Note: THE WORLD IS NOT ENDING! (or "Delicious, Delicious Cochinita Pibil")

On this lovely 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in, it seems appropriate to celebrate the start of the new b'ak'tun with some Maya cuisine.  I had hoped to make yet another helping of the below recipe but work and life just kept me busy (funny that).  So instead I am reposting this famously delicious Yucatec Maya dish that I have enjoyed for years and slow cooked a few years ago (note, by the way, that it is now quite easy to find banana leaves at H Mart: they usually have them frozen and, sometimes, fresh).  This week instead I will just be lazy and buy store bought.  The R&R Taquería in Elkridge sounds like a good bet according to HowChow.

Now eat some and remember: the world is not ending.

- - - - -

Cochinita Pibil (originally published Sunday, August 3, 2008, or 12.19.15.9.19 2 Kawak 2 Yaxk'in)


I had friends over on Saturday night for dinner. Originally I had planned this around my friend Jim visiting from California (so difficult to get him on a plane). But plans changed, mostly due to skyrocketing fuel prices and airplane fees, so he went on vacation locally with his family instead. But I still had my local friends over anyway.

For them I made cochinita pibil, one of my most favorite Mexican dishes. It's not the Americanized "Mexican" food we have here, and it's definitely not what you imagine when you think of Mexican. I've eaten it a few times in California (The best place to find it in the Inland Empire? The Casa Maya in Mentone) , and one buddy made it for me one time I was visiting. I've even eaten it at a diner in the historic section of Mexico City - have no idea if it's there anymore - and I'm pretty sure I had it at least once in Mérida, Yucatán - it is, after all, not a national but a Yucatecan dish.

There are many recipes for cochinita pibil on the internet and in cookbooks, and a few ways to prepare it, be it the oven, the Dutch oven or the slow cooker. The important thing is to marinade it overnight, wrap it in banana leaves and then cook it for a few hours. I wanted to break out the slow cooker, so I wouldn't have to stand there and monitor it all day. After searching for a good slow cooker version I found this version translated from the standard oven-based recipe by Rick Bayless himself (here's the most authentic version of his recipe, which requires building a pit to cook it in the ground).

This recipe is relatively simple, if you have everything you need, but it does take a little preparation.  You need at least 2 to 3 lbs of pork butt/shoulder - I got a 5 lb picnic shoulder from Giant for just $7 on sale, and ended up cooking the whole thing. With that you also need a chopped up white onion, banana leaves to wrap it in, and some achiote paste. Achiote paste is quite easy to find in Southern California, but almost impossible to find here. So came the more time consuming task of making my own achiote paste from scratch. Again, there are many online, ranging from the simple to the elaborate. I chose something on the more elaborate side, and set my spice grinder to work.

Ingredients for the achiote marinade

The most difficult ingredient to find is the annatto seed, which you can find in any supermarket with a very well-stocked Latin American or Mexican section. And you should be able to find it in any Latino or Mexican market. The second most difficult thing to find is the bitter (or Seville) orange. In fact, it is much more difficult to find than annatto seed, but unlike annatto you can make a reasonable substitute for bitter orange by mixing orange juice with either lime or lemon juice. If you can find the real stuff, however, use it. After running all over Baltimore I found a bottle of Goya bitter orange / naranja agria marinade at Wegman's (which I later saw at the Giant just a 20 minute walk from my place).

I finally settled on this recipe from Chow.com, since it had some interesting flavors and since I had almost all the ingredients. I won't quote the recipe, but it calls for pan-seared garlic, cloves,whole cumin, whole coriander seed, kosher salt, allspice berries and black peppercorns, in addition to the annatto seeds and bitter orange juice. I had no allspice berries, but since most recipes don't call for them, I didn't sweat it.

After grinding the annatto and other seeds, blending the bitter orange juice and the garlic, and mixing it all together, you get something that looks like this:

It should be smoother, but it still worked.

It's difficult to describe the unique taste of this stuff, but it is definitely not what you think of when you think "Mexican" cuisine.

After that, score the pork butt and rub the achiote all over it, put it in a large ziploc bag or a sealed-up bowl to marinate overnight, and then cook the damn thing. To paraphase Rick Bayless' recipe: he suggests lining a slow cooker with the banana leaves (So far I have only been able to find them at Wegman's; not even H-Mart has them!), put in the pork, dump in the marinade and about 1/2 cup of water (since I had more pork, I just added more water), then wrap the pork in the rest of the banana leaves over it and slow cook it for at least 6 hours. Since he never says to do it on low or high, I had to search for that elsewhere. What few authorities I found suggested either low for 10 to 12 hours, or high for 6 hours. So I went for 6 hours on high.

The marinade the night beforeAnd in the slow cooker. Make sure you have enough banana leaves to completely cover it. Okay, you technically don't need them in the slow cooker, but they make for a better presentation and do, in fact, keep the meat a little moister.

There is one final, indispensable component to cochinita pibil, and it's not tortillas, although those are helpful. You always eat it with red onions that have been pickled in bitter orange juice and a little sprinkle of salt for several hours. So simple, Bayless just spends two sentences mentioning how: just slice a red onion thin and marinate in the juice (I used a cup of bitter orange juice for one large red onion) and sprinkle some kosher salt on it.

This is all you need to make it. And a little salt. A few hours later, this becomes......this!

Throw it in a plastic baggie and voila! It should be marinated much longer, but I didn't have much longer.

And you eat those onions with this, the finished cochinita pibil.

It's startling how the meat just falls off the bone after cooking it for this long, too. Eat it with some rice, black beans and tortillas, and fresh salsa (Bayless recommends homemade roasted habanero salsa, which they would eat in Yucatán, but I don't like my mouth to hurt). Wonderful stuff!

Snacking State-by-State: Wisconsin IV - There's a Brat in My Beer, and I'm Cryin' for You, Dear

My final Midwestern post takes us back to a food savored at millions of cookouts and tailgates all across America.  Mind you, Ohio fights for the glory, but Wisconsin insists on brushing them aside in the war of the bratwursts.  Perhaps but one can claim the mantle.

Official Name: State of Wisconsin
State Nickname: The Badger State
Admission to the US: May 29, 1848 (30th)
Capital: Madison (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Milwaukee (largest), Green Bay (3rd largest), Kenosha (4th largest), Racine (5th largest)
Region: Midwest, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Wild Rice
Bordered by: Minnesota (west); Lake Superior (northwest); Michigan (upper panhandle) (northeast); Lake Michigan (east); Illinois (south); Iowa (southwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: badger (animal, though these aren't typically eaten anymore); corn (grain); dairy cow (domesticated animal); honeybee (insect, for the honey); milk (beverage); muskellunge, or "muskie" (fish); sugar maple (tree, for the maple sap); white-tailed deer (wildlife animal)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: typical Midwestern cuisine; German, Central European and Scandinavian foods; dairy, especially cheese and fried cheese curds; Wisconsin-style fish boil (usually done on a massive scale for many people); beer brats (bratwurst cooked in beer and grilled, usually on a "Sheboygan roll", a typical bratwurst roll from the Midwest); beer, beer and more beer

For those of you who have been following this blog, or at least this series, I have already explored bratwurst.  Twice!  Both times were when I was exploring Ohio.  One was a simple pan-boiled brat, the other used bratwurst to make delicious fried balls of sauerkraut, Cleveland-style.  And yet, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, still claims to be the "Bratwurst Capital of the World".  I've already described bratwursts in the aforementioned posts, and that does include their tie to Wisconsin's identity.  They go together about as much as Wisconsin and cheese, or beer.  In fact, this Cheesehead trinity is so important that the very conservative Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker invited angry Democrats to the Governor's Mansion after his recall attempt earlier this year and tried to smooth things over with beer, cheese and - of course - brats (Fulton 2012).  These people love their brats as much as some others in this country love their fish fries, clam bakes and steamed crab feasts.

Now while my friend Eric pointed out to me that people sometimes cook brats in a pan with water or beer, in the Upper Midwest they don't seem to prefer that method, if my research does not deceive me.  The folks at the Bratwurst Pages (2005), based in Wisconsin, have a whole collection of Bratwurst-related links, including the procedure for fixing brats the typical, correct way.  Of course, you need to grill it, and of course, I have no grill handy at the moment.  Fortunately Jonathan Croswell (2011) helps out on that score in his Livestrong.com article about how to cook brats in the oven when there is no grill available - long story short, broil 'em, setting them about five to seven inches away from the broiler.  I set mine as far away as I could.

The Bratwurst Pages people point out that a bratwurst is correctly eaten with various fixin's, from kraut to ketchup to mustard - but they are very specific to note that yellow mustard is an abomination.  Spicy brown mustard, however, works well.  Also note: you are not supposed to use hot dog rolls for these things.  They mention something called a "Sheboygan roll", a malty roll that is somewhat crisp on the outside and soft on the inside commonly found around the Bratwurst Capital of the World, but not at all found in my part of the country.  Trying to be un-abominable as possible, I eventually sought out non-baked club rolls from Harris Teeter, and baked them myself while the brats were cooking.  If you actually want to make some of these rolls, get thee to a homebrewing store (not like I hadn't gone recently) because you will need some malt extract.  I didn't feel like buying a whole container just for a roll I didn't have time to make anyway - malt extract ain't cheap - which led me to buy the club rolls.

The Recipe: Classic Wisconsin Beer Brats

To keep these as authentic as humanly possible, since we're not using the outdoor grill, assemble the following:

* bratwurst (Johnsonville, out of Sheboygan Falls, are a no-brainer for this Wisconsin-esque recipe.  Only $4 at Harris Teeter)
* onion (small to medium yellow one, had it)
* butter (had this too)
* beer (now I have tons of beer at home, but the beer I made in the last post was still in the fermenting process (as you can see in the picture above, the decanter is still sitting underneath my kitchen table), so instead I sought out a few bottles of Leinenkugel, based out of Chippewa Falls.  I still didn't have enough, so I used an extra bottle of Rolling Rock I had sitting in my pantry to top it off)
* club rolls (as noted above, do not use hot dog rolls.  Find Sheboygan rolls if you have them, but if you're outside of the Midwest you likely will not find them.  These unbaked club rolls cost about $3 at Harris Teeter)

Prepare your beer bath (ooooh, fun) by boiling together your beer and onions.  Some authentic recipes do not do this step, but others do and since I'm not grilling these outside I wanted to go this extra step.  I reserved half my beer and onion for this step, because the brats will sit in a beet-butter-onion bath after grilling as well.

If you go this route, boil your brats in the beer for about twenty minutes.  If you do not do this step, prepare the beer bath for the brats to sit in after grilling them.  You need to do that step regardless.

When they start looking like this (yes you should turn them), remove them and get ready to either grill them or...

...place them under your preheated broiler.  If you can't grill for some reason you will want to set your broiler pan as far away from the flame as possible (five to seven inches is optimal).  Leave them there for about 10 minutes, with no pre-boiling, leave them there longer.  If grilling, leave them on for about 20 to 25.  You really have to guesstimate here.

While those brats are a-broilin', prep your second beer bath.

Add the rest of your chopped onion to the beer bath.

And then add your butter.

Melt everything together, and let your brats simmer in this liquid until ready to eat.  For this part, you really do leave them in there indefinitely, based on the recipe I saw.

Finally, bake your club rolls, or use pre-baked ones.  If you have bratwurst rolls, use those instead.

And now you're ready to build your bratwurst.

Typically, you put ketchup, sauerkraut, chopped onions and non-yellow mustard on your brat.

I used some of the chopped onions from the beer and butter bath, whole seed brown mustard and ketchup.

I can't say much about this.  It was a bratwurst.  It was juicy and delicious would have been a little messy were it not for the massive roll sopping up the juices and toppings.  I'm not used to bathing it in beer and butter of course, but I may use this method again when I do brats.

- - - - -

What a strange milestone: we are but one state away from the end of this long, loooooong series!  Or are we?  Once we're finished with Wyoming, our final destination, I will be making the rounds briefly just to re-explore the different regions of the country to see if I missed anything.  This I will be doing in ten - yes, ten - posts.  Then this State-by-State thing will truly be finished.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  On to Big Sky Country!

Sources:

Beer Institute.  "State Per Capita Consumption 2003 to 2011" (PDF available).  Copyright 2012, All rights reserved.

Bostwick, William & Jessi Rymill.  Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer.  Rodale: New York, 2011.

Bratwurst Pages.  "Classic Wisconsin Beer Brats".  Bratwurst Pages, 2003.  Copyright 2002, 2003 Bratwurst Pages, All rights reserved.

Croswell, Jonathan.  "How to Cook a Bratwurst in the Oven".  Livestrong, 2011.  Copyright 2011, 2012, All rights reserved.

Door County Today (YouTube channel: DoorCounty Today).  "History of the Door County Fish Boil".  Posted March 15, 2012.

Fisher, Joe and Dennis.  "Wild, Wild Rice!"  Brew Your Own, October 2000.

Fulton, April.  "Will Beer And Brats Break Through Wisconsin's Partisan Divide?"  The Salt: What's on Your Plate.  Posted June 12, 2012.  Copyright 2012 National Public Radio, All rights reserved.

Midwest Living.  "Wisconsin Fish Boil".  Midwest Living, 2012.  Copyright 2012 Meredith Corporation, All rights reserved.

Mr. Beer.  "Instructions, Premium/Deluxe Editions".  Copyright 2011 Catalina Products LLC, All rights reserved.

Spencer, James, and Steve Wilkes (YouTube channel: basicbrewing). "Basic Brewing Video - Doctoring Mr. Beer - January 7, 2012".  Posted January 7, 2012.

Splendid Table.  "Episode 487: The Japanese Grill", July 30, 2011, Segment 21:46 – 28:35 (William Bostwick talks home brewing).  Copyright 2011, 2012 American Public Media, All rights reserved.

Vics, Drew (YouTube channel: Cryptobrewology).  "Brewing Mr. Beer American Devil IPA".  Posted January 25, 2010.
Wisconsin Brewer's Guild.  "Wisconsin Brewer's Guild".  Copyright 2009-2012, All rights reserved.

Wisconsin Historical Society.  "Dictionary of Wisconsin History: Pabst Blue Ribbon beer advertisement, 1940 (WHi-56371)".  Copyright 1996-2012, All rights reserved.

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.  "Cookin' Up Wisconsin Curds".  Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, 2012.  Copyright 2012, All rights reserved.

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.  "History of Wisconsin Cheese".  Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, 2012.  Copyright 2012, All rights reserved.
Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Wisconsin" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Wisconsin".

Snacking State-by-State: Virginia I - "You got your Virginia ham in my biscuit!"

For just a few weeks, this State-by-State series comes back home.  Okay, almost back home - not in state but in regional terms.  Though Virginia is across the Potomac, our neighbors to the south share one very important thing with us here in Maryland: the big ol' Chesapeake Bay.  But a quick perusal of any cookbook or recipe collection claiming to be Chesapeake cuisine will show you that the foods we share are not just seafood.

Official Name: Commonwealth of Virginia
State Nickname: The Old Dominion State
Admission to the US: June 25, 1788 (#10)
Capital: Richmond (4th largest)
Other Important Cities: Virginia Beach (largest), Norfolk (2nd largest), Chesapeake (3rd largest); Newport News (5th largest), Hampton (6th largest), Alexandria (7th largest)
Region: South, Upper South, Mid-Atlantic, Chesapeake; South Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Chestnut, Crab Cake
Bordered by: West Virginia (northwest), Maryland, District of Columbia and the Potomac River (northeast), Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean (east), North Carolina (south), Tennessee (southwest), Kentucky (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: brook trout (fresh water fish), milk (beverage), Eastern oyster (shell), striped bass (salt water fish)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: ham (especially Smithfield); peanuts; Chesapeake Bay cuisine to the north and east of the state, specifically crabs (fried, steamed, boiled, deviled, Norfolk and she-crab soup) and oysters; typical Southern foods to the south and west of the state (including ham biscuits, beaten biscuits, etc); diverse multicultural foods in Northern Virginia (notably South & Southeast Asian, West African, Ethiopian and Central American); Brunswick stew

What constitutes Virginia cuisine?  It depends on where in the Commonwealth you are (NB: Virginia is the last of the four "commonwealth states" we are hitting up, after Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Kentucky.  Five if you count Puerto Rico, which isn't a state but is a commonwealth.  Ugh, my head hurts keeping track of all this).  The Virginia travel site (Virginia.org) with its well-known "Virginia is for lovers" tagline, boasts right at the top that "There's a lot more to Virginia Cuisine than Peanuts!" [Virginia Tourism Corporation 2012].  Well I knew that!  And they spell it out for us, region by region:

* Chesapeake oysters, beautiful blue crabs and - yes - flounder abound on Virginia's Eastern Shore, as Wachapreague (not far from Chincoteagoe) bills itself as the flounder capital of the world.  Getting Misty yet?
* South Central Virginia, best known for its Brunswick stew - something that the entire Upper South fights for credit over.  made with chicken or squirrel.  You will see this pop up in a few posts, though I'm not quite sure the recipe I used is the most authentic one.
* Appalachia is home to typical Appalachian foods - like the stack cakes and cornbreads we've seen in earlier posts.
* The Shenandoah Valley, which is apple country (that I just found out while researching this).
* Northern Virginia, like DC and the Maryland suburbs, draws in the cuisines of the world.  A simple glance at Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide, based in NoVA, shows the true diversity of international eating around 495.  This is also wine country, by the way.
* And of course, the classically Southern fare of Richmond, Hampton Roads and the Tidewater, where ham, biscuits and peanuts abound. [Virginia Tourism Corporation 2012; Cowen 2012]

I really need to get to Virginia more often.  It is just next door after all, and I'm in DC a lot more often these days.

Among all the things I know Virginia for, it is crab.  And of course it would be: that's one of the big things Marylanders share with Virginians is the blue crab.  But most Americans probably identify Virginia more with ham.  Virginia is famous for its hams.  Again, you find these in neighboring states, too: Tennessee, Kentucky and even Southern Maryland all boast about their respective takes on ham.  But Virginia has cornered the national market (not to mention Food Network star Paula Deen in one nasty frozen ham assault a few years ago).  Most famous is Smithfield, though remember that many local farms smoke and sell their own hams to the public. Particularly important are their dry-cured hams, not the easiest thing to find in the mega-supermarkets - the Wegmanses and Harris Teeters in the area - but hard to miss in most Giants, where you literally stumble over the Virginia dry-cured hams (go fig).  As noted by Paul Graham, N.G. Marriott and R.F. Kelly for the Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension [Graham et al 2011], the process and trade in Virginia ham is an old and storied one in the Commonwealth

Virginia ham was one of the first agricultural products exported from North America. The Reverend Mr. Andrew Burnaby enthusiastically reported that Virginia pork was superior in flavor to any in the world (Burnaby 1775). Another early clergyman, the Reverend Mr. John Clayton, wrote the Royal Society in England that Virginia ham was as good as any in Westphalia (Force 1844). [Graham et al 2011; their sources included]

They further outline the process of dry-curing your own ham the Virginia way, from start to finish, even warning about the specific bugs that typically bother the ham during the curing process.

For this ham recipe, I would have liked to use dry cured ham.  But the stuff is pricey, and I just don't have the time to properly, or even half-assedly, prepare a dry cured ham for serving.  So instead I shot for the boneless smoked variety of party ham put out by, again, Smithfield.  To best utilize this, I turned to one of the most popular finger sandwiches in the South: the humble ham biscuit.  You can definitely make these with dry-cured ham, but it's just a lot cheaper, easier and less time-consuming with the pre-cooked, vacuum-packed-in-water stuff.

The ham biscuit is as popular with Southern hostesses, tailgaters and buffet-goers as that other Southern classic, pimento cheese.  So much so that the makers of Martha White flour [date unknown] have a few things to say about this cherished snack.

The origin of the yeast biscuit is unknown but seems to have surfaced in Southern cookbooks and in newspaper food sections during the 1950s. Alice Jarman, the founder of the Martha White Kitchen, developed a version for the company that was publicized across the South called "Riz" Biscuits. These biscuits became preferred carriers for country ham because of their light texture and good keeping qualities. [Martha White date unknown]

Martha White points out three variations, a thin, crisper biscuit, a softer, yeasty biscuit and a biscuit that has actual ham pieces in the dough.  The recipe below, which I got from Treva Chadwell whose recipe is posted at the Cooking Channel website, is a softer biscuit using no yeast at all - and swapping White Lily flour for Martha White (Chadwell doesn't specify any specific flour).  Hers also comes with a honey Dijon sauce and - gasp - chives!  What is a humble host like me to do with all this fabulousness!?!?

The Recipe: Virginia Ham Biscuits

For Chadwell's ham biscuit you will need the following:

First, you will need some biscuits.  You could cheat and buy some, but why not make them yourself?  Chadwell's chive biscuits call for:

* flour (had it on hand - White Lily in this case, though you could use Martha White as well.  Oh hell, any flour will do, but the softer the better)

* baking powder (had it)

* baking soda (same)

* salt (had this too)

* buttermilk (picked up a quart for about $1.50)

* lard (I should have gone to Giant and gotten actual lard, since they have it in their meat section.  Neither of the mega-huge supermarket chains that has come to our area - Wegman's and Harris Teeter - has lard.  The closest I found was Goya's lard, which upon reading the ingredients seems like some strange lard-Crisco hybrid at Harris Teeter.  It ran about $4.)

* chives (only $2 a bunch)

This recipe also calls for a honey mustard sauce.  For this you need:

* Dijon mustard (had it in the pantry)

* whole grain mustard (just $3.50 for a bottle)

* honey (had this on hand, too.  My sister brought some of this from Richmond Hill, outside of Savannah.  Best to keep this recipe as Southern as possible)

And finally, you will need:

* ham - otherwise, it wouldn't be a ham biscuit (I bought a vacuum-packed pre-cut boneless Smithfield ham at Harris Teeter for $4 per lb - about $9.50.  I will be eating this ham for a while)

First, whisk together the dry ingredients and the chives.

Next, cut in the lard.  It should be cold.

Whisk until it is of a crumbly but doughy consistency.

Flour the dough and roll it out to about a 1/2 inch consistency.

Punch it a few times...

...and cut it into rounds of about 2 1/2 inches.  I just used a drinking cup.

Bake it in a preheated 400°F oven for about 20 minutes.

While baking, mix the mustards and honey.

When your biscuits are cool enough to handle, make the ham biscuits.  Cut a biscuit in half.

Spread the honey-mustard sauce on at least one side.
\

Place some of your ham on the biscuit.

I liked these biscuits, but for some reason mine always turn out flatter than most.  Still, this is a tasty sandwich.  Though I didn't cook the ham at all, I would warm it up a bit before I made this again.

Sources:

Anderson's Neck Oyster Company.  "History".  Copyright 2012, Anderson's Neck Oyster Company.  All rights reserved.

Brunswick Stewmaster's Association.  "Brunswick Stew History".  Copyright 2010, Brunswick Stewmaster's Association.  All rights reserved.

Carman, Tim.  "The Real Reason Why Squirrel Meat Isn’t Used in Brunswick Stew Anymore".  Young & Hungry column, Washington City Paper, posted May. 6, 2009.

Cowen, Tyler.  Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide.  Copyright 2012, All rights reserved.

Chadwell, Treva.  "Virginia Ham Biscuits".  Provided for the Cooking Channel.  Copyright 2012, Cooking Channel LLC.  All rights reserved.

"Elmer Fudd" (user), "Elmer Fudd's Brunswick Stew".  Posted September 26, 2009.  Copyright 2009 Field & Stream.  All rights reserved.

Good Earth Peanut Company.  "All About Peanuts".  Date unknown.

Graham, Paul, N.G. Marriott and R.F. Kelly.  "Dry Curing Virginia-Style Ham".  Written for the Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension, 2011.

Peanut Shop of Williamsburg.  "Thai Cucumber Salad".  Copyright 2010, The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg.  All rights reserved.

Randolph, Mary.  The Virginia Housewife: Or Methodical Cook: A Facsimile of an Authentic Early American Cookbook.  1824.  Republication of the edition by E.H. Butler & Co., Philadelphia, 1860.  Introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone, Moneola, NY: Dover, 1993.

Shields, John. Chesapeake Bay Cooking. Broadway Books: New York, NY, 1998

Virginia Tourism Corporation. "Home page".  Copyright 2012, Virginia Tourism Corporation.  All rights reserved.

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

Snacking State-by-State: Mashup 11 - Maple Apple & Pork Ribs and Grits

This recipe was originally going to throw together apples from South Dakota, grits from South Carolina, buttermilk and Memphis barbecue from Tennessee and linguiça from Rhode Island.  Then that massive derecho hit in late June.  I rescued some of my food from my electricity-free apartment - absconding with some stuff to my mother's house and her freezer.  But not everything survived, and so I lost those delicious Portuguese sausages.  To make the following recipe, add an equal amount of linguiça as barbecue, and adjust the amount of liquids and grits respectively.  Adding linguiça will up the serving amount to about 3 to 6.

Also note: while I sometimes consult similar recipes to get an idea on how to make something, this is the first recipe where I actually use someone else's recipe.  For the buttermilk grits, please refer to the recipe at the Running with Tweezers blog for chipotle greens and buttermilk grits [Hardeman 2011].  I follow the author's buttermilk grits recipe almost exactly, halving her recipe and adding only maple syrup to taste.

Mashup recipe: Maple Apple & Pork Ribs and Grits

Makes 2 to 4 servings

Ingredients (state or territorial flag indicates State-by-State post where ingredient was featured. Ingredients with no flag were not specifically used for any one post.)

For the grits (based on Tami Hardeman's buttermilk grits recipe from her Running with Tweezers blog, 2011):

1/2 cup stone ground grits

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup maple syrup or to taste

1 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

1 T butter

For the topping: 

1 1/2 medium chopped sliced apples (peeled and cored)

meat from 3 to 4 Memphis pork barbecue ribs 

(NB: you can also use one linguiça sausage, sliced, in addition or instead)

1/4 cup buttermilk

dash lemon juice

dash Tabasco sauce

dash paprika

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup (or more to taste)

1 shallot, sliced thinly

salt and pepper to taste

2 T butter

Start by boiling the water and buttermilk in a pot.

Bring to a boil, then add grits and salt and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat.

While those grits are cooking, de-flesh the barbecue ribs.

In a skillet, stir-fry the rubs, apples and shallot in butter for about five minutes.

Add the buttermilk...

...and maple syrup, and continue to cook.

Add the rest of ingredients to taste, and cook for five to ten more minutes over low-medium heat (or until the grits are done).

Make sure you stir the grits occasionally while you cook the pork and apples. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes.

In the last five minutes of cooking the grits, add the maple syrup (I also added brown sugar but found that unnecessary in the end).  Serve with pork and apples.

This is one of my more successful recipes.  I like the addition of the maple syrup to the sour buttermilk grits.  This is an even nicer contrast with the sweet pork and apples.  Overall a good recipe.