Archive for May, 2009

Last evening I was watching Alton Brown (Good Eats)  on Food TV Network bake the perfect apple pie. I have made a few in my day and so has my mom. I have watched many culinary entertainers prepare their versions, Emeril’s deep dish apple pie, Martha Stewart’s famous apple pie and Paula Deen’s Crunch Top Apple Pie. I know everyone has their own special technique and that is honorable, we all do. The issue I have is with one particular part of the recipe.

During Alton’s baking demonstration I noticed he placed the pie directly on the base of the oven floor so to speak. Well, I don’t know about your oven, but my oven has a heating element located on the floor of the oven; and it is structured in such a way that it would be impossible for me to place a pie on the floor of my oven.

This got me thinking… and I started to call some of the home-based bakers who attended my class and asked them to describe the “floor” of their ovens. All eleven (I just got tired of calling after a while) had the element structured in such a way that it would be impossible to place the pie on the base of the oven floor.

Was this an oversight? I am surprised some one at Food TV Network did not pick up on this earlier.

There are times when you just need to look at a situation realistically, from a “real bakers” point of view.

Look, just pay attention to the little things, cause I will. The recipe did make a delicious pie however!!!

Happy Baking Alton!

Sunday, April 26th  I had the opportunity to meet two culinary historians, writers, educators and aficionados of all things southern.

John Shelton Reed and his wife Dale Volberg Reed, along with William McKinney have written a most intriguing book about North Carolina barbecue. It’s all about Holy Smoke! They may not be well-known in your neck of the woods, but here in North Carolina they are true Southern Foodies; and being the Yankee that I am I had no knowledge of North Carolina barbecue prior to relocating to this beautiful state, boy did I learn fast.

There’s this whole east-west thing going on and depending on who you talk to, barbecue  can cause quite a ruckus. I am in the land of whole hog grillin. If you are skirmish about looking at the head, ears and eyes of the pig, oh yeah and those huffs, well this might not be for you. I opened my book and read it like sampling a new spice from Rafal’s. (My favorite spice shop in Detroit, which is currently closed).

The Reeds offered up a historical walk down barbecue lane at a small bookstore in Chapel Hill. There were only a handful of people present, but all the better, everyone got the opportunity to ask questions and reminisce about the foods of days gone by. You know souse, aka Hog Head Cheese, hush puppies, coleslaw made with vinegar, no mayo and whether to sauce the pig or rub the pig.

There is just so much to learn and so little time, being a bonefide foodie and lover of all things eatable is just deliciously frustrating . At the next meeting of the Culinary Historians of North Carolina we will be listening to the stories of a grill master who is bringing samples. Have mercy! I am so excited I can barely wait.

I am not a big meat eater these days, but I am going to adapt for this occasion and sample the “cue.” Plus at some point I hope to attend my first pig pickin. It’s true, I have lived here for three years and never been invited to a pick pickin, I am hopeful however. If you have not picked up a copy of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue, please do. It is a true culinary heirloom, that not only offers up historical bits and pieces, but recipes from mama’s kitchen and stories about the people who make barbecue what it is.

I have always believed that if we do not tell our story someone else will and it will not be in the manner we want and it will leave out all those little incidentals that make us unique.  As human beings we are all about food. When the day has ended and all is quiet, if we sit around the table and reflect, the topic of food will invariably come up…I guarantee. I don’t have a barbecue history to share, my mom was the grill master in the family, my dad just ate, and ate and ate.

Do you know who the grill master is in your family?