90
WBM november 2017
FOOD IS AS MUCH
ABOUT
AS IT IS THE
A beloved recipe is often a com-pendium
of stories, which have
been woven into the lives of those
who cooked them. Recipes created
by those who lived long before us,
in a different era, are lenses into the
past. To interpret them, we have to
respect the traditions and history
that fostered them.
That’s especially true for Southern
food. To quote Georgia-born author
John Egerton, “For as long as there
has been a South, and people who
think of themselves as Southerners,
food has been central to the region’s
image, its personality and its
character.”
Culinary historian and author
Jessica Harris says food tradi-tions
hold symbols and meaning
that serve as a historical roadmap.
Today’s Southern style of cooking
greens came with Africans to the
colonies.
True Southerners know what
potlikker is — the delicious, vita-min-
rich broth that’s left over from
boiling beans and greens. It has its
origins among slaves who had to
feed their own families with the left-overs
from their masters’ kitchens
and tables.
Simmering vegetables in potlik-ker
is a time-honored tradition
in Southern kitchens, reflecting
both the bounty of the planta-tions
and the scarcity of the slave
diet. Regardless of the origins, it’s
a beloved dish that has held an
important place on the table since
antebellum days.
Green beans simmered in pork
fat is another perennial favorite
with roots in the practical past. The
practice started on hog farms. The
salty, rich flavor of the pork made
the beans flavorful and the fat made