The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 32

hat's what they like about South 0 By Tobe Easton When holidays bring time for leisurely breakfasts, Mrs. Betty Duncan of 811 Broadway, Normal, suggests grits, eggs, biscuits, fried apples and country ham as an Alabama menu. A dinner menu of collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, corn bread and buttermilk might now be described as soul food, says Mrs. Marguerite Jackson of 109 E. Sycamore, Normal.

But she agrees with Mrs. Lucia Getsi of 208 Keiser, Normal, and Mrs. Evelyn Bridges of 826 VV. Washington that similar menus have been called southern food for many generations. Mrs.

Jackson says the term, soul food, has been around about six years but it makes her think of the generations of people who "put their souls" into the effort of preparing tasty food from meager ingredients. That simple menu becomes holiday fare when supplemented with roast turkey with corn bread dressing instead of chicken, fried okra or fried corn and sweet potato or pecan pie or Lane cake. Southern cooking is characterized by valuing cooking as an art, and passing on that art by oral as well as written recipes aid by saving money while cooking delicious food, according to these four Bloom ington-Normal women. "Cooking is an art when you are personally, solitarily involved in creating V- 7 iiibihh.mii- hi 'yi Hy yy 4 1 'I tiZ-'-ryy- Ay v-AuV'' '1 1 7y 'y Jr" J. fyHlyyyf yy i 5wiw .1 Sou Mrs.

Marauerite Jackson, who has made Mrs. Marguerite Jackson, who has made making adventures, cooking to suit the cook's taste. (Marc Featherly Photos) Mrs. Lucia Getsi encourages 6-year-old Manon toward experimenting in soup- FOOD oday 3loomington-Normal, III. Dec.

25, 1974 Merry Christmas! in any art. The pleasure of it goes out to others for their enjoyment, but satisfying yourself must come first," observes Tennessee-born Lucia Getsi. She agrees with the others who say the most essential ingredient in southern food Is TIME, and that many women "up north" feel guilty about spending an hour stirring boiled custard to perfection before straining it carefully and lacing it with Jack Daniel's to greet the holidays. "Another aspect of southern cooking is appreciation. People sit long enough to savor and truly enjoy it.

and they talk about food as they are eating, so the cook feels her time has been well spent," says Mrs. Getsi, who teaches in the English department at Illinois State University. "My mother-in-law cooked for 18 children and spent at least five hours a day in the kitchen, but I've never had a bad meal at her house. "She made the most of what she had, aid soup is her specialty, with bones from fried chicken or turkey for stock. She taught me to put vinegar or tomato in the stock, so the calcium from the bones can be assimilated.

"My daughter, Manon, is learning to make soup by putting in foods that taste good to her." Evelyn Bridges doesn't have a recipe for many foods she prepares, and to write recipes she called up from memory each step of preparations that she does automatically "because I've done it so many times." Her husband, Homer, "Corky," who grew up in Secor, accepts her southern foods, especially butter peas she raised in her garden last summer. Ten-year-old Steve helps her with gardening and with keeping an eye on Shelly, a year old. Evelyn Bridges spoke also of purple hull peas, crowder peas, green black-eye peas and "best-of-all-fresh-from-the-vine" green field peas. "These peas need poor soil, so it's hard to get them to grow in gardens here," she says. She cooks these and another favorite, snail limas, with salt and-bacon grease or ham hocks "to taste" 2 to 3 hours on slow heat.

(Bacon grease is the best flavoring, better than bacon.) A meal that includes some kind of peas, fried com, sliced tomatoes and corn bread, of course, would be a filling meal with meat, and characteristically south-em, according to Evelyn Bridges. A holiday menu might include ham, jams (sweet potatoes in her native Mississippi), green beans, home-canned green field peas, which are like a bean rather than English peas, and ALWAYS com bread dressing. Mrs. Bridges uses College Inn broth in dressing but "mama always cooked the bony chicken parts." Pecan pie as a tradition stems from living across the road from a pecan orchard and southerners agree that pecans should be freshly-shelled for flavor. Appearance is important in southern food, says Marguerite Jackson.

Some people might expect women to be particularly interested, but men notice and comment on the little extras that are there for looks, or on the way food is arranged. Mrs. Jackson, kitchen supervisor for the Head Start program at Wesley United Methodist Church and a cateress, has cooked for many Bloomington-Normal events. She believes that she constantly passes her southern cooking on to her four daughters, Candy, Stacy, Holly and Marlene Berger. Nutrition and economy have long been concerns of southern cooks.

The idea of meatless meals, currently in the world food news, is common to the South. Greens as an important nutritional source are endorsed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which cites collard greens, turnip greens and spinach as three of the most valuable vegetables. The best way to economize in food, the quartet of southern cooks agree, is to cook the foods most available to you. As a special treat, they load their cars when on vacation in the South with pecans in the shells and the best kind of peas and sorghum, but foods that are raised in Illinois and prepared in southern ways are the most likely way to continue southern traditional cooking in these famihes. more than 25 sweet potato pies since Thanksgiving Day, shares her recipe here, along with other southern dishes.

Section Amy Duncan, youngest of four sisters, enjoys chance to learn to make Raw Peanut Brittle with her mother, Mrs. Betty Duncan. Soup How it's "As big as a walnut, small eggs, season to taste, cooked till it LOOKS right." With these variants, four southern cooks offer their recipes, trusting the reader for "good cook's judgment." A super holiday dessert, says Mrs. Betty Duncan, is Lane Cake. "I've never seen this recipe in a book; it's passed around by hand." To bake 3 round layers, mix as any cake 31 4 cups flour, 32 teaspoons baking powder, i teaspoon salt, 1 cup butter or oleo, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk.

Fold in 8 beaten egg whites with 1 teaspoon vanilla and bake at 325 degrees about 20 minutes, till lightly browned. Do not overbake. Filling: 8 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, cup butter or oleo, 1 cup each chopped pecans, raisins and coconut (optional), one-third cup bourbon or brandy or what you havfi. Cream butter- and. sugar, add beaten egg yolks, cook slowly, stirring, constantly til thickened.

Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Spread on layers and put cake together and top with Boiled Icing: 34 cup water, 1 cups sugar, Vn cupwhite syrup. Boil till it spins a long thread (weather makes a difference in how long this takes.) Remove from heat and pour half of it over 2 small egg whites, beating it in. Return remaining syrup to heat and allow to cook for one minute Add to mixture and beat till ready to; spread. Holiday Candies: To make Peanut Brittle: Mrs.

Duncan uses a heavy black iron skillet. Put in 1 cup 2 cups raw peanuts, cup white syrup; SA teaspoon soda, paraffin the size of awalnut. Cook very slowly till syrup turn's brown and peanuts taste and smell done. Stir in soda and pour on greased slab of marble. (Mrs.

Duncan admits substituting a greased cookie sheet.) Another favorite candy is Penuche: two-thirds cup milk, 1 cup each brown and white sugar, 1 corn syrup. Cook to softball stage (about 23fl). Add 2 butter; cool to lukewarm without stirring. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, '2 pup nuts; beat well and pour out when like any other fudge. Mrs.

Evelyn Bridges likes to use self-rising white cornmeal which she finds at Kroger's for her', traditional Southern Corn Bread Dressing. (She acknowledges that some southern cooks use "regular" cornmeal effectively.) Bake a skillet of com bread according to recipe on package and set aside to cool. In stick of butter or oleo, saute 4 stalks of celery, chopped fine, 1 onion, chopped fine. Crumble corn bread in large mixing bowl, add 3 chopped, boiled eggs, sauteed vegetables and the right amount of broth. (This is the special southern touch.) To know when you have added right amount of broth, press a spoon down gently on top of dressing When spoon fills with broth, you have added enough.

Bake uncovered 20-30 minutes at about 350 degrees. Check it often to see if it's done, and don't let it dry out. Hush puppies round out a meal and done in make it just a little more filling. Mrs. Bridges says diners in Mississippi are used to hot bread three times a day.

Combine 2Vi cups self-rising cornmeal. 3 self-rising flour (if you use unleavened flour and cornmeal, add baking powder and salt), 1 cup milk, some onion, chopped (you can go by taste when you try it a few times). Combine ingredients, roll in small balls and cook in deep fat till brown. Pecan Pie: 1 unbaked pie shell. Two eggs, slightly beaten.

1 cup white corn syrup, 1 cup sugar, 1 flour, 2 melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup pecans. ho's Tobe? Tobe Easton, who wrote this story, is a woman of varied interests. Former teacher and newswoman, she lives in Normal with her husband, ISU Map Librarian Easton, whom she met in New Mexico when he was a geologist looking for uranium hot spots. Mix ingredients and fill pie shell. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 for 30 minutes.

(Filling will appear softer in center when it is done.) Marguerite Jackson's recipe for Corn Pudding: Cut com from 4 ears, splitting kernels and scraping. Add 4 bacon grease. Combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 2 flour, about cup sugar and stir in 1 cup milk. Add to corn and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or till thick. Strip Dumplings: Cook chicken backs, recks and wings to make a broth for these dumplings, which are rich yet tough enough to hold together.

Remove chicken, bone and chop. Combine 2 cups flour, 2 vegetable shortening (or 2'a bacon grease), 1 teaspoon salt, '2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 egg. Fork-stir in enough milk to make it sticky, about like biscuit. Add sprinkle of black pepper. Spoon third of dough on floured board; knead so they'll be tough enough to hold together.

Roll thin, about Vs inch. Cut in 8 by 1-inch strips. Have broth boiling and add dumplings. Do not cover; cook about 10 minutes. Add meat and simmer very low for 20 minutes; watch for sticking.

Serve with thickened gravy (broth). Sweet Potato Pie: Boil 4 medium sweet potatoes or yams till soft. With a mixer, combine 4 slightly beaten eggs, K2 cup butter, V2 cup evaporated milk, l'z cups white sugar, V2 cup brown sugar, V2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and the peeled sweet potatoes. Pour into 9-inch pie shell and cook at 350 degrees approximately 1 hour, or till silver knife comes out clean. Serve plain or with whipped cream or ice cream.

Collard Greens: These big dark leaves are from the cabbage family and must be washed carefully, leaf by changing Dixie water several times. Cut very fine some salt pork or ham shank or jowl, add to greens with about 1 teaspoon pod of chili pepper. (Hot pepper is good for the stomach, according to southern tradition, says Florida-bom Mrs. Jackson. Add some vinegar that has hot, hot peppers soaked in it to season vinegar, Just cover with water and cook slowly till leaves are limp, adding water as needed.

Lucia Getsi cooks Turnip Greens as she recalls seeing her mother cook them, although she never finds them on the market in this area. Soak 1 hour because they are often tough. Add quite a bit of bacon grease, about '2 cup for enough greens for 8 persons, salt, pepper, crumbled bay leaf, cooking sherry. How much? "She would just tilt the bottle and raise it back up again" (about 2 T). Simmer on low, low temperature for several hours.

Serve with cider vinegar. Complete the menu with pork chops or ham and crusty corn bread. Bake in cast iron molds or a cast iron skillet that has been greased generously with bacon -grease and heated till almost smoking before potiring. jn the corn bread. Mrs.

Getsi Dry Beans the way she cooks turnip greens, putting seasonings in water to soak beans overnight before cooking. She omits the sherry- For a great drink to serve with fruit breads, such as cranberry bread, Mrs. Getsi recommends Boiled Custard: Warm 1 quart of milk slightly to lukewarm and add 4 fork beaten egg yolks and 34 cup sugar gradually, stirring constantly with wooden spoon. Keep on low heat, or maybe low-medium. It should take about an hour to make a gallon, so maybe you can tell if it is cooking too fast.

It should thicken somewhat but stay drinkable. Sometimes it lumps and can be strained. At serving time, add Jack Daniel's Black to taste. "My mother liked a teaspoon to a cup and my uncle drank it 'half and When we were sick as children with upset stomachs, my mother made this custard, chilled it, and let us drink 3 or 4 ounces every few hours. It can be served warm or cold with liquor," says Mrs.

Getsi. She learned to make soup from her mother and she is teaching her 6-year-old daughter, Manon, to make it by this recipe, varying it as she thinks best. Cook chicken backs, necks and wings in 2 qts. of water 2 or 3 hours just below a boil with 1 white vinegar added. Remove meat, throw away skin, debone chicken and chop.

Chop 2 or 3 celery ribs and 2 or 3 carrots and cook 10 minutes, add 1 or 2 potatoes, cook 10 minutes longer. Add onion (Mrs. Getsi prefers green but some like dry onion), as desired. Cook 10 minutes and add any selected amount of cabbage or Chinese cabbage; cook a few minutes and add seasonings at the end so they won't get mushy parsley, basil and tarragon. Pour in V2 cup white wine if you like; serve with a sprig of parsley.

Smollfry.