Southern Food For 1st Time

[Carol Dee]

As one of the Northern folk ... I haven't been able to find any head cheese, blood sausage, borsht, kugelis, pigs' feet, turduckhen, real liverwurst ( not the wanna be at the grocery stores ) etc. in Cal. for decades. I have to make them myself if I want to enjoy them. Not even here in Wa. where there is a heavy Russian population.

I worked in a meat market as a teen. The owner has since passed away and the business has closed. Don had ALL those delicacies in the case with cow tongue. Boy oh boy was the slippery head cheese hard to cut LOL . And this was in Eldridge, IA with a largely German population.

 

[Nyboy]

head cheese

 

[Just-Moxie]

Well, it all boils down to history. (pun intended )

Who settled the northern territories? The English, the Dutch, The French, the Germans. So, it stands to reason that they brought their food preferences with them. As well as their architecture, habits etc.
The South, on the other hand, was mainly plantation owners and their slaves.
According to our friend wiki;
"The wealthiest planters, such as the Virginia elite with plantations near the James River, owned more land and slaves than other farmers. Tobacco was the major cash crop in the Upper South, the original Chesapeake Bay Colonies of Virginia and Maryland; and in parts of the Carolinas."

Along with them, came their foods. As well as the African experience (okra, etc) As well as some French as Scotch/Irish influence.

These colonists established the foods that were grown and consumed in their respective areas.

Later on, in the North, the Irish and Italians came over through Ellis Island, contributing their own regional food preferences.

Hence..the American Melting Pot....(more pun intended )

 

[baymule]

Don't most of us grow onions, potatoes, squash, beans, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, corn and so on. We post recipes, pictures of what's for supper..... so what's the big difference? And Moon Pies are marshmallow sandwiched between big cookies, dipped in chocolate.

 

[Smart Red]

Afraid to ask, but what is head cheese ?

You should be afraid. You should be very afraid. My parents got a butchered pig one (and only one) year and I helped Mom make head cheese. She boiled the head until every bit of fat, skin, and meat fell off the skull. Then she added the seasonings and poured everything into bread pans to cool and jell.

YUCK! I actually don't know how it tasted. I never asked for a bite, nor was I urged to try it. Just the thought was enough to turn my stomach. However, I was never hungry enough to have to consider an old time and frugal way to preserve foods.

Tongue, now that was one of the few cuts of meat that I couldn't eat without gagging.

 

[Smart Red]

As one of the Northern folk ... I haven't been able to find any head cheese, blood sausage, borsht, kugelis, pigs' feet, turduckhen, real liverwurst ( not the wanna be at the grocery stores ) etc. in Cal. for decades. I have to make them myself if I want to enjoy them. Not even here in Wa. where there is a heavy Russian population.

Most of those foods can still be found in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Blood sausage? Right up there with head cheese. Borsht and real liverwurst? Yum and yum! By now they are just childhood memories, though.

 

[thistlebloom]

When I was in 6th grade a friend introduced me to beef tongue She gave me a sample bite as a joke without telling me what it was, expecting me to be repulsed when she said it was her steers tongue. I loved it! But I haven't had it since then.

 

[baymule]

My grandmother made head cheese and scrapple. I remember eating the scrapple, it was made with the pork scraps, organ meats, chopped up, seasoned, then cornmeal added in to the broth to make a pork meat mush. Then she poured it into a loaf pan, chilled it. She fried slices of it in an iron skillet. For the life of me, I don't remember if I liked it or not.

 

[Nyboy]

I once looked in a pot on my aunts stove was shocked, to see a head, not sure if goat or sheep.

 

[Beekissed]

Watched the vid....except the biscuits and ham~minus red eye gravy~I've either never had or am not particularly fond of any of those foods. And I consider myself as southern as the next hillbilly.

Okra is fine in gumbo...not fond of it otherwise. Never had a chit'lin in my life, nor head cheese. Love beef tongue sandwiches. LOVE sweet ice tea...is there another kind of tea? Don't like moon pies..ick. Nor boiled~or biled, as my granny called it~peanuts.

Here in WV~supposedly..and I never knew this until this year, having assumed everyone has eaten a pepperoni roll~we are known for this particular food. Can find them at most gas stations, much like the boiled peanuts in the deep south.

Personally, I like kielbasa rolls much better and can take or leave the P-rolls.

I think here in WV we sort of straddle that Mason Dixon line a tad, while also having our own cultural cuisines...Scottish, Irish, Italian, Dutch, German settlers for the most part, with a goodly mix of the native Indians...but our cultures are very regional due to being the only state that lies entirely in the Appalachians, and being separated by those mountains. So we have very isolated, insular communities that developed their own food culture derived from a mix of such nations.

I think, though, nowadays that our food culture is slowly but surely being lost to fast food, frozen meals, prepackaged foods, etc. Hardly anyone seems to cook anymore unless it's a holiday. The older generation, with its peculiar things like head cheese and chitlins, is now dying off and their Depression era foods along with them. Not many remember what it's like to be hungry anymore here in the States.

Major, I too was amused at the city folk on the vid!