shortening 1-1/2 cup milk or water Combine dry ingredients. Work in shortening and add milk gradually. Knead and pinch off desired amount and place in greased Dutch Oven and bake 15-20 minutes on hot coals.
12 large cucumbers 6 small onions 1/2 quart vinegar 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup salt 1 tbs. each of celery seed, ginger root, and mustard seed Slice pickles and onions and add salt. Let stand for one hour. Add the balance of ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. Can and seal while hot.
1 egg 1-1/2 tsp. salt 1-1/2 cups of milk 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper 2 cups of cornmeal 1/4 tsp. black pepper Mix egg and milk well in bowl. Shake dry ingredients into paper bag. Dip catfish filets in milk mixture then add to bag and shake well. Fry in hot grease until golden brown.
For just the right utensil click here: 12" Cast Iron Skillet.
1/2 cup grits 4 eggs 2 tbsp. milk 1 cup grated cheese Add grits and salt to 1-1/2 cups boiling water, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Beat eggs with milk and add cheese, add to grits and stir over low heat until eggs are cooked and cheese melted. Serves 2-4.
2 cups flour 3 tbsp. baking powder 1 cup whole milk 2 tsp. lard or Crisco 1 egg beaten 1 tsp. salt 1 chicken Boil a quartered chicken until the bones can be removed easily. Mix up dumplin' dough ingredients and spoon into boiling chicken pot liquor. Cover pot and shift to cooler eye. Let cool 20 min. and serve.
Country and Southern Cookbooks Ol' timey favorites like cornbread stuffing, fried green tomatoes, and Southern fried chicken, contributed by cooks from the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
2 cups self-rising cornmeal 1 egg 2 cups buttermilk 1/4 cup shortening Melt shortening in 10 1/2 skillet while preheating oven. Mix milk and egg with self rising stone ground corn meal. Pour melted shortening into batter and then batter into hot greased Lodge cast iron skillet and bake at 400º until browned.
3 cups cornmeal 3 tbsp. lard 2-3 cups boiling water 3 tsp. salt Melt fat in 9" baking pan to coat. Pour remaining fat into other ingredients and mix. Bake at 350º F about 50 min. or until golden brown.
There are many ways to bake or fry country salt-cured ham. Fry it up straight in its own fat or add a little grease, or a little water. What we like to do is fry up Clifty Farm center slices in a half and half mixture of water and 7Up in a Lodge 12" skillet, turning often, and leaving the drippings for red eye gravy. Also see "How to bake a country ham."
Egg Custard
(Cooked on a Wood Stove)
1 recipe biscuit dough 1 egg, well beaten 1 cup milk Handful of flour 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 cup sugar Line a small pie pan with plain biscuit dough rolled thin. In a separate bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients and pour it into the crust, using just a little wood so the fire won't be too hot. Bake it slowly until it "sets." It will "blubber up", or bubble, and then the bubbles will settle.
-- Aunt Arie Carpenter
The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery
Edited by Linda Garland Page & Elliot Wingginton
340 pages, 500+ recipes, illustrated
$18.95
To order: http://www.foxfire.org
4 green tomatoes, sliced Salt, pepper, or cayenne 1 cup white cornmeal 1 cup flour Salt and pepper 1/4" tomato slices. Coat both sides of your tomato in flour/cornmeal mixture and saute over medium heat in a cast iron skillet til brown.
1-1/2 lb ground beef 1 egg 1 cup bread crumbs 8 oz. tomato paste 1 small onion 1/3 cup milk 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper Mix beef, 1/2 of tomato sauce, and the remaining ingredients thoroughly. Spread into lighly greased Lodge Loaf Pan.
Top with remaining tomato sauce (and brown sugar, if desired) and bake at 350º for 75 minutes.
1 cup mashed potatoes 2 tbsp. butter 2 cups flour 1 tbsp. honey 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tbsp. brown sugar Mix ingredients and roll out on wax paper. Cut biscuits and bake at 400º F about 10 min.
Add water (or black coffee) to fried ham drippings in a hot pan. Let sizzle and stir. Serve with country cured fried ham slices, biscuits, and honey.
Ham, sausage, or bacon grease Salt and pepper 3 tbsp. flour Water Milk Add flour to the grease in hot pan to brown. Thin the mixture with a little water and add milk, salt and pepper. Stir until thick. Add crumbled fried sausage for a real treat. Serve over home made biscuits.
1 chicken 1 cup flour 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 2 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. black pepper 1 tsp salt
Billie Hill, long time employee and senior consultant for the Lodge Manufacturing Cast Iron Cookware company, recently shared her secret for perfect southern fried chicken with the Appalachian Traveller: Prepare one frying chicken. Prepare flour mixture by mixing dry ingredients. Prepare milk and egg mixture, and add 1 tablespoon of flour to the mixture. Dip chicken in flour mixture, then in egg mixture, again in flour mixture, and shake well. Fry in hot grease, with chicken pieces half covered in Crisco, and well spaced, until brown. Cover with lid for 7-8 minutes on low heat, and then turn and brown on high. Drain on paper towels. For just the right utensil click here: 3 qt. Chicken Fryer.
