Butter Me Up!

When CookAppeal hit it's first year of blog writing this past October, well I was on a travel food high. Having the chance to return to my family roots into this country, and the opportunity to learn more about 'Putting Up' was literally placed on the table for me to relive the heritage. Canning apple butter had gone on in my family for generations. In the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia where my fathers family live, 'Putting Up' is still a way of life.

I miss those days of canning with my mom, my dad's mom, and her mother each year when the fruit and vegetables were over growing and spoiled if they were not preserved. A way of surviving the winter months. Ahhh, the memory of Mamaw Estil's peach tree just bit me...oh, sorry you almost lost me there for a moment. Now that story will have to wait!

Spring is here, hopefully many of you have begun your summer planting of flowers and all other sorts of fruit and vegetables. New Jersey wineries are even planting grapevines, strawberries have already come and gone (small window), apricots, blueberries, tomatoes to follow. Cooks should start looking in their can cupboards, or basements. Make a list, and begin thinking about what you will want to add; it takes time to 'Put Up'. Sometimes a few days without help (teach the kids, or a neighbor). Getting the fruit ready, the jars sanitized, finding all the lid pieces, and getting rid of the family, so you can open up that last can of apple butter.

Have I lost my mind planning so early in the year? No! I just discovered I only have one can of tomatoes and apple butter left! We opened them last week. Sure you want to make a sandwich again with the breakfast toast? How about making an Apple Butter Walnut Pound Cake. Ummm! Follow a basic pound cake recipe (x2), fill a bundt pan half way, drop heaping tablespoonfuls of apple butter around the center, then cover the mixture with the remaining cake batter. Delicious! An afterthought- to add more even apple butter center, you could barely see the middle gooey part of the cake, but it still was moist and had a wonderful apple spice flavor!

Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider (Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Although cider can be made from any variety of apple, certain cultivates are preferred in some regions, and these may be known as cider apples) or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown.

The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than applesauce. Apple butter was a popular way of using apples in colonial America, and well into the 19th century. There is no dairy
Dairy butter involved in the product; the term butter refers only to the thick, soft consistency, and apple butter's use as a spread for breads. Typically seasoned with cinnamon, cloves and other spices, apple butter may be spread on buttered toast, used as a side dish, an ingredient in baked goods, or as a condiment.

Apple Butter has also been known to be mixed with vinegar while cooking to provide a small amount of tartness to the usually sweet apple butter. The Pennsylvania Dutch often include apple butter as part of their traditional seven sweets and seven sours, as part of the Cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch dinner table array.

In areas of the American South, the production of apple butter is a family event, due to the large amount of labor necessary to produce apple butter in large quantities. Apple butter is also used on a sandwich to add an interesting flavor, but is not as commonly used as in historical times. Traditionally apple butter was and is prepared in large copper kettles outside. Large paddles are used to stir the apples and family members would take turns stirring.

In Appalachia (Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from western New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S.), apple butter was the only type of fruit preserve normally rendered into fruit leather.

Apple Butter History and Information from Apple Orchards of Virginia
Apple Butter in photo above was grown and canned in Nicklesville, VA- Combs Nursery & Farm (at my childhood friends in laws while I was visiting)

Sweeter Holiday Moments

Are you ready to gear up and make sure you and the family survive the holiday season? Do you miss the sweeter holiday moments? Much of the stress of the Christmas holiday is dealing with the shopping, annoying relatives, and the compromising that comes with being in a relationship and deciding whose family's party is more important. I miss my son during these times. If he lived here, there would be no doubt that he would have been here taking a break from college and his busy work schedule. He has told me he is planning to fly to NYC with a friend in January. I will pick him up and head into Long Island for a belated holiday visit with hubby's family. I have had to learn to survive holidays with little or no family, but I am blessed to have lots of friends!

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is attending and hosting gatherings. An open mic singer/songwriter friend, Phil had told me it was his birthday this past September, and of course I had to ask what kind of cake he might like. When he told me his favorite- Carrot Cake. I decided to make him one since I too love it. I remember how special a person can feel when someone takes the moment to do something thoughtful, or act of random kindness. He was leaving for Saudi Arabia for six weeks, so we set up a date to have him over once he returned. Turned out to be the best thing I could have done for him, since trips to foreign countries can really bring on the "Oh how I miss the food of my homeland" blues.

This past Saturday I had family and friends over to help eat up my big turkey, and a few leftovers. I also made some BBQ ribs with some traditional sauce I bought at the Prairie House in Texas. We picked up some Eland steaks (raised in Texas) I grilled, along with a big pot of collard greens and black eyed peas seasoned with pig jowl bacon and Sambar spice. For dessert we had the bourbon brownie pie, but the highlight was my homemade carrot cake.

That cake was the bomb! To add extra moistness, I added a half cup of apple butter to the recipe. That gave it such a great flavor! There is a confession I am going to make. I have not used pumpkin spice in forever, and I swore by it in my twenties. When I discovered garam masala, I use it in sweet and savory recipes. Yes, my carrot cake has garam masala, and of course loads of carrots. Carrots in the early centuries were used to help sweeten many dishes, and thought to have benefits for eyesight. Oh how I heard that one growing up!

I did not grow up with a love for this variety of cake, or cooked carrots. My choice for most desserts is chocolate, but at some point someone made this cake for me and it was an instant love affair. I began baking them and introduced them to my mom. She quickly shared my sentiments. Her requesting me to make one at least three times a year, I eventually got quite good at making them. Then somewhere along the line I stopped baking, and focused on my cooking career in institutional kitchens. As of late I have been baking like crazy again. Maybe its the empty nest syndrome, or boredom. Pulling out my old carrot cake recipe out and dusting it off was pretty exciting for me. Not to mention sharing all the good food with company. I did make a carrot cake last year for my son in St. Louis, but I just took it off the internet.

Walnut Carrot Cake

2 cups walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped, reserve one for coating outside of cake
3/4 pound raw carrots (about 2 1/2 cups finely grated in food processor)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala, or cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Add dry ingredients into mixing bowl and then add rest of ingredients. Beat well (I mix by hand with large serving fork). Add 1 cup of walnuts and stir. I never cared for raisins like some recipes call for, so you may add them if you like.

Note: For a moister carrot cake, add 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple
(well drained) or applesauce to the batter when you add the oil and vanilla extract. You may have to bake the cake a few minutes longer. I added 1/4 cup of apple butter.

Pour mixture into two 9 inch cake pans, and bake 350 degrees for about 37 minutes (my oven is electric), but when toothpick comes out clean and browned it is ready. Let cool in pan and transfer to parchment cutout on cake plate and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups (230 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1/4 cup regular raw sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (4 grams) lemon juice
finely grated lemon zest of one lemon

In bowl with electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the cream cheese and butter, on low speed, just until blended with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and juice. Enough for two layer cake (you may cut cake in half and make a four layer, but increase icing recipe by half).

Sharing treats like this make for a sweeter holiday moment when you find the season a little overwhelming...

Carrot's in cooking history-

Carrot cake

According to the food historians, our modern carrot cake most likely descended from Medieval carrot puddings enjoyed by people in this part of Europe. Carrots are an old world food. imported to the Americas by European settlers. In the 20th century carrot cake was re-introduced as a "healthy alternative" to traditional desserts. The first time was due to necessity; the second time was spurred by the popular [though oftimes misguided] wave of health foods. Is today's carrot cake healthy? It can be. It all depends upon the ingredients.

History notes here:

"In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In Britain...carrot puddings...often appeared in recipe books in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are perceived as 'healthy' cakes, a perception fortified by the use of brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing whcih appears on some versions."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 141)

Go on over and read this site, as there are some fascinating recipes for carrot pudding, etc...

'Putting Up' With Me

This month it has been one great year of blogging for me, and I do not plan to stop any time soon. I love everything about food; discovering, cooking, and eating as much as I can, as well as writing on the subjct. There will be many more fun dishes on my site, and I thank all of those who come over and read my blog!

While on my long drive this past September visiting areas of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and then down to Texas; I had the opportunity to listen to one of my favorite NPR programs, The Splendid Table hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. 'She gives public radio listeners a fresh take on their love of food' the website reads, and I feel this is so true. Many of the programs are great, but one in particular was so relevant to my visit in the Appalachian mountain area.

[The rolling hills of my friends family farm land]




















NPR's Splendid Table host, Lynn began interviewing a woman who is part of the 'Canning Across America' group. Go over and check out their website, as well as the September 26th program that discussed the movement they refer to as 'Putting Up'. A term I heard my own grandmother use on many occasion. Many of us grew up eating canned goods; whether in small batch canning from items passed to us from friends and neighbors, or crops our families grew on their own property. Canning was a way of life for many in the south, and has made a come back in the recent years as part of the broader sustainability movement. Also associated with locally grown and organic eating of localvors involved in Slow Food.

In farm communities like the Appalachian mountain area; 'putting up' has never wavered. Canning has long been a way of preserving foods through the winter months. Tiding over families that have little or no money; when waste of crops is not an option. Canning today for the most part has become more of a hobby. A hobby out of necessity for my own family while my children were small, and with little money; it was well worth the labor it took to collect, clean, prepare, cook, and can the piles of home grown, or farmers market goods (I was part of a farmers market co-op for many years, and now a CSA local program).

My friend, Lisa (who grew up, and lives in the Virginia mountains) took me out to visit some friends and relatives. We collected a few canned items, and stories along the way. One item still a favorite of mine today, Apple Butter. Did your mom ever burn toast like mine, but save it with home made jam? I have heard similar stories from people on how their mom's would burn toast, but after spreading this thick sweet concoction, or any homemade jam on a dark slice; that helped salvage breakfast. Boy did it taste great then!

My own grandmother canned many things like tomatoes, concord grapes, peaches, and made apple butter from ingredients they grew on their property. Like many of our own families; they learned from their parents; who learned from theirs, and on down the line. Chronicling my dad's genealogy this past June I found that his side of the family came from this area, and lived here for many years before moving to Texas. I plan on passing down this 'putting up' family tradition to my own grand kids one day. The areas history of 'putting up' Apple Butter (as found on this blog site), and other Appalachian customs make an interesting read.

I headed back home with jars of apple butter, salted pork loin, and shhh! even a jar of Corn Mash aka Moonshine...better known as white lightning in the area. The government now allows a legal version of moonshine to be produced in the area; it is 80 proof, 40 % alc/vol they call Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey (sold in local liquor markets). I have not sampled any of the goods yet, and the decision is also still out on what recipes will be used for each gift I received.






















When you go over to the 'Canning Across America' site you will see the tops of light blue mason jars. They were and are still used for canning. and from what I am told moonshine in the mountains. Bootleggers also used recycled jug handle vinegar bottles that appear in the Tennessee area if you search hard enough.

While shopping at local antique stores I found the blue Mason/Ball jars, as well as vinegar bottles for a pretty penny- $45 each or more. Simple unmarked glass jars (pictured above) are sold at a much less price in grocery stores. Traditional new or used Ball and Mason jars are still however the popular choice for 'putting up' in most parts of the country.

[A local coal mine processing station near Nickelsville, Virginia; were I was visiting in September, 2009]

I was telling a story...

I am going away to fish for King Salmon in Pulaski, NY for our anniversary. An anniversary present for hubby, and a chance to catch Steel Head Trout, and maybe a brown, or river trout while we ware at it. I will be back to report on the outcome. This time of year the Kings come to spawn, and we hear they catch them on a daily basis (up to 30 lbs). Debates have sprung up on whether the fish is worth eating due to its deterioration after spawning begins, but we will see. Maybe there is a 'drunken' salmon recipe in the making here...

Appalachian Mountain Cuisine History

Food served in the Appalachian Mountains differs slightly from other southern cuisine, but was molded much of the southern foods that made its way to harsh territories of the old west- The Southeastern region of the mountains was settled mostly by English, Scottish, and German decent. Terrible travel conditions and poor roads limited most settlements to only foods that could be produced locally. Seafood, beyond the occasionally locally caught fish, were unheard of.

Diets were almost meatless, except for wild game, particularly during the winter. Pigs were raised and the meat cured for later consumption, but often the meat was used as a flavoring instead of as the main course. For example, sausage was often cooked in small portions primarily to obtain grease for use in gravy instead of as a main course.

Corn introduced into our culture by native Americans also influenced our diets and cuisine in many parts of our country. Cornbread was eaten regularly since corn grew well locally. As flour became available, biscuits and johnny cakes became more popular. Salt was available, notably from Saltville, Virginia, but until black pepper appeared, few other seasonings were used. Meats were generally smoke cured until then.

Women in this area were often herbalists, and may used local plants in seasoning. Chicory, which could be grown locally, was a well known coffee substitute. Corn whiskey, milk, and water were available from the farm. Coffee, sugar, and tea were all slow to become available. Fruits that tend to be more popular in this area are berries and apples.

Home canning is a strong tradition

Dried beans are a major staple food during the winter months, and were the cheapest of the foods available. Typically they are served as soup beans with wild onions and salt pork for seasoning. Kieffer pears were available along with apples that are used to make pear honey and apple butter. Canning included green beans (half-runners, snaps) as well as shelled beans (green beans that were more mature, and had ripe beans along with the green husks). Also popular were bread and butter pickles, pickled beets, and chow-chow (something my dad loved to make). Tomatoes were canned in large numbers. Along with sausage gravy, tomato gravy, a roux thinned with tomatoes, was very popular.

Southern Cuisine of the Appalachian Mountains

Mountain dwelling was very common for not only mountain men but it was very common for large families.With the exception of coffee, food supplies many times duplicated the diet of native tribes in various locations. Wild game hunting and trapping was the source of the meat; which gave them fresh red meat, fowl, and fish. Fresh water was always available due to pure mountain steams. Plants such as fruit and berries, were easy to harvest. Until sugar became available, beet sugar was used to sweeten dishes used for dessert and pies. They also had plenty of time for food preparation, such as roots, dried meat, herb gathering and gardening but this was and is no easy chore.

Fire Side Cooking- Grilling/BBQ

Fire side cooking would be compared to Barbecuing and grilling as we know it today. We all know how delicious food tastes when cooked on the grill. Hillbillies and mountain dwellers ate this way all the time. Black cast iron pots and skillets were perfect for fire side cooking.

Modern Living exists in rural communities, but is not preferred.

Many of the people that lived in the early 1700's did not have the conveniences many of us do today. They lived and some still live that way because they like being away from civilization of big city life. Their use and knowledge of surviving off of the land with many skills we practice today, and how we consider them hobbies as Survivalists- such as foraging wild fruits, berries, roots, hunting and trapping.

Information provided by:

Daryl & Lisa Combs, as well as Combs family members, Nickelsville, VA

A History of Appalachia - by Richard B Drake
Appalachian home cooking: history, culture, and recipes By Mark F. Sohn