Mason/Dixon Line? These people think not!

[Appalachian Tater]

It's funny to see people look at you like your crazy when you try to order one down south.

That's funny. When I was growing up in the South, one of my grandmother's friends drank iced coffee and that was one of the topics discussed when people were trying to decide if she was truly mentally ill or just a bit odd. No kidding.

[Lone Wolf]

here's what i was borned and raised up on in Rhode Island
www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=56

[TOW]

I guess it's perspective, but to me restaurants aren't merely falling away from our tradition; they are falling towards someone else's tradition. Big distinction.

Hey, TOW, I really posted this just to say how much I like your signature line about roses and thorns, or thorns and roses. That's a keeper!

RainMan

.

Thankyou Sir. I like and agree with yours as well.............

[TOW]

Scrapple's not bad. My in-laws eat it covered with syrup for some reason, I like it floating in Tobasco.

The most offensive thing my Yankee in-laws do with food is that when they grill burgers, chicken, hot dogs or brats they call it barbequing. I can't get them to understand that putting sauce on a grilled chicken breast does not make it BBQ. It's like frying a chicken and calling it baked.

I like to take baby back ribs and boil them in salt until they are just tender enough to tear from the bone. Then I prefer to cook them over a deep pit and smothering them with my own sauce until the meat is just about to fall off. I like to use Pecan wood for a good set of embers and then soaked hickory added to it to produce the smoke that will flavor the meat. Then I serve that up with a baked tater and corn on the cob with a side of the sauce for dipping. When I do this I always hand the eater a bib just in case everything gets kind of sloppy.

That's Bar B Quing to me, and you can use this same strategy on any type of meat except fish.........

[TDale]

uin must be a transplant southerner

TDale throws his guantlet to the ground...

A duel, sir! You have insulted me!

[TOW]

guilty, guilty. guilty...... i also put sugar and cream on my grits(for breakfast)oh, yea butter too yums

I like to take old fashioned grits and bring them to a rolling boil, then I reduce the heat just enough so as not to let the grits become bubbly-keep them rolling. Then I put a bit of kosher salt and white pepper in along with thinly sliced fatback. I keep adding water slowly to keep the rolling consistant. I also stir to prevent them from sticking.

Once I am able to smash the grits between my fingers, I reduce the heat and slowly add heavy cream until I have a very creamy but yet thick grit. I then turn the heat off and add pure unsalted butter.

After this, you can add sugar or anything else to eat them the way you desire. I like to eat them with dry figs, brown sugar and milk.........

[Dances with Mice]

www.berksweb.com/pam/scrapple.html

A shame to use good pork shoulder like that.

Let me talk to the BBQ'ers here: I was at the grocery last week and there was a raw picnic ham on sale "Manager Special Reduced for Quick Sale" for $6. The whole ham for about the price of a couple chicken breasts! I prefer pork shoulder (aka "Boston Butt") but if they're going to give it away I'll take it.

I lugged that thing home and made up a brine to marinade it in the 'fridge. The ham wouldn't fit entirely in my biggest stock pot but I did the best I could, wrapped it all in plastic, moved some shelves around in the fridge and let it sit until Saturday. Saturday I fired up the smoker and after everything was warmed up I took the ham outside and looked for my hickory chips.

Couldn't find them?! I always have a bag or two stashed somewhere. But I did have a giant pile of dried grapevine from when I pruned the muscadines this spring. I broke up a couple handfuls and threw that on the coals and proceeded as normal. I was only out six bucks and a bit of charcoal if it came out too funky. Every couple of hours when I refreshed the charcoal I'd throw in some more grapevine.

It was, in both my opinion and my family's, the best tasting BBQ I've ever made. The flavor isn't as strong as hickory, it's mellower. We liked it better.

How long did I smoke it? It took exactly 1.5 gallons of sweet tea.

[TOW]

Dolly and I went to that town by the NOC in 2000. We had a teenage waitress and there were many pictures on the wall of Rebel officers and men on the restaurant wall. I asked the young woman who those men were. She unhestitatingly walked to the wall and pointed to each picture and told me each man's full name, unit and where his people live now. I doubt that there are many yankee young people who even know if anyone in their family fought in the war of southern rebellion.

Are you talking about Bryson City or Robbinsville?

[TOW]

here's what i was borned and raised up on in Rhode Island
www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=56

Wow! Talk about memories, my mom use to serve us that when my dad was stationed in Ft. Riley, Kansas............

[TOW]

A shame to use good pork shoulder like that.

Let me talk to the BBQ'ers here: I was at the grocery last week and there was a raw picnic ham on sale "Manager Special Reduced for Quick Sale" for $6. The whole ham for about the price of a couple chicken breasts! I prefer pork shoulder (aka "Boston Butt") but if they're going to give it away I'll take it.

I lugged that thing home and made up a brine to marinade it in the 'fridge. The ham wouldn't fit entirely in my biggest stock pot but I did the best I could, wrapped it all in plastic, moved some shelves around in the fridge and let it sit until Saturday. Saturday I fired up the smoker and after everything was warmed up I took the ham outside and looked for my hickory chips.

Couldn't find them?! I always have a bag or two stashed somewhere. But I did have a giant pile of dried grapevine from when I pruned the muscadines this spring. I broke up a couple handfuls and threw that on the coals and proceeded as normal. I was only out six bucks and a bit of charcoal if it came out too funky. Every couple of hours when I refreshed the charcoal I'd throw in some more grapevine.

It was, in both my opinion and my family's, the best tasting BBQ I've ever made. The flavor isn't as strong as hickory, it's mellower. We liked it better.

How long did I smoke it? It took exactly 1.5 gallons of sweet tea.

I'm going to try that this fall!

[TDale]

Couldn't find them?! I always have a bag or two stashed somewhere. But I did have a giant pile of dried grapevine from when I pruned the muscadines this spring. I broke up a couple handfuls and threw that on the coals and proceeded as normal. I was only out six bucks and a bit of charcoal if it came out too funky. Every couple of hours when I refreshed the charcoal I'd throw in some more grapevine.

It was, in both my opinion and my family's, the best tasting BBQ I've ever made. The flavor isn't as strong as hickory, it's mellower. We liked it better.

How long did I smoke it? It took exactly 1.5 gallons of sweet tea.

Try pecan wood sometimes if you haven't already. Great flavor.

[TN_Hiker]

Even when you know what it is, you don't know exactly what it is .

I saw some scrapple like meat item on the breakfast bar while traveling through VA in the recent past. It was a square/rectangular meat item. I can't remember what it was called though. When I asked a fellow what it was, he said it was like scrapple.

Anyone?

Souse perhaps?

[jlb2012]

Even when you know what it is, you don't know exactly what it is .

I saw some scrapple like meat item on the breakfast bar while traveling through VA in the recent past. It was a square/rectangular meat item. I can't remember what it was called though. When I asked a fellow what it was, he said it was like scrapple.

Anyone?

was it perhaps called liver mush?

[Alligator]

Souse perhaps?

No, it wasn't jellied.

was it perhaps called liver mush?

Nope.

Been trying to remember it for a while now too.

[smokymtnsteve]

Head Cheese?

[superman]

Are you talking about Bryson City or Robbinsville?

I believe that was Bryson City.
In my travels around this country about the only pace the topic of the civil war comes up is down south. last year when I made a resupply on the northern end of the long trail in Vermont there was a sizable monument to the Vermonters who fought in the "War of the Southern Rebellion." No one was talking about it though. The third property from mine is an old cemetary. There are many men buried there who have the GAP markers on them. There names are the same as many locals but no one talks about it. People more than ever move from north to south and south to north but for some the civil war issues are still alive.

[Smudge]

Want to talk about food culture shock? Try being born in Minnesota to a mother from East Tennesee and a father from Central Ohio. Now get raised in North East Florida.(read South East Georgia) Spend the next 14 years of adult life in the Navy. I'm not sure if I want a double espresso, a Full English breakfast, coleslaw on my pulled pork sandwich, an In-and-Out burger, a Baja style fish taco, a Pacifico Clara, potato soup, a carne asada burito, grits, hashbrowns, home fries or a sweet tea to wash it all down with...

Luckily, I've been able to find the good things to eat and drink where ever I happen to wake up!



p.s. Sweet tea is sweetened while hot

[mudhead]

I vote for the fish taco.

I think I'll stop by the grocery this week and ask if they have any seasoning meat.

However, the very best biscuits and gravy I have had, was in Akron, Ohio. Holiday Inn, downtown.

[Dances with Mice]

People more than ever move from north to south and south to north but for some the civil war issues are still alive.

I might be able to speak to that. I don't know what it was like further north but my g-grandfather's family kinda depended on his Confederate pension.

During my geneology tracing I saw how hard they worked to prove he was in the Confederate Army. It probably wasn't difficult to prove you served on the winning side but Confederate Army records of enlistees were scarce and very inaccurate. Before the Internet databanks it would have been quite a job to straighten it all out. It still took me a couple of months.

GGF had the fortune of being captured by the Yanks so they had a record of when & where he was captured and later released. His pension was filed using the US Army records and was approved. His pension brought some cash into the farm after he had a stroke, his widow continued to receive his pension after he died. I gathered all I could find into one place, the story with the conflicting Federal vs Confederate records is here.

So the family remembered him & his service and were grateful he served even if he got real upset if anybody mentioned The War. It was something he never discussed.

I don't know how big a deal Civil War pensions were up north but in the south they brought in some hard cash.

[superman]

There is a long tradition that those who fighrt the wars benefit the least from them...any war. The issues of state rights vs federal rights is still being fought today...but in the courts.
Catch phrases fire up young men as off to go war they go. My generation got all caught up in the lines about "ask not what your country can do for you "etc. I even got all worked up over "no mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty first."
The uniforms change but it's same old, same old. It was pretty tough up here also for the veterans of the Grand Army of the Potomac when they tried to come home. Many went west because they were not welcome when "johnny came marching home."