A Note About Recipes --from Chef Marion
Recipes with exact measurements and specific portions are fine for mass-produced commodity ingredients, but don’t really work for farm-to-field-to-forest-to-fishery-to-fork cookery. There’s a reason pre-WW2 cookbooks use terms like ‘smidgeon, pinch, handful, and scoop’ as guidelines, whereas post-1950s cookbooks use exact measurements, along with terms like ‘one box, two cans, a package of’ as instructions. Factory-produced food is designed to be exactly the same, always, so an egg is the same size, shape, weight, color, and flavor every time, year-round in every store in America. Conversely, the eggs from our chickens are never the same size or flavor. Ever. They change every day. As they should. These recipes are much the same. They are meant to change, and are open to your interpretation. Don’t expect too much in the way of heavy-handed direction, or dictatorial rules. People made bread for thousands of years before you were born, under conditions we cant even imagine, and they survived just fine, so don’t worry about your bread not being ‘perfect’. Every cook is different, just like every oven is different, and every day in every house is different; different temperature, different humidity, different amount of attention you are able to give as life spins around you. Have fun with these, and create your own version of our food. That’s what we’ve always done here in Appalachia.
If you can’t find maple mustard, you can mix maple and your favorite mustard together 50/50.
Ingredients:
Lamb chops
Maple mustard
Salt
Black Pepper
Coat chops with mixture and let rest an hour. Salt and pepper to taste, then fire-grill to your preference. I prefer mid-rare; rare can be a bit chewy and over medium will get tough.
Ingredients:
Dark maple syrup
Maple mustard
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Put all ingredients in a blender except the oil. Blend on medium-high then slowly drizzle in oil. Refrigerate and serve chilled over bitter greens. Will keep many months under refrigeration.
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Ingredients:
Duck Breasts
Apples, cored and sliced
Onions, julienned
Score duck skin, then lightly oil and salt & pepper breasts. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium hot and lay breasts skin side down in skillet. Sear for two minutes, then transfer skillet to oven at 325 degrees for eight to ten minutes. Remove breasts and set aside. Return skillet to heat on medium. Sear onions in the duck fat and stir until lightly caramelized. Add apples and stir until apples soften. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Slice duck breasts across grain and top with apples and onions.
Ingredients:
Apples, preferably a firm dry variety
Dark Brown sugar
Butter
Salt
Core apples, leaving the bottom in place. Mix a pinch of salt in the brown sugar, then stuff apples with mixture ¾ full. Pack butter down on top of the sugar mixture until the apple is full. Bake at 350 until done, about 20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream if desired.
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Mojo is native to the Caribbean, and is made of equal parts fruit juice or pulp, oil, and vinegar. Our Appalachian take on it uses pawpaws, homemade vinegar, and ubiquitous bacon grease that is so beloved here. Use only half as much bacon grease as the other two ingredients, it’s a heavier emulsifier than standard olive oil.
Ingredients:
Pawpaw pulp
Rendered bacon grease
Apple Cider vinegar
Salt
White pepper
In a blender, add equal amounts pawpaw and vinegar, and blend on high. Add fat pinches of salt and fine ground white pepper, then set blender on medium and drizzle in melted bacon grease. Refrigerate and use liberally when needed. Keeps a mighty long time.
This is simply buttermilk pie with pawpaws added to the batter; you can add eggnog spices and heavy cream instead of pawpaws at Christmas time to make eggnog pie. Buttermilk pie and Vinegar pie are the two classic West Virginia pies. They can be found everywhere in infinite variety and are easily adaptable as the base for multiple variations. They are made from leftovers, take only minutes to prepare, and are everyday dishes, as opposed to desserts, which are luxuries served only on Sundays.
Ingredients:
Buttermilk
Eggs yolks, half as much as the amount of buttermilk
Butter
Corn starch
1 cup pawpaws
Any sweetener; sugar, honey, tree syrup, molasses, and sorghum are all fine and lend variety
Toast pie crust for seven-ten minutes at 325 degrees, then set aside. In a heavy pot, whisk a fat pinch of corn starch and a small pinch of salt into the buttermilk. Put in a chunk of butter and bring to medium temperature, whisking until the butter melts. If using sugar add in now and whisk until dissolved. Sweeten to taste; this is traditionally tangy but if you want it really sweet, go right ahead. Its your pie. Remove from heat. Whisk in the egg yolks and liquid sweetener. Pour into pie shell and bake at 350 degrees until done, about twenty minutes. Serve room temperature or chilled.
This recipe uses salt-rising bread, but sourdough will do fine. To make your own salt-rising bread, track down Jennie Bardwell and Susan Brown’s book on its history and technique.
Ingredients:
Stale bread, torn into small pieces.
Whole milk
Dark brown sugar
Baking powder
Salt
Eggs
Pawpaw pulp
Whisk eggs into milk, three eggs per cup of milk. Sprinkle in a small pinch of baking powder and whisk well. Add brown sugar to taste and pawpaw pulp and whisk thoroughly. Pour over bread in a big bowl and mash it all together. Cover and let sit for an hour, mixing occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed by the bread. Grease a baking pan and pour contents into pan. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about an hour. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Serve warm.
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Ingredients:
Fresh, very ripe tomatoes
Unsalted butter
Whole cream, about a cup per pie
Fresh eggs
Herbs of your choice ( I like marjoram for this dish)
Lightly toast the pie crust at 325 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Set aside. Melt a small chunk of butter in a heavy pot. Whisk two eggs into each cup of cream, then add to pot and warm on low heat, whisking constantly. Turn off heat and whisk in chopped herbs, salt, and plenty of black pepper. Thick slice tomatoes and layer in crust to ¾ full. Pour batter over tomatoes until well covered, then shake pie gently to distribute batter and coat all tomatoes. Layer another round of tomatoes on top and press into batter. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. If crust isn’t brown and crispy at this point, increase heat to 350 until browned. Let set for at least an hour. Serve warm, or refrigerate for up to 5 days.
The crust I use is my Great-Great-Grandma Lucrecia’s recipe. I’m not giving that out to the public, but you can use any recipe you find. Pie crust recipes are easy and basic and wildly variable, so I will only advise this: use unbleached whole flour, never bleached and never enriched; use fresh real eggs, not commercial eggs; and always use lard, never shortening. If you can’t use lard, don’t eat pie.
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This recipe has actual measurements because baking is science. Cooking is more like woodcarving or sculpture, a free-form process of creation, but baking requires procedure and proper proportions. That said, you will still need to vary things a bit to get good results. We use Bloody Butcher cornmeal when its available, but its sudden popularity is making it hard to get. Blue corn also makes for beautiful cornbread. And so it’s on record, using sugar in cornbread is blasphemy. This ain’t dessert.
Ingredients:
3 cups medium-ground cornmeal
½ cup corn flour
Tsp salt
Tsp baking powder
Tsp baking soda
Melted butter or bacon grease
4 eggs
2 cups milk or buttermilk
Mix all dry ingredients together and make a well in the center. Mix eggs and milk together and pour into well, then work the batter gently until mixed. Overworking will make the cornbread tough. Heat a baking pan or cast iron skillet in a 400 degree oven. Pour butter or bacon grease in pan, swirl it up the sides, then pour batter in pan. Bake until done, about 20 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick.
Ingredients:
Fresh corn, cut off the cob. (Save the cobs for corn broth or cob jelly)
Salt
White Vinegar
Yeast
Bring twice as much water as corn and fresh corn, to a boil for one minute. Let cool until warm to the touch, then add a small pinch of yeast. Stir and cover. Leave overnight while the yeast ferments. Ladle off the foam and scum from the top, then drain corn. Bring water, salt, and vinegar to a boil and let cool. Brine should be very tangy, hence ‘sour’ corn. Fill jars ¾ full with corn, then fill with brine. Refrigerate or store in a root cellar. Will keep for many months.
This can be made with any kind of tree nuts, but black walnuts have a unique flavor that’s unlike anything else.
Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups chopped black walnuts
3 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup whole milk
2 cups soft butter
2 tbsp walnut oil
3 eggs, separated
Mix all dry ingredients except walnuts. Cream together butter and sugar, then cream in egg yolks. Mix in dry ingredients and walnuts, then milk, then fold in egg whites. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake at 325 degrees until done, about 40 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick.
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Ingredients:
A slab of pork belly
5 lb Salt (NOT iodized)
Dark Brown Sugar
Ground Cedar Berries (Juniper Berries will work)
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Wash pork belly in a 5% white vinegar solution and dry thoroughly. Starting with the inner side of the belly, rub vigorously with brown sugar, cedar berries, and black pepper (adjust amounts to your taste), then turn over and rub the smooth side. Lay slab inner side down in a nonreactive pan on a heavy layer of salt, then rub smooth side with salt. Store in a cool dry place for two weeks. Remove from salt and brush off excess. Place on a nonreactive rack and continue aging in a cool dry place for two more weeks, or longer if desired. Wash with 5% white vinegar solution, and hot smoke with your own choice of wood smoke (I use a combination of hickory, apple, and cherry for most traditional Appalachian pork cures.) Cool and refrigerate. Slice ¼ inch thick and fry in a cast iron skillet.
Ingredients:
Fileted, Skin-on, fully de-boned Native Trout
1 lb salt
Wash trout in a 5% white vinegar solution and dry thoroughly. Starting with the flesh side, rub trout with salt, then turn over and rub the skin side. Store in a cool dry place for three-five days. Brush off excess salt. Wash with 5% white vinegar solution, and hot smoke with your own choice of wood smoke (I use birch, beech, willow, or sassafras) for three-five minutes. Cool and refrigerate.
Ingredients:
Stone fruit or berry of your choice, slightly underripe. This brine also works well for both ripe and green tomatoes.
Salt
White vinegar ( for short pickles, a fruit juice vinegar like cider vinegar or white balsamic can be used, and adds flavor, but can draw mold over longer-term storage)
Whole Spices of your choice (I like peppercorns of all varieties, but anything you like from fenugreek to ginseng root will work. What do you like? Try it, it will most likely work. )
Halve fruits and remove stone, or if they’re small, they can be left whole. Place in clean jars, shake to settle but don’t pack them in.
Bring salt, spices, and vinegar to a rolling boil. Salt level should be tangy like seawater but not sharp like olive juice (for example). The salt level will always vary, so adjust to your own taste. Keep in mind the finished pickles will be less salty than the brine.
Remove from heat and let cool two minutes. Pour over fruit in jars, filling to the rim. Let the jars sit 10 minutes, then put on lids firmly. Let stand at room temperature for an hour, then transfer to refrigerator or root cellar. The pickles will keep for months in the refrigerator, or for the winter in a secure root cellar.
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