Date I made these recipes:
April 9, 2015 – the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil
War
The Art of
Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking by Edna Eby Heller
Published by:
Doubleday & Company, Inc.
© 1968
Purchased at Arc's Value Village
Recipe: Chicken Corn Soup – p. 22-23
The Robert E. Lee
Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book by Anne Carter Zimmer
Published by: The University of North Carolina
ISBN: 0-8078-2369-4; © 1997
Recipe: Cocoanut Pie – p. 165-166
Folks, today marks the 150th anniversary of the
end of the Civil War. I was pretty young
when the 100th anniversary was observed and so have no recall of
that. But when I realized that 50 years
have passed since then, I had a total freak-out moment. How on earth had (at least) 50 years of my life
shot by so quickly? (Rhetorical
question, no need to weigh in!).
I don't know what high school students study currently in
history classes, but ours was top-heavy on the Civil War, followed closely by
WWII, with a smidgen of Korea
and – since the Vietnam War was just wrapping up my junior year – a blip about Vietnam . And since my dad was an amateur Civil War
buff, I ate up information on that war like nobody's beeswax. For a while there, I could have given you
chapter and verse on just about every significant battle and in fact, visited
several battle fields over the years. I
was such a geek about this stuff in high school. (But note:
somehow I missed out on getting to Gettysburg ,
something I must rectify one of these days.)
In a small aside, depending on who you talk to, the Civil
War is also known as: The War of
Northern Aggression, the War Between the States or "that
unpleasantness."
Out of all the events of this epic engagement, the two most
memorable were Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
on November 19, 1863, months after the Battle of Gettysburg during which Union
forces defeated the Confederates, and the end of the war on April 9, 1865,
marked by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
in Appomattox, Virginia. So today's
cookbooks draw on recipes that come from Pennsylvania Dutch country as well as
Lee's family cookbook. This is how I
roll: interest in history + interest in
cookbooks = today's dinner!
Let's start with our main dish – Chicken Corn Soup – from
the Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook. The
Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German-speaking immigrants who came from
several regions in Europe in the late 17th century to settle in Pennsylvania . At first glance, you're probably tempted to
say "Well, then how did they end up with the name Pennsylvania
"Dutch" but remember kids, the German word for Germany is "Deutsch"
which, when pronounced sounds a lot like Dutch.
Sort of. It's all in the wrist...
At any rate, I thought it would be fitting to make something
from Pennsylvania ,
seeing as how it played a prominent role in the Civil War and one of the
staples of Pennsylvania Dutch – German – cuisine is the dish I made today –
Chicken Corn Soup. But I have to tell
you folks, that this dish is not exactly going to wake up your taste buds. In fact, I couldn't add enough seasoning to
it. I thought that maybe it was just
this recipe that lacked flavor but alas, a quick look through the internet
showed me that the recipe I made is about as good as it gets. And I made some adjustments to boot!
Part of the problem, as I see it, is corn. It's not for nothing that corn is a starch
and other starches – like potatoes or rice – don't have much flavor on their
own, either. Plus, with this recipe, you
are pairing the starchy corn with starchy noodles. And then you add chicken. And that about concludes your dish. So while this dish was fine and we ate it, I
wouldn't repeat this one. But if you
have a hankering or a desire to check this recipe off your recipe bucket list,
then go on ahead.
Now despite me saying endless times in this blog that I make
the recipe as stated, I did make a few minor modifications to this one. First, instead of using an entire chicken, I
bought boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
But since the skin is what adds fat and flavor, I used a mix of water
and chicken broth to stew the chicken instead of just water. Also, I had a half an onion already cut and
ready to go and so I added that to the chicken while it stewed. Still, it was only okay. Luckily, if this recipe is not your thing,
there are plenty of other dishes in this cookbook that might float your boat
including one for funnel cakes (p. 117).
And that was really tempting but I had already set my sights on making
dessert from The Robert E. Lee Family
Cooking and Housekeeping Book.
I do believe (and declare) that I bought this book when it
came out (1997) and read it cover to cover and that's because even though
Robert E. Lee was a very interesting historical figure, never mind that the
book itself was filled with family recipes – it's a twofer: part history, part cooking.
So here's the history part:
a) Robert E. Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West
Point . B) although he
personally favored keeping the country together (i.e. the Northern point of
view), he commanded the southern troops because his home state, Virginia , went with the
south. And then there's c) and to me, the most fascinating thing – his wife's
family home is located on the grounds of what is now Arlington Cemetery Custis-Lee Mansion Arlington , you can tour the mansion and get
all up to speed on that fascinating part of history. But in lieu of a road trip, you can also
purchase this cookbook and that will do the trip as well.
You should know that this book is heavy on the sweet stuff
and lighter on the savory which was just fine with me. And you should also know that the author
reprints the recipe as she originally found it but then "translates"
it so that today's cook can recreate the recipes at home.
For tonight's dinner, I decided to make the Cocoanut Pie
recipe (or "receipt" as they used to call them) as it seemed pretty
easy and just a nice item to pair with the chicken and corn soup. You might be tempted to use dried cocoanut
but you should not because it's really not hard to work with a whole cocoanut
and the results are much better. Trust
me. Now that said, I used exactly the
amount of coconut called for in the recipe and I think it sort of overwhelmed
the custard portion of our pie program.
So my pie turned out to be more like a big macaroon or – and this was
fine by me – more like a Almond Joy pie (sans the chocolate). And although the recipe says you can add up
to 2 T. coconut extract if you need to, my coconut was perfect so I didn't need
it. The resulting pie was, I think, more
true to what Mary Custis Lee would have made and so all the better.
And since we're on a historical journey here, you should
know that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just days after the Civil
War ended on April 15, 1865. Shortly
after the assassination, poet Walt Whitman penned "Oh Captain, My
Captain," which will be familiar to moviegoers who saw the movie,
"Dead Poet's Society." It is
an awesome poem, learned in high school and long forgotten except for the
famous first line "Oh Captain, my captain, our fearful trip is
done..." Walt Whitman also penned
another "Lincoln "
poem, "When Lilacs Last in Dooryards Bloomed." I'm thinking I need to start reacquainting
myself with some of our nation's best poets as re-reading some of this stuff
has certainly piqued my interest in the Civil War again. In the meantime
though, there's cooking to be done!
Chicken Corn Soup –
Serves 8 (from The Art of
Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking)
1 4-pound stewing chicken, cut up
2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon saffron
2 cups noodles
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
In a large stewing kettle, cover the cut-up chicken with 3
quarts water. Add the salt, pepper, and
saffron. Stew until tender. Remove chicken from stock and set aside the
breasts and legs for future potpie. (You
can reserve 1 cup of stock also, if you wish.)
Bone the rest of the chicken, cut into small pieces, and return to stock
to chill thoroughly. Before reheating,
skim off most of the fat from the top.
Add noodles and corn. Boil 15
minutes longer. Add the parsley and
chopped eggs before serving.
Cocoanut Pie – makes
two 9-inch pies (from The Robert
E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping
Book)
1 lb. grated fresh coconut
2 c. sugar
1 stick (1/2 c.) butter
6 large or medium eggs
½ c. whipping cream
Up to 2 tsp. coconut extra if needed (see below)
If you do not have fresh or frozen grated coconut (the dried
variety produces a more macaroon-like pie), prepare the meat as follows: Preheat the oven to 400. Pound holes in two eyes of the coconut with a
large nail or screwdriver. Drain
liquid. Bake the nut until the shell
cracks, about 15 minutes. Hammer open,
pry out meat, and remove dark outer skin with paring knife or vegetable
peeler. Grate the meat on the large
holes of a hand grater or pulse in bursts in a food processor with steel blade.
If the coconut yields only about ¾ lb. prepared meat, reduce
sugar and butter by a quarter and use 5 eggs instead of 6. If the coconut lacks flavor, add coconut
extract.
Prebake crusts about 5 minutes at 450. Melt butter, mix in all other ingredients,
and pour into crusts. Bake 10 minutes in
an oven preheated to 400, then lower temperature to 350 and bake 40-50 minutes
more. (Beginning baking at 350, which is
more authentic, will take a few minutes longer.)
Ann's Note: I used a
frozen pie crust and I'm not happy that I did as it just didn't taste
"right," especially given that I used fresh coconut. So if you have the time, make a simple crust
and use that instead. Note that this
recipe makes two pies whereas I cut the recipe in half and made one.
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