Adventures in Southern Cooking

Whenever I go grocery shopping I love looking at all the different foods that are sold here in the south. We have many different cultures here-Asian, African, European, etc. There are lots of things I've never seen or tried before, so I thought it would be fun to try something new. I also thought it would be interesting to research the history of these foods and share that with my kids as we ate them.

I wanted to start us out easy--I couldn't get myself to actually pay money for things like pork jowl (cheek cut off the face of a pig aka pork cheek) or pork chitterlings (the small intestines of freshly slaughtered pigs), even though I've heard they're really good. So I went with a cute little package of salt pork, packaged right here in Virginia. What goes with salt pork? Black-eyed peas. I was excited. Never tried black-eyed peas. The first domestication of these babies, according to Wikipedia, occurred probably in West Africa. It was introduced into the Southern United States as early as the 17th century in Virginia. So then I thought I needed something else southern to go with this new dish I was going to try. Nothing says the south more than some collard greens, right? They are supposed to be exceptionally good for you with all their anti-cancer properties, etc. I then thought to round out the meal I'd bake some sweet potatoes (yams) and make some buttermilk biscuits or cornbread. I went with the buttermilk biscuits because I found this AWESOME recipe that I have been dying to try, plus I just made cornbread the other night. It is the best one EVER! You can go here on my recipe blog to get it. It will not disappoint.

I wish I could tell you that this southern meal was actually yummy, but I can't. I love food and take pride in the fact that I will try anything. But what I thought would be delicious was quite the opposite for me. If I had been raised on these flavors I'm sure I would love them and think them as comfort food, but I just got turned off as I was cooking. I got a "true" southern recipe for the black-eyed peas online and even watched the demo on youtube, following the recipe perfectly. I instantly got turned off as I sliced the salt pork and discovered that it had the thick skin of the pig still on it. And once I started cooking it I was expecting it to smell and taste like bacon since it LOOKED like bacon. It didn't. It smelled like a dead pig, as pork tends to do. It is very fat laden and so even when it's done you have all this gelatenous fat on your meat. And black-eyed peas are interesting--the cross between a bean and a pea flavor-wise. I actually didn't mind the beans themselves--they'd be really good used in a baked bean recipe, but I just didn't care for the flavor the salt pork gave them.

Collard greens: These weren't bad, but they smell bad while you're boiling them. Collards are related to kale and cabbage, so they have a funky cabbagey-type smell. Collards are eaten on New Years Day, along with black-eyed peas and cornbread to ensure wealth in the coming year, as the leaves resemble folding money. Collards are also some of the scraps the slaves would get to make a meal out of. After boiling the leaves I sauteed them with some butter and freshly minced garlic, some salt and pepper, and a little drizzling of lemon juice. Not bad, but they were thick and quite chewy, more coarse than other greens I've had. Perhaps I should have boiled them longer than 15 minutes. But I much prefer spinach, beet greens, or swiss chard. But again, that's just what I was raised on so that's what I'm used to.

The sweet potatoes rocked with a big pat of butter, salt, and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. The biscuits rocked also. Those were actually the first things the kids ate, the biscuits, with butter and honey. They were then very hesitant to try the rest. Pierce and Gretel ate most everything. Pierce even had seconds on the black-eyed peas. Gwen and Christian on the other hand hardly touched their plates! I couldn't blame them. I ate my greens and sweet potato, but had a hard time chowing down on the peas. And then when Ryan came home later and ate he said the peas smelled like cigarette smoke. NICE! I didn't actually see what he ate. I think he liked the greens, as he loves anything grown in a garden, but I think he had a hard time with the peas just as I did.

Later that night we had a good chuckle over those silly peas. I told the kids that at least now they can say they've had black-eyed peas and collard greens, but I promised each one of them I would never make them eat them again. And now as I type this, the morning after, the smell of the black-eyed peas lingers in our house and it makes me glad I dumped the remains down the disposal to never have to see them again. But I still have other southern foods I want to make and ones that I've had that I love. Unfortunately, most of them require a vat of grease to fry them in, but that's what makes them so good, right?!!