Tasting History

One of my interests is Southern food, especially recipes that were created and used in South Carolina, by my ancestors to feed themselves seasonally and with what was available. To that end I collect and am the recipient of tons of cookbooks. My favorite are the spiral bound church cookbooks. I try to only get new ones from pre-1950 from Lexington, Richland, Newberry, Fairfield, and Orangeburg counties because that's where my and Patrick's family is from. I can actually trace my maternal family history through Newberry and Lexington counties back to the 1700s. Let's try tasting history.

But one thing about these older cookbooks is that they are really vague both in ingredients, measures, and directions. Back then, women taught their daughters to cook, and weren't super specific. These days, there is much less cooking instruction passed from generation to generation. Some of these vague instructions need ironing out, explaining, and modernizing in many cases. Appliances aren't what they were back in the days.

For years I meant to start a series on modernizing some of these recipes from the past. And I want to discuss the ones that need to stay back in time, and why, although some need no explanation. I'm finally doing it. Once a week, I plan to post an updated historic recipe, along with the old version, and what book it came from and its significance in cookery history (if any). I'll also try to add in other fun facts, plus how to incorporate these foods into your cooking repertoire.

In fact, I already did one — Trina's Pimento Cheese from Charleston Receipts.

What I choose will be based on what sounds interesting to me at the time, and the season. I'll show Easter recipes in spring, ones that feature fresh peaches in the summer, and holiday ones at the end of the year. Let me know if there are any requests and I'll see what I can do!