Snacking State-by-State: Rhode Island I - Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a johnnycake

We are off to the tiniest little state in the nation.  If you blink you might miss it.  Seriously, I know people who have learned this from experience.  That is unfortunate if you're looking for something worth eating.  Though I've never been there, it looks like Rhode Island has a lot worth eating.

Official Name: State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
State Nicknames: The Ocean State, Little Rhody
Admission to the US: May 29, 1790 (#13)
Capital: Providence (largest)
Other Important Cities: Warwick (2nd largest), Cranston (3rd largest), Pawtucket (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Clambake
Bordered by: Connecticut (west), Massachusetts (north and east), Block Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean (south)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: coffee milk (drink); quahog (shell - the quahog clam is widely eaten in the state); red maple (tree - for the sap); Rhode Island greening apple (fruit); Rhode Island red chicken (bird); striped bass (fish), violet (flower, though Rhode Islanders don't typically eat them),
Some Famous and Typical Foods: johnny cakes, coffee milk, stuffies & New York system dogs; Portuguese cuisine (caldo verde, linguiça, chouriço, bacalhau, etc); Italian cuisine

What is Rhode Island cuisine?  Rhode Island's seems both typical and atypical of New England cuisine: its clam chowder is clear, as in southern Connecticut.  It's heavy on Italian and Portuguese influences, as is coastal Massachusetts.  It's even heavier on the clams, as much of coastal New England tends to be.  But its dishes are rather unique in the region.  Quahog.org gives a list of typical dishes and where Ocean Staters can find them.  Some of the most notable ones:

• stuffies - chopped clams, onions, celery, green bell pepper (sounds almost Cajun, but more Yankee-fied), bacon or linguiça (the Portuguese sausage) and bread crumbs all stuffed into clam shells (hence, "stuffie"), and baked.  These are not exactly common in my neck of the woods (I am in the heart of blue crab country after all), though when I was young my parents used to buy these frozen "stuffed clam shells" at the store that in retrospect seem an awful lot like these stuffies

• coffee milk - milk mixed with coffee syrup.  Pretty simple.  Is this the opposite of having cream in your coffee: having concentrated coffee in your milk?

• New York System hot dogs - What is this country's propensity for naming its hot dogs for other parts of the country?  You've got Michigan dogs in upstate New York, Coney Island dogs in Detroit, and New York System dogs in Rhode Island.  Also known as "gaggers" [Wellner, date unknown], these smaller hot dogs are covered in meat sauce, chili, and onion and mustard.  These were apparently invented by Greek immigrants to Coney Island who took the dog and name with them to Providence and parts surrounding.

• johnny cakes (or johnnycakes / jonny cakes / jonnycakes) - the farther north you go above the Mason-Dixon Line, the sweeter the corn bread gets.  Not in Rhode Island, where these colonial throwbacks are literally the kinds of things the first settlers in Rhode Island would've been eating when Native Americans introduced them to corn,  They are corn meal pancakes, crispy on the outside, tender (if done right) on the inside, and needing a good dose of maple syrup.  These are not in any way sweet or cake-like as is typical "Yankee cornbread", but in this pancake format they aren't in any way Southern in style either.  According to John Mitzewich [About.com 2010], this is America's original pancake: cornmeal with a smidge each of salt and sugar, mixed with boiling water and cooked in rendered bacon fat.  He shows how to make this below.

Yankee Magazine [date unknown] says that johnny cakes today are a favorite around May in particular.  Many of the locals prefer to use Kenyon Grist Mill's Johnny Cake Meal.  I don't have access to this down here, so I'll just have to stick with what the colonists would have used, as I try my hand at making johnny cakes below.

The Recipe: Johnny cakes

I stuck with the recipe from Yankee Magazine in the end, though I did take one or two ideas from Mitzewich's video as you will see.  For this you will need:

* corn meal (in this case yellow corn meal, about $1.80 at Harris Teeter.  I should have used a New England or at least Northern brand, but House of Autry was the cheapest I got my hands on.  Again, in Maryland we particularly don't have access to "johnny cake meal")
* salt (had it)
* sugar (had it too - you will need very little of this)
* boiling water (some recipes, like Mitzewich's, call just for water; this one wants it to be boiling)
* milk (not all recipes call for this either; I had it on hand)
* butter or bacon grease (here I stuck with the video)
* maple syrup (okay, typically you don't have to have this, but johnny cakes are sometimes served with this)

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Next, pour enough boiling water over it to just swell the mixture.  Let sit for a few minutes.

Then add just enough milk to make it easy to drop into a pan.  I had to experiment with this.

The first batch didn't have enough milk in it, so I ended up with something thick and lumpy.

I had to press them down after flipping them, which worked out fine.

For the second batch, I added more milk before frying.  This time the johnny cakes turned out much more like traditional pancakes.

Since I fried them in bacon grease, I didn't add butter to the johnny cakes - they had enough fat in them already.  But there isn't anything wrong with some maple syrup on top.

While you're at it, why not add some bacon crumbles on top?

What can I say?  These are corn meal pancakes, something I haven't eaten before.  These are a certainly a different (though not exactly "new") way to eat pancakes for me: the flavor of the corn meal is a nice surprise, and while I didn't get the outside particularly crispy (they were nicely browned though), the johnny cakes were nice and soft.


Sources:

About.com (user "About"). "How to Make Johnnycakes". Narrated by John Mitzewich for About.com. Posted December 5, 2010.

Christensen, Emma. "What's the Difference? Little Neck, Cherry Stone, Top Neck, and Quahog Clams". TheKitchn.com. Posted September 2, 2008. Copyright TheKitchn.com. All rights reserved.

East Coast Gourmet ("Charlie").  "Rhode Island Rocky Point Chowder".  Posted May 14, 2009.  Copyright 2008-2012 The East Coast Gourmet.  All rights reserved.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008.

Quahog.org.  "Cuisine".  Date unknown.  Copyright 1999–2012 Quahog.org, "with the exception of elements provided by contributors, as noted".

Rodriguez, Johnette.  "Rhode Island Food Trail: Stuffies".  Yankee Magazine, May/June 2011.

Saveur.com.  "Stuffies". Saveur, August/September 2005 (Issue 104).

Wellner, Alison.  "Rhode Island's 'New York System' Weiners or 'Gaggers'".  Date unknown About.com.  Copyright 2012 About.com.  All rights reserved.

YankeeMagazine.com.  "Johnnycakes".  Date unknown.  Copyright 2012 Yankee Magazine.  All rights reserved.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Rhode Island" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Rhode Island".

Snacking State-by-State: Pennsylvania IV - The War Between the States, Installment II (or "You call this sheet iron!?")

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and in a counterpoint to the final Mississippi post recreating of a lovely Confederate hors d'oeuvre featuring bacon-wrapped oysters on horseradish-covered toast, we cross the Mason-Dixon Line one final time to explore the not-so-glorious provisions found in the mess kits of Yankee soldiers all around Gettysburg.

Official Name: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
State Nicknames: The Keystone State, The Quaker State
Admission to the US: December 12, 1787 (#2 - Delaware beat 'em to the punch)
Capital: Harrisburg (9th largest)
Other Important Cities: Philadelphia (largest), Pittsburgh (2nd largest), Allentown (3rd largest), Erie (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest; Middle Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Clambake; Crabcake; Chestnut; Wild Rice
Bordered by: Maryland & the Mason-Dixon Line (south), West Virginia (southwest), Ohio (west), Lake Erie (northwest), New York (north & northeast), New Jersey & the Delaware River (east), Delaware (southeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: white-tailed deer (animal), milk (beverage), ruffed grouse (bird), chocolate chip cookie (cookie), brook trout (fish)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: German & Amish foods; Polish & Eastern European foods; pretzels, water ice, hoagies & Philly cheese steaks (particular to Philadelphia); city chicken, halupki & halušky, chipped ham, kielbasa (particular to Pittsburgh); scrapple; Hershey's chocolates; birch beer; Herr's Potato Chips, Hanover Pretzels & (yes) Utz Potato Chips; people (if you're an extra in a George Romero movie, that is - the big ones were all filmed near Pittsburgh)

As the AmericanCivilWar.com website points out, the Northern army was better funded than the Southern one, and that included its wartime provisions.  That isn't to say that rations were particularly edible - today's MRE's are gourmet meals compared to what the military was forced to eat a century and a half ago.  And without our fancy freeze-drying technology, soldiers needed things that would last a while.  The website describes what both Yankee and Secesh had to deal with in their messkits.

Choices of what to give the troops was limited as they did not have the conveniences to preserve food like we have today. Meats were salted or smoked while other items such as fruits and vegetables were dried or canned. They did not understand proper nutrition so often there was a lack of certain foods necessary for good health. Each side did what they could to provide the basics for the soldiers to survive. Because it was so difficult to store for any length of time, the food soldiers received during the Civil War was not very fancy and they did not get a great variety of items. [AmericanCivilWar.com, date unknown]

Enter hardtack.

Ah yes, the incredible, edible... er, edible?  Semi-edible hardtack.  This little brick of flour in the form  of a cracker was desiccated to ensure that it didn't rot en route to the soldiers.  This was a plus for the Union soldier because it could last for months - and often didn't get to him until a few months had passed.  The problem was eating it: it was hard, like a piece of stone, and all you had to do was bite it the wrong way to break a tooth.  And who in the dickens wanted to see a 19th century dentist!? ***shudder***  As the ACW website notes [date unknown], hardtack was even nicknamed "tooth duller" or "sheet iron cracker" for this very reason.  Even worse, if somehow it had gotten moist anyway, you could even expect to find the occasional weevil squirming around on it.  Ah, fun.  Mind you, you could moisten it with some water yourself and fry it up in some bacon fat.  The soldiers called this "skillygallee" [AmericanCivilWar.com, date unknown].

Curious to try and at least make this historical MRE (or MRBYTO - Meal Ready to Break Your Tooth On), I went ahead and made some myself.


The Recipe: Hard Tack

The recipe is very basic: some variation of flour, water and salt, occasionally fat, and that's it.  The version on ACW.com suggests Crisco or vegetable fat.  The recipe I used is on page 28 of the Pennsylvania Trail of History Cookbook [2004], from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the editors of Stackpole Books.  It is even less complicated than that.

All you will need are unbleached flour (I wasn't sure if bread flour was bleached or not, but the all-purpose sure was, and this said nothing about it), salt and warm water.

Mix the dry ingredients, all two of them.

Slowly add the water and mix (use a spoon - it's not as messy)  until not too sticky but not too dry.

Next roll it out until it's about 1/2 - 3/8" thick.

Yes, I used the parchment paper sandwich again.  Make sure you flour both the bottom parchment and the dough first.

If you don't (oops), it just becomes one big mush of dough stuck to both sheets and you will have to throw it out.  At least you still have all of the ingredients to start again.

There, that's better.

Transfer to a baking sheet and cut into squares about 3 or 4 inches to a side.  Cheat and use a pizza cutter if you don't want to get all "authentic" about it.

I wasn't planning to make a whole lot of these things here.

Poke holes in each piece, about sixteen, using a dowel or (in this case) a chopstick.

And now you're ready to bake them.  This will take a while.

Put them in a 400°F oven until they just begin to brown.

Next, turn the oven down to 200° and bake for two hours.  Finally, turn the oven off and leave in overnight. Now they should keep for months.

Tada!  These things are hard.  Hard, hard, hard. I must admit, I haven't tried to eat these yet.  I was more curious to see how long they held up than what they tasted like.  Perhaps I'll store it with that pemmican from Montana and see which lasts longer.

- - - - -

Like hardtack, our final Keystone State post is done.  Now for those of you keeping track, the next state in alphabetical order is right up Interstate 95. But Rhode Island will have to wait just a wee bit longer, wee state that it is.  First we are taking a segue to the Caribbean, and the largest US territory-not-a-state off our coast.  It's time to visit Puerto Rico, with nary a Menudo record in sight.

Sources:

Amish America.  "What do Amish eat?"  Copyright 2010 Amish America, All rights reserved.

Amish Homestead Cookbook.  Tourist cookbook, date of publication unknown.

AmericanCivilWar.com.  "American Civil War Recipes: Union Hardtack and Confederate Johnnie Cakes".  Date unknown.  Copyright 1997-2012 AmericanCivilWar.com, maintained by Central Design Lab. All articles are public domain and clearly credit and link to the author when possible.

Batz, Bob, Jr. "Pittsburgh sticks with loving 'City Chicken'".  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published March 30, 2012.  Copyright ©1997-2012 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Brieda, Luboš.  "Potato Dumplings (Halušky)".  Slovak Cooking, posted November 3, 2009.  Updated March 24, 2010.  Copyright 2009-2011 Slovak Cooking.

Chowhound.com.  "Slicing Ribeye roast for philly cheese steak".  Discussion on "Home Cooking" board, Chowhound.com. Thread started September 6, 2008.

Pat's King of Steaks. "Pat's King of Steaks Philadelphia Cheese Steak".  Featured on the episode "Best Sandwiches" of the show The Best Of.  Food Network, 1999.

Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau.  "Pennsylvania Amish history & beliefs".  Copyright 2012 Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, site maintained by Cimbrian.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  Pennsylvania Cookbook Trail of History.  From the Editors of Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, foreword by William Woys Weaver.  Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004.

Pittsburgh.About.com (About.com). "How to Make Haluski (Cabbage and Noodles)"  Date unknown.  Copyright 2012 About.com.  All rights reserved.

Robinson, Douglas.  "City Chicken".  Recipe in I Grew Up in Southwestern Pennsylvania: A Nostalgic Look at Growing Up in the Pittsburgh Region.  Recipe featured in the article "Pittsburgh sticks with loving 'City Chicken'" by Bob Batz, Jr. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published March 30, 2012)

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Pennsylvania" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Pennsylvania".

Snacking State-by-State: Oklahoma III - Get out the skillet, it's time to make cornbread!

In my last post, I mentioned that Oklahoma has an official state meal (see the state info below for exactly what that is).  But because I don't have the time, money or dietary needs to make or write about such a meal, I'm cherry-picking specific recipes.  Last time I did fried okra by Georgia transplant Trisha Yearwood.  For this next post, I turn to a California girl who like Yearwood also now calls both Oklahoma and the Food Network home.

Official Name: State of Oklahoma
State Nicknames: The Sooner State
Admission to the US: November 16, 1907 (#46)
Capital: Oklahoma City (largest)
Other Important Cities: Tulsa (2nd largest), Norman (3rd largest), Broken Arrow (4th largest)
Region: Southwest, South, West; West South Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Corn Bread & BBQ; Bison
Bordered by: Kansas (north), Missouri (northeast), Arkansas (east), Texas & the Red River (south), New Mexico (west), Colorado (northwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: buffalo (animal), milk (beverage), white bass (fish), raccoon (furbearer animal), strawberry (fruit), white-tail deer (game animal), wild turkey (game bird), honeybee (insect - for the honey), watermelon (vegetable); "Fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecue pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas" (meal - quoted from Netstate.com)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Southern foods (qv, Official State Meal), sometimes with a Western or Southwestern flavor; Native American (specifically Cherokee) foods

Ree Drummond, star of The Pioneer Woman TV show, is originally from Oklahoma.  However, she spent many years traveling and living in Los Angeles (and meeting her husband in Chicago).  Now back in Oklahoma, she has turned out not just a TV show but a cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks - all from a blog (yes, a blogger hits it big!), The Pioneer Woman.  The blog wasn't originally about food but ranch life and homeschooling.  But one recipe must have led to another...

For the other recipe I tackled from the Official State Meal of Oklahoma™, I use Drummond's cast-iron skillet cornbread recipe, on page 102 of her cookbook.  I didn't make the pinto beans that she pairs them with - no time.  But I did zhuzh up her cornbread, following her recommendations no less: just Southwestern-ize it with chopped jalapeños!

The Recipe: Skillet Cornbread

For Drummond's cornbread you will need the following, most of which I had on hand:

* yellow corn meal (I used up just about all of what I had left with this recipe. Note to self: buy more)
* all-purpose flour
* baking powder
* salt
* baking soda
* milk (had run out of this so needed to pick some up)
* buttermilk (this I did have on hand, but in this case I had the powdered kind that you mix up with water.  My sister bought some of this over Christmas when she was visiting and had to leave it behind because it must be refrigerated.  At least I don't have to buy more buttermilk now)
* egg
* shortening
* jalapeños (I bought a few at the H Mart for less than 50¢)

Though Drummond doesn't make this suggestion, I did shred a little leftover cheddar cheese and throw that in.

Throw together the cornmeal, salt, flour and baking powder in a large bowl.

Mix it all together.

In a separate bowl (or a large measuring cup), put in the buttermilk.  In this case, I put a four tablespoons of the buttermilk powder...

...and then added a cup of water, to reconstitute a cup of buttermilk.

Yes it is frustratingly lumpy, so you must smoosh them apart.

Next add the milk.

And then add an egg and mix.

Mix in some baking soda with the buttermilk mixture.

Next add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients...

...and mix with a fork until just blended.

Don't overmix this stuff.

Next, melt some shortening in the microwave...

...and mix into the batter, again just until blended.

Time to chop up the jalapeños and add them to the batter.  I added two though Drummond suggests chopping one up and adding it.

I would've added the chiles, seeds and all, but most people will probably want to seed them first.

Mince the chiles and add to the batter.

Again, yes I added cheddar cheese, about a handful.

Melt a few more tablespoons of shortening in a cast-iron skillet, moving around until coated.

Pour the batter into the skillet, spread around and let cook on top of the stove for one minute.

Then put the skillet into a preheated 450° oven for about 25 minutes

Cut and serve, preferably while still hot or only a little cooled.

The cornbread I typically find comes in two categories: savory and crumbly (Southern style) and sweet, moist and cake-like (Northern, or Yankee style.  I personally have never really enjoyed this kind).  This is a third kind: savory and soft.  In retrospect, I haven't really eaten Southwestern style cornbread all that much before.  I'm thinking I like this one more than either of our "Back East" style cornbreads, Southern or Northern.  The flavor of the jalapeños jump out amid the soft cornbread, and it all is just delicious.  Definitely another keeper of a recipe.

- - - - -

Westward ho!  This cornbread was our Oklahoma finale (last musical joke, I promise).  We continue from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest for our next state, exploring hazelnuts, salmon and all - okay just a smidgen - that Portland's food trucks have to offer in Oregon.

Sources:

Cherokee Nation.  "More About Cherokee Cooking".  The Official Site of the Cherokee Nation, 2011.  Copyright 2011 the Cherokee Nation, All Rights Reserved.

Cherokee Nation.  "Wild Onions and Scrambled Eggs".   The Official Site of the Cherokee Nation, 2011.  Copyright 2011 the Cherokee Nation, All Rights Reserved.

Drummond, Ree.  The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.  Willliam Morrow: New York, 2009.

Lee, Hilde Gabriel.  Taste of the States: A Food History of America.  Howell Press: Charlottesville, VA, 1992.  Quoted on the Food Timeline State Foods website.

Netstate.com.  "Oklahoma State Symbols, Songs and Emblems".  Copyright 2012 Netstate.com, All Rights Reserved.

Yearwood, Trisha, with Gwen Yearwood and Beth Yearwood Bernard. Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen: Recipes from My Family to Yours. Clarkson Potter: New York, 2008.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Oklahoma" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Oklahoma".