Sorghum's Savor

When I was a kid in Alabama, I really didn't much care for those "historical" day trips to learn from our ancestors. The was one exception. I loved to go to Waldo, Alabama for the sorghum soppin'.  Every year, they would grind the sorghum in an antique horse operated grinder, boil it down and then offered up biscuits and sausage and sorghum. History at its finest!

One of the funny things that has happened with this obsessive interest in Southern food is to watch chefs rave about ingredients that have been our shelves for generations.  One of those is ingredients is sorghum. Who better to write about sorghum as a staple than Ronni Lundy. In her book, Sorghum's Savor, Lundy begins at the source, talking to many of the families who produce sorghum today and some whose families have made sorghum for generations.

The book offers up traditional recipes for things like pies and cakes. Who can beat butter and sorghum for biscuits and cornbread? In watching chefs use sorghum in new ways and in experimenting with the sweetener in her own kitchen, Lundy found that the flavor of sorghum enhanced many Asian preparations leading to her to call it "Hillbilly Umami."

Lundy tracks down many of those new sorghum-obsessed chefs who offer up their sorghum recipes.  Every few pages one is likely to run into a James Beard Award winner extolling the wonders of sorghum. So while there is plenty of of tradition in the form of  stack cakes and baked sweet potatoes, the book takes sorghum in a very modern direction with a Southern Lassi, Miso-Sorghum Chicken and Kale, and a Red Thai Curry.

One traditional recipe gets it unusual name from the father of folk singer, Jean Ritchie.  He mixed sorghum and butter and put it on cornbread.

Gravy Horse

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sorghum syrup

Put the butter in a small bowl or saucer and let sit at room temperature until it is softened but not runny.  Pour sorghum over the top and use the tines of a fork to first mash then gently whip together.  You can use the fork to daub it onto hot biscuits.

We've come a long way from Waldo!

Donna Bell's Bake Shop

TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

1. I hate, hate, hate this new fashion of preparing dessert that looks for all the world as though it has been dumped from the compost bucket or dropped on the floor, stepped on, swept into the dustpan, and dropped on a plate. Use as many tweezers, pastry bags, offset spatulas as you like, spend hours plating, but truth be told, it looks like compost. I don't want my cake ground up to resemble dirt or coffee grounds(and furthermore, I don't want coffee grounds IN my dessert), I don't want specks of frosting, dots of coulis, tiny squares of jello, itsy bitty bits of candied anything strewn across my plate in a decorative arch.  I want cake, not yesterday's compost.

2.  At sometime during every single day, NCIS is on my television, like right now. My cats love it. I can turn it on, and say, "I can name the killer in 22 seconds...because I have seen each and every one about 20 times...because anytime of the day or night, some channel is showing NCIS.

My bias is noted.

I got Donna Bell's Bake Shop for my birthday.  (Thank you Anne!)  It is the perfect baking book. Look at the cover.  Pauley Perrette is holding a cake. Yes, a cake. We know it is a cake because it has layers of cake, it has an a frosting on the layers, it has whole, recognizable fruit on the frosting. It is cake.  I like cake!  You will probably recognize Perrette as Abby Sciuto from NCIS. She started the bakery along with Darren Greenblatt and Matthew Sandusky. Perrette named her bakery after her mother, Donna Bell, who died of breast cancer in 2002.  Like me, her mother was from Alabama. Like me, Perrette's family moved around quite a bit, but even though she wasn't born there, she considers Alabama home.  

This cookbook is traditional, but don't for a minute think the recipes are ordinary. The book is filled with cakes and pies and cupcakes and bars and muffins and biscuits and cookies and they all look like what they are. Flip through the pages and you will exclaim, "That's a cupcake!" And you will be right though you might find that your cupcake has a homemade turtle topping of pecans, caramel, and chocolate!

There is a wonderful recipe for Lemon Bars, a very traditional and comforting dessert. But there are several great variations on your usual bar cookie, including this one.

Seasonal Magic Bars

Nonstick cooking spray
Shortbread crust

1 cup Reese's Pieces
3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c evaporated milk

Heat the oven to 350F.  Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with aluminum foil, allowing enough foil to overlap the edges. Spray the foil with cooking spray. Place the Shortbread Crust into the prepared baking pan, making sure to distribute evenly.  Press down on the crumbs to form a crust. Bake until golden brown about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the Reese's Pieces, coconut, pecans, cranberries, white chocolate chips, and semisweet chocolate chips. Remove pan from the oven and immediately spread the chips mixture over crust. Mix the condensed milk and evaporated milk together in a small bowl or measuring cup. Drizzle evenly over the top. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Grab the foil handles with both hands and lift the pastry out of the baking pan. Cut into 24 bars.then cut into bars.


Shortbread Crust

2 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Place the flour, sugar, and salt into a processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a couple of times to combine. Add the cold butter butter and pulse a few times until mixture resembles coarse meal. Be careful not to process too long or it will turn into dough.

Or, to make by hand, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.  Add the cold butter pieces and quickly press between your fingertips to break the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.

I don't exactly know why this recipe is "seasonal"  but it sure is good. I made it "seasonal" by replacing the Reese's Pieces with Cadbury Mini Eggs left over from Easter. Whip up a batch today and settle down in front of the television, I'm sure you can find NCIS showing no matter what time you indulge. 

The Hostess Cooks

We just love us a hostess who can cook.  This is a charmer from the early 1950's.  It seems that after World War II, there was a bit of shift in homelife, especially in England.  The war provided more opportunity for jobs for returning soldiers and for many women.  Women who were once thought to automatically enter the employ of large land owners are servants in both the house and kitchen now saw other opportunities.  A professional class was emerging and the wives of these men faced an empty house that was theirs to tend. 

While it was once considered a necessity to have a cook, it was now more likely that wives would not only be the hostess in the house but the cook in the kitchen. The market was ripe for books explaining how to cook while also serving as a gracious hostess.  The Hostess Cooks by Viola Johnstone is one of those books.

The introduction by Lady Barnett extols Johnstone in a bit of round about way.  "I wish this book had been available when I was a new and inexperienced housewife."  Viola Johnstone was an actress for a time until she met her husband and, naturally, abandoned her career, but not before gathering recipe ideas on her travels.  As Lady Barnett tells us, "The is a vast difference between the information acquired by someone living and working in a country and someone who is there as a tourist."  She is sure, "...this book will do a lot toward solving your problems."

After repeatedly telling us that the author is not a trained cook, that she could barley boil and egg, and that she has traveled and worked abroad, we are then told that cooking or eating Chinese or Indian would be a waste when we could find perfectly good food in England presented by and actress who traveled but came home.

the basic idea behind this book is not particularly revolutionary -- know what you are going to cook.  Plan ahead.  Be gracious.  Rules to live by.

Johnstone is rather fond of chops,  both lamb and pork, but she seems to be a whiz with pork chops.  Her pork chops are cooked with a variety of ingredient that might make you look like the most Continental of cooks or at very least, get you booted off Top Chef.

There are pork chops with gherkins, with peaches, with cherries, with spaghetti, and my personal favorite, fired bananas.

Pork Chops and Fried Bananas

The pork chops can be fired in lard or pork fat.  This is an excellent and unusual accompaniment to pork. The bananas are peeled and sliced lengthwise down the centre, fried lightly in pork fat,sprinkled in very little sugar and served with pork chops.  Cider  may be used instead of white wine. And do not be afraid  to try this recipe with the bananas, it is most highly recommended.  Fried pineapple rings are also very good with pork chops.

All I can say is "be afraid, be very afraid."   As with many of this type of early cookbook, the recipes all fall in upon themselves.  The "Cider may be used..." hearkens back to her earlier recipe for these similar dishes.  In order to cook the recipe before you, one must read the recipes before it to get an idea of how one goes about it. 

That being said, I don't care how gracious a hostess you are, I am not eating pork and bananas!  This may be the rare occasion when one might offer this advice: "Stick to being an actress."

Will it Waffle?

When I was in Alabama, BFF Beverly's hubby, Ed got a new waffle iron.  We were treated to yummy waffles.  I told him I would get him this book.  So I did.  I am sending tomorrow.  But today, we felt the need to post about it.

The title pretty much says it all.  Will it Waffle?.  The title comes for Daniel Shumski's blog that asked the same question.  And now we know the answer.  Yes, Virginia, it will.

 

Once Shumski asked the question, everyone and their mother chimed in.  (My personal fave is tater tots in the waffle iron to make hash browns.)

I can't wait to go back to Alabama and find out what other amazing ideas Ed has for our culinary pleasure.  Until then, here's hoping he gets some great ideas!

 

Waffled Zucchini Fritters

 

2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium-sized zucchini) 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg  

1/4 cup milk 

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Nonstick cooking spray

 

1. Place the zucchini in a strainer or colander and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt.  Let stand for 30 minutes. Rinse well with cold water. Press to remove excess liquid from the zucchini and then blot dry with a clean lint free towel or paper towels.

 

2. Preheat the waffle iron to medium and the oven to its lowest setting.

 

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and 1/4 cup of the grated Parmesan.  Whisk well to combine

 

4. In a small bowl, combine the flour,  the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Mix well and stir into the large bowl with the egg mixture. Add the zucchini and toss until well combined.

 

5. Coat both sides of the waffle iron grid with nonstick spray. Place rounded tablespoons of the zucchini mixture on the waffle iron, leaving space between each scoop for the fritters to spread. Close the lid.

 

6. Cook until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes, and remove from the waffle iron.

 

7. Repeat sets 5 and 6 with remaining batter. Keep the finished fritters warm in the oven.

8. To serve, top the fritters with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

PS. Don't tell Ed the book is on the way. 

Vicomte in the Kitchenette

Another oldie/goldie from the shelves.  The only thing we know of the George, Vicomte de Mauduit we learned from the fine folks at Persephone Books.  They reprinted his last book, You Can't Ration These. It seems his great-grandfather, went to St Helena with Napoleon.  The Vicomte himself was an aviator in WWI. No one really knows, but it is assumed that he was captured in France during the siege and probably died at the hands of the Nazis.

In 1934 he published  The Vicomte in the Kitchenette: Being the Art of Cooking within restricted space, limited time and reduced income; with the manner of how to make easy dainty and tasty Dishes; all kinds of inexpensive and rapidly made Novelties; together with a Glossary of Cooking Terms; with finally much advise to those about to set up small house.  Looks like once you have mastered the title, cooking should come easy.

The Times Literary Supplement stated the book was: 

"Especially designed for the bachelor, male or female, his book would also be very acceptable to young married people...Within the space of 140 pages the Vicomte has managed to teach the complete novice every possible method of cookery he or she is likely to need."

What more can we say!

This book has a couple of recipes for our favorite -- cooked cucumbers.  If there is a more healthy food than cucumbers, we don't know it.  This recipe manages to elevate the cucumber to the loaded cheeseburger level.  So of course, we just love it.

Stuffed Cucumber

Cut a peeled cucumber into lengths of about three inches, then scoop out the centre and cook slowly in boiling salted water for six to eight minutes.  Heat a stuffing made of chopped cold meat, chopped mushrooms, breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and bound with milk.  Now having drained the cucumber and placed each length upright on a small round of fried bread, fill the cavity with the stuffing, piling it high and cover with a hot white sauce, serving at once.  

All it needs is a side of fries!  Enjoy.

The Shed

A friend has been watching a show on Netflix and when I asked how it was, she paused a moment and said, "It's one of those shows that would make you say that you are glad to be an only child." I am a dyed-in-the-wool only child! But if there was a point to having siblings, it might be best demonstrated in The Shed.

The Shed began life in the toney recesses of London's Notting Hill. Let's back up.  Actually The Shed began on a ski lift, Christmas 2011.  It grew from the fertile minds of the Gladwin brothers, Richard, Oliver, and Gregory.  The Gladwin's parents moved the trio of brothers to a small winery, where the boys roamed the fields and helped out in the family catering business.  The wine from the winery was served in several restaurants that their father ran.  Down on the farm, the boys saw the importance of seasonal eating.

On the ski lift they envisioned The Shed to be a seasonal restaurant highlighting British produce. With a winery, farm, foraged, food background, the boys didn't wander far.   Gregory began with some sheep and now runs a 450 acre farm, producing most of the meat served at the shed.  Oliver worked with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage. Richard entered the hospitality trade.  Together, their individual talents produced a winning atmosphere at The Shed. It probably wouldn't have happened if any one of them had been an only child!

After The Shed, the restaurant there was The Shed The Cookbook. While it may be a bit hard to find woodcock and wild rabbit here in the US of A, there are fine substitutes.  Ollie proves to be a very inventive chef.  While The Shed might look like all those other tedious farm-to-table cookbooks, this one will make you sit up and take notice.  There is a focaccia, but this one has rhubarb and white sesame, there are bread sticks wrapped in lardo to dip in the hazelnut pesto, a salad with duck livers and sultanas, just to name a few.

Here is a fresh take on a braised beef.

Sticky Beef Shin with Cauliflower Couscous and Preserved Lemons

2kg beef shin, cut into 8cm pieces with the bone left in
350ml red wine
1 litre vegetable or beef stock
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 shallots, finely diced
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

For the preserved lemons

4 lemons, cut in half lengthways, then sliced into 5mm half-moons
100g caster sugar
40g table salt
3 sprigs thyme

For the cauliflower couscous

1 large cauliflower
100g unsalted butter
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tbsp raisins, soaked in 1 tbsp hot water
1 red chilli, finely diced
3 sprigs tarragon, leaves removed and finely chopped


Preheat the oven to 120C/gas mark ½.

Season the beef shin with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and place it in a deep roasting tin with the wine, stock, garlic, shallots, spices and thyme. Cover the tin with a layer of greaseproof paper and a tight-fitting lid or foil. Transfer to the oven and braise for six hours, until the beef is moist and tender and the flesh is falling off the bones.

Meanwhile, prepare the preserved lemons. Put the lemon slices, sugar, salt and thyme in a small ceramic ovenproof dish. Cover with a lid and place in the oven alongside the beef for six hours.

Just before you are about to serve, prepare the cauliflower by grating the heads on the largest holes of a box grater – the result will resemble couscous. Put the butter in a large saucepan and stir over a moderate heat until it starts to brown, but not burn. Remove the pan from the heat and toss in the sunflower seeds and cauliflower, stirring to coat them in the hot butter. Finally stir in the soaked raisins, chilli and tarragon. Cover with the lid to keep warm while you finish the beef.

Transfer the pieces of braised meat to a chopping board and use two forks to pick the flesh off the bones in long strands. Remove the lemons from the oven and drain.

To serve, arrange a bed of cauliflower couscous on each plate, pile strands of beef shin on top, and finish with a scattering of preserved lemon slices. 

This is one shed you will want spend some time hanging in.

The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray

You know that we are especially fond of egg cookbooks and of celebrity recipes. This Famous Food Friday, we have both. The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray was published in a booklet form by the National Egg Board as an advertising compliment to their movie, "The Egg and I." (Yes, Virginia, we are willing to concede that these recipes are probably not the actual recipes of Fred and Claudette, but we are happy to overlook such notions.)

In 1947, Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stared in "The Egg and I." The movie was based on Betty MacDonald's book of the same name. It was a wildly popular account of her life as a young bride on a chicken farm. When I say The Egg and I was a popular book, I mean that in less than a year it sold a million copies! The film rights were quickly sold and in 1947 the book became a movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

In addition to Colbert and MacMurray, the film co-stared Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle. (The co-stars have nothing to do with egg recipes, but I am a huge fan of Ma and Pa Kettle) Main was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress but she lost to Celeste Holm in "Gentleman's Agreement." (It is so hard to win for comedy!) After all the publicity, practically everyone involved with the book was sued.  According to the folks down on the farm, old Mrs. MacDonald portrayed them negatively and they wanted monetary gains for being made to look foolish! And they did indeed get paid, but enough about them.


The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray features introductions by the two stars, a recipe from each bearing their names, and a handful of additional egg recipes. What do they say about the egg?

According to Colbert:

"The egg is really one of the greatest boons to womankind, ranking with the sewing machine, the electric washer, the permanent wave and the right to vote."

According to MacMurray:

"The egg, for my money, is the best friend of any man ever trapped in the kitchen."

I love eggs as much as the next person, but I am not sure I would equate them with voting rights.  What a difference seventy years makes. Well we are still eating eggs, still voting, and still drinking. Of course, today we are drinking alcohol. In 1947 such drinking, especially endorsed by the family friendly National Egg Board, was frowned upon. Here is an eggy julep for you, in the truest sense of a sweet, flavored drink, as opposed to the kind that most often feature a good shot of bourbon.

Egg and I Julep

3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups orange juice, strained
1/3 cup lemon juice, strained
Crushed ice, club soda

Blend eggs, sugar and salt. Add fruit juices. Shake or beat until sugar is dissolved. pour over finely cracked ice to fill tall glasses 1/2 full. Add club soda slowly. Stir. Serve promptly.

Feel free to add a big ol' glug of bourbon! 

Irish Pantry

On this Saint Patty's Day we offer up the Irish Pantry. Noel McMeel gets right to the point in his tasty book:

"To me, the Irish pantry is a treasure trove of wholesome, tasty delights with some keeping properties, where on any day of the week you're sure to find such snacks and treats as pastries we call cutting cakes, or some lovely potted meat to spread onto a crispy, homemade cracker to enjoy with a cup of tea."

No Irish stew. but homemade Irish Cream!  Indeed, there are lovely potted meats and crispy crackers with rye, blue cheese, garlic, and flax. There are scones, and cakes, and breads and even the barm brack which gave me such fits over at Lucindaville. There are infusions, pickles, candies, spices, and sauces, oh my.

It think that titling this book Irish Pantry might have done it a huge disservice.  Well, maybe not in Ireland, but here in the US.  This book fits right in with burgeoning collection of canning and preserving books that are flying off the cookbook shelves. Alas, it doesn't clearly scream out canning book, and to be sure it so much more.

Most canning books offer up preserves, but this book features a slew of items to actually eat with those preserves. This book is stuffed to the gills with great gift-giving ideas.  There is not a single recipe in here that a friend or neighbor wouldn't simple adore seeing cross their own threshold. A Madeira cake, a jar of pickled pearl onions, coffee syrup, or graham crackers, and the list goes on.

According to McMeel:

"At the risk of sounding proud, I'm going to tell you that this is my best recipe. No one could ever compete against it, and I challenge anyone in Scotland to do better. It was handed down to me by the kitchen artists and wizards before me. I love it straight as it is. . .buttery and rich. But you can gild the lily if you like, with any flavoring that strikes your fancy."

The Rock's Shortbread

3½ cups/ 450 grams cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups/230 grams cups cornmeal
1 pound (4 sticks) 450 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups/ 230 grams granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir with a spoon until they have come together. Roll out and cut into rounds or fingers.

Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and chill for 20 minutes. Transfer to your hot oven, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until pale golden. Let cool on a cooling rack and serve at room temperature, or store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

If you keep a pantry this book will help you keep it well stocked. Canners and urban homesteaders, give this one a second look.

Paul Richard's Pastry Book

Another from our golden oldie selection that was published in 1948.  Paul Richard's Pastry Book is from the collection of publications published by the Hotel Monthly Press and meant to aid restaurant chefs.  Many of their publications were slim volumes meant to be stuffed in a jacket pocket for quick reference.  As with baking, as opposed to cooking, there are far more exacting rules, so the pastry book is larger and more detailed.

Still most of the recipes require a great deal of "know how" before attempting them.  Take this simple pie recipe for instance:

Banana Pie

Peel and slice the bananas very thin; add sugar, a little fresh butter, the juice of some oranges or lemons, and a pinch of allspice; or flavor with some good rum. Bake with a full crust, or with a meringue cover.

How easy is that? 

Since this book was meant for the trade, there are very revealing statistics for pricing out your pastry. 

A bride's cake should sell for somewhere between  $3 to $20.

A groom's cake from $5 to $25. 

Ice cream will run you 60 cents a quart.

A quart of lobster salad should be priced at $2.50.

Soft shelled crabs at $3.00 per dozen. 

We haven't quite figured out why there is a discussion of the prices for crabs and lobster salad in a pastry book.  Among the recipes for Charlottes, Bismarks, and Creme de Noyeau, there is a fine ant repellent.

Clearly, being in the hotel business was a bit more than making cupcakes.

While these old cookbooks probably don't have a lot to offer the modern cook, they are great historical references and a lot of fun.  Just imagine cracking open Eric Ripert's next book and finding a recipe for ant repellent!

Southern Pies

 Recently, I was at a Southern Foodways Alliance event and among the cool people I got to meet was Nancie McDermott.  I have several of her cookbooks and it was a joy to meet her, live and in person!  So in honor of National Pi Day, what better cookbook to write about than McDermott's Southern Pies.  Not to be confused with her equally fun Southern Cakes, which will need to get its own day.

Allow me to confess that given a choice of pie or cake, I am definitely in the cake camp, but again, it is Pi Day!  

Want proof that it's a Southern pie book?  Ask yourself how many pie books have a good recipe for the quintessentially Southern chess pie?  Now ask yourself how many pie books have multiple chess pie recipes?  Now  the lofty etymology of the name "chess pie" is that it was a pie one took into the drawing room to play chess.  None other than James Beard said the pie got its name because it held well in a pie "chest."  But most folks say the name came from Southerner's who said, "Why honey its jes pie." McDermott gives us classic, chocolate, buttermilk, and lemon, plus a variation or two.

 The list of Southern ingredients stuffed into this book for make pies include: green tomatoes, scuppernongs, peanuts, peanut butter, pecans, peaches, and the aforementioned buttermilk.  The people associated with the pies are a Who's Who of Southern cooking: Dr. George Washington Carver, Leah Chase, Nathalie Dupree, and Bill Smith.  Bill Smith came to Chapel Hill's Crook's Corner when Bill Neal owned the place.  He never left.  This is his take on Southern pie.

Bill Smith's Sweet Potato Pie

Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie (store bought or basic crust)

Pie Filling:

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract or vanilla extract (I used vanilla)

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust and then crimp the edges decoratively.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour cinnamon, allspice, cloves, baking powder, and salt and use a fork to stir them together well.

3. Place the sweet potatoes in a medium bowl and beat them well, using an electric mixer at medium speed or a whisk or big wooden spoon. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the sugar and beat to incorporate it completely into the sweet potato-egg mixture. Add the spice mixture, milk, butter, and extract, and beat at low speed to combine everything evenly and well.

5. Pour the filling into the piecrust and place it on the lowest rack of the oven. Bake until the edges puff up and the center is fairly firm, wiggling only a little when you gently nudge the pan, 40 to 50 minutes.

6. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool to room temperature.

Nancie McDermott's Southern Pie, like Southern Cakes before it, is the best kind of cookbook, because it is not just a collection of recipes, but a collection of stories, a collection of our history with tasty pie at the end.  And who doesn't love history when there is pie at the end?  While Pi Day rolls around only once in century, Pie Day is any day you want it to be.  Add this cookbook to your collection and everyday will be Pie Day!

 

 

Did we mention the Southern Foodways Alliance and Bill Smith?  Check out this Gravy podcast with Smith's cool list of tunes.

Happy Pi Day, y'all!