Log cabin cooking

I’ve been out of town for work and took along a history book to read on the plane. It had some interesting stuff about Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus and use of military tribunals to prosecute civilians during the civil war. Stuff they don’t tell you about in school. It doesn’t make me feel one bit better about the Patriot Act but it does make me drag The Lincoln Heritage Trail Cook Book, by Marian French, 1971, out of the basement to see if there’s anything worth trying. I have no idea if any of the information in this book about Lincoln’s culinary proclivities is accurate, but it’s at least not as disturbing as rummaging thru de-Bowdlerized history.

“Abe Lincoln’s stepmother was one of the best sausage makers. On a solid block of hard wood she would pound the best cuts of meats available with a wooden mallet. Then she would add seasoning and herbs and mix it thoroughly. The sausage was packed into crocks and covered with freshly rendered lard and set away to ripen. Abe Lincoln said he could smell that good sausage cooking while he was still a mile away. Abe loved fried apples and salt pork for breakfast—or biscuits with ham and cream gravy.”

After talking about the simple plain food of the struggling settlers of Kentucky, there’s this soup recipe. Guess the Indians taught them how to grow cans of Campbell’s.

Cream of Green Pepper Soup

1 medium green pepper, chopped

½ small onion chopped

2 T butter

1 can (10.5 oz. ) condensed cream of celery soup

1 soup can of milk

Heat pepper and onion in butter. Cook 5 minutes. Place in electric blender and blend well. Add cream of celery soup and milk, blend a few minutes until smooth. Heat gently.

Can't have soup without bread, so here's 3 options:

Bean Bread (Indian)

Pot of boiling water

½ cup cooked beans

1 cup cornmeal

Mix beans and meals together, add enough water to moisten until it holds together. Drop in boiling water and cook (as dumplings). (No salt to prevent crumbling.) This mixture was also wrapped in corn husks or large tree leaves, tied with a stout reed, then dropped into boiling water.

I know everyone has been keeping all their pork fat since I posted about that, so you could probably use a recipe to use up all the browned bits of meat leftover (cracklings) once you strain the rendered fat.

Crackling Bread

2 cups cornmeal

½ t salt

½ t soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup cracklings

Mix cornmeal with salt and soda, add buttermilk and cracklings. Form into cakes and place in greased baking pans. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes.

I can remember my mother singing:

“Mammy’s little baby loves shortnin’ shortnin’,

Mammy’s little baby loves shortnin’ bread (2X)

Put on the skillet, put on the lid

Mammy’s gonna make a little shortin’ bread,

That ain’t all she gonna do

Mammy’s gonna make a little coffee too.”

I’ve seen various versions of just what exactly shortnin bread is, but no actual recipe and I’ve never tried to make any. I thought it was like a batter bread, like indian fry bread, but here’s the one printed in this book. This is like a basic biscuit but without leavening. We’re having mussels and shrimp tonight, with a crusty baguette to soak up the broth, so no trying it out with dinner.

Shortnin’ Bread

1 stick butter

¼ cup brown sugar

1 ½ cup flour

Mix butter with sugar. Add flour and mix well. Roll about ½ inch thick on a floured board and shape with a biscuit cutter. Bake on lightly greased and floured pan at 350 for about 20 minutes.

More recipes coming!