Southern Cooking – Page 4 – Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones

September 26, 2014

The Ark Of Corn, Uncle Tupelo, And Red Wattle Pigs.

Above our heads in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo offers us a calm, High Renaissance view of mass extinction; whereas, The Flood (1588) by Kaspar the Elder Memberger has a darker tone. Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, with all your household, for you alone have I found righteous before Me in … Continue reading The Ark Of Corn, Uncle Tupelo, And Red Wattle Pigs.

September 9, 2014

Water, Water, Every Where, And Always A Drop To Cook

The final chapter of Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, in Moses-like fashion, declaims the basis of all cooking: “The Four Basic Food Molecules.” Water, fats and oils, carbohydrates and proteins. H2O, of course, makes up not only most of what we eat, but our own bodies as well. As McGee states, Leaving aside the … Continue reading Water, Water, Every Where, And Always A Drop To Cook

September 3, 2014

Off The Menu

I’ve begun to read René Redzepi’s Work in Progress: Journal, Recipes and Snapshots. One thing true about the Great Forager is his abundant use of flowers: “A Light Stew of Broad Beans and Flowers,” “Spicy and Sweet Cucumber and Pickled Elderflowers,” “A Plateful of Flowers and Some Vinaigrette.” His titles read like poems–“Steamed Dandelion Leaves and … Continue reading Off The Menu

August 29, 2014

Why A Food Blog? Roux And A Symposium . . . Or How I Dance, Talk, And Brown Butter At The Same Time.

Greenling has delivered okra! Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking tells us that “Okra comes from the annual plant Hibiscus (Abelmoschus) esculentus, a member of the hibiscus family and a relative of roselle and cotton. It originated in either southwest Asia or eastern Africa, and came to the southern United States with the slave … Continue reading Why A Food Blog? Roux And A Symposium . . . Or How I Dance, Talk, And Brown Butter At The Same Time.