Sunday Supper: Bacon-Fried Chicken Southern Supper

melting bacon fat for Bacon-Fried Chicken

Schatzi: Eli wanted to experiment with a fried chicken recipe involving both bacon in the batter and frying the chicken in bacon fat. Of course, I had to let him. I also let him have his head with the rest of the meal, and he cooked up some kale and mashe potatoes, shallots, and roasted garlic. For dessert, we had the classic banana pudding.

Book Report: The Jungle

Schatzi: Because I like to read, and I like to read about food, I have decided to make a demi-regular feature of book reports on books about food, be they literature or history, or anything else for that matter. Several months ago, I found an inexpensive copy of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, which I promptly read and wrote a report on. Since we’ve been ill this week and haven’t caught up on recent events, here it is!

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
originally published 1906
Bantam Classics, 42nd printing, 2003
370 pages

If you eat food in America, then you’ve been affected by The Jungle, whether you realize it or not. Though it was published just over one hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair’s scathing document of social injustice reverberated through American society, leaving lasting changes in its wake. Sadly for Sinclair, the changes made had little to do with the conditions of the working poor, and everything to do with America’s food supply. Aiming at America’s heart, Sinclair instead hit its stomach, and Americans who read The Jungle were revolted by his descriptions of the slaughterhouses and packing facilities of Chicago’s Back of the Yards. A disgusted public demanded reforms, insisting on the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which formed the Food and Drug Administration and implemented the first federal standards for meat inspection. Meanwhile, wages and living conditions for workers remained unreformed.

Chess Pie (Honey Bunch)

Chess Pie

Schatzi: What a fantastic fiancee I am. Last year, when Eli told me of his family’s tradition that a birthday boy (or girl) gets to pick the cake they desire, I happily made him the orange pound cake he so fancied. And he loved it. And when my birthday rolled around, and I requested a haupia cake, I patiently waited. And I’m still waiting. But since it’s Eli’s birthday today, and since I have vowed to not bake him a birthday cake till I get my haupia cake, I baked him a Chess Pie. It also came in handy,to use up the yolks from my frittata a few days previous. And yes, I cheated and used a store-bought crust.

According to the always excellent Food Timeline, Chess Pie derives from old British and early colonial pastries and puddings, which featured egg yolks, butter, milk, sugar, and sometimes lemon juice. Such desserts, including lemon curd, were classified as cheese cakes or pies, due to their consistency, which resembled that of cheese. 17th century recipes for “cheese cakes without cheese curds” bear a striking resemblance to 19th century chess pie recipes, and from those cheese/chess pies came the Southern Chess Pie. There are myriad variations on the chess pie, involving white or brown sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, buttermilk, and raisins or pecans, and almost as many names as variations; the white sugar chess pie is sometimes called a sugar pie (honey bunch!). I found this recipe on Saveur while looking for rice pudding recipes.

I will add that Eli was delighted by his birthday pie, and said it was just perfect, exactly was a chess pie should be like. So I guess it qualifies as a Tennessee Chess Pie, too!

a piece of Chess Pie

Mark Menjivar: You Are What You Eat

Yesterday,Mark Menijivar posted his  project “You are What You Eat” on GOOD/Magazine, and exploration of hunger in pictures. For the project, Menjivar photographed the refrigerator’s of strangers, and each photograph features a some information about the individual’s career, household size, and interesting trivia. It’s a fascinating set, and you should check it out.

I enjoy fridge pictures more than say, desktop or workspace pictures, because they tend to be subject to more change, documenting what a person (or household) is eating at particular times.

our fridge as of right now

Looks like we need to tidy up! Featuring: kitty thyroid medicine, buttermilk, a zested orange, potato water saved for soup, tvorog, leftover Cuban-style black beans (probably due for a toss), fontina, and four saved egg yolks among other things.

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

a piece of Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

And when it came to the pie–Mr Perry, a neighbor of Laura’s parents, tasted his first. Then he lifted the top crust, and reaching for the sugar bowl, spread sugar thickly all over his pie. “That is the way I like it,” he said. “If there is no sugar in the pie, then every fellow can sweeten his own as much as he likes without hurting the cook’s feelings.”
Mr Perry had made the meal a jolly one. [ ... ] Everyone laughed and talked and was very friendly, but Laura felt mortified about her beans and her pie without any sugar in. She had been so hurried when she made the pies; but how could she have been so careless? Pieplant was so sour, that first taste must have been simply terrible.
–The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Schatzi: I wondered for years what “pie plant” was, only to discover it was simply rhubarb! Spring time in the Pacific Northwest is rhubarb time, and I promised myself (and Maiya!) a rhubarb upside down cake. Unlike poor Laura, I didn’t have to worry about remembering to sweeten the tart rhubarb since upside down cake is characterized by a gooey layer of sugar and butter on a moist yellow cake. Though it’s a decidedly homely dessert, it is a satisfyingly sweet-tart finish to any springtime meal.