A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (69 page)

She remembered (as one remembers first the eyes of a loved person) the old blue water cooler on the back porch…among the round and square wooden tables always piled with snap beans, turnip greens, and onions from today’s trip to Greenwood.

—
EUDORA WELTY
,
DELTA WEDDING

GREEN TOMATO PICKLE RELISH

MAKES ABOUT
4
PINTS

Southern cooks find this spicy relish a handy way to use up the late-September glut of green tomatoes. With green tomato relish in the pantry, deviled eggs, potato salad, egg salad, and ham salad—southern favorites all—can be made in a hurry. In the old days, I used to chop all the vegetables by hand. I now use the food processor, taking care to chop everything in smallish batches (no more than two inches of vegetables in the work bowl at a time). Finally, I pulse each batch briskly until I get just the texture I want. Note:
If this relish is to have the proper crunch, you must use hard green tomatoes and firm cucumbers. Kirby cucumbers, the small pickling variety, are the ones to use here. They’re usually unwaxed and available at most supermarkets.

8 cups (2 quarts) cored, peeled, and coarsely chopped hard green tomatoes (2½ to 3 pounds)

1 medium-large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1 medium-large green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped

3 firm Kirby cucumbers, peeled, halved, seeded, and coarsely chopped (see Note above)

½ cup pickling salt

1 cup sugar

1½ cups white (distilled) vinegar

1½ cups cider vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

2 tablespoons pickling spice blend, tied in cheesecloth (spice bag)

• 1.
  Place all the vegetables in a very large nonreactive bowl, sprinkle with the salt, and toss well. Cover and let stand overnight at room temperature. Next day, drain all in a large sieve and press out as much liquid as possible. Set aside.
  
• 2.
  Wash and rinse 4 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
  
• 3.
  Meanwhile, bring the sugar, white and cider vinegars, mustard seeds, and spice bag to a boil in a large nonreactive kettle. Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles easily and cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring now and then. Mix in the drained vegetables and return to a boil. Remove the spice bag.
  
• 4.
  Lift the preserving jars from the boiling water one by one and ladle in enough hot relish to fill the jar to within ¼ inch of the top. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of the jar to release air bubbles; wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure. Repeat until all the jars are filled.
  Tip:
  To avoid spilling or dribbling relish down the sides of the jars as you fill them, use a wide-mouth canning funnel.
  
• 5.
  Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (212° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if needed, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
  
• 6.
  Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf several weeks before opening.
  

DILLED SNAP BEANS

MAKES ABOUT
4
PINTS

Back when I was a junior food editor at
The Ladies’ Home Journal
in New York, two attractive young southern women came into our test kitchens one day bearing jars of snap beans that they’d pickled. They told us they’d used an old family recipe and hoped that we liked their “Dilly Beans” enough to write a little something about them because they aimed to market them. That was my first encounter with “Dilly Beans.” Those two Southerners didn’t share their family recipe—only jars of beans, which, thanks to our item about them, soon became everyone’s favorite low-cal cocktail food (each bean contains about one calorie). This recipe is my own.

2 pounds straight, tender, young green beans, tipped and cut into 4-inch lengths

4 garlic cloves, halved lengthwise

Eight 4-inch sprigs of fresh dill, washed and patted dry, or 4 teaspoons dill weed

1½ cups white (distilled) vinegar

1½ cups cider vinegar

1 cup water

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons pickling salt

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, crushed

• 1.
  Wash and rinse 4 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
  
• 2.
  Remove the jars from the boiling water one by one, pack snugly with the beans, then push two garlic halves and two dill sprigs or 1 teaspoon dill weed down into each jar.
  
• 3.
  While packing the jars, boil the two vinegars, water, sugar, pickling salt, and red pepper flakes uncovered in a large nonreactive saucepan over moderate heat for 5 minutes. Keep hot.
  
• 4.
  When all the jars have been packed, ladle enough of the hot pickling liquid into each to cover the beans and come to within ¼ inch of the top. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of each jar to release air bubbles; wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure.
  
• 5.
  Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (212° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
  
• 6.
  Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
  

PICKLED OKRA

MAKES ABOUT
8
PINTS

I’m not a huge fan of okra, I must admit. But I do like them pickled the old southern way.

When choosing okra for this recipe, go for pods about the size of your little finger. Larger ones may be tough. Note:
To crisp their pickled okra, southern cooks use pickling lime (see About Pickling Lime, Chapter 7).

4 pounds small okra of uniform size, washed well

4 quarts (1 gallon) cold water, mixed with 1½ tablespoons food-grade pickling lime (lime water)

4 cups (1 quart) white (distilled) vinegar

4 cups (1 quart) cider vinegar

6 cups sugar

2 tablespoons mustard seeds

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1½ teaspoons celery seeds

1½ teaspoons pickling salt

4 small silverskin onions, peeled, sliced tissue-thin, and separated into rings

• 1.
  Soak the okra in the lime water in a very large nonreactive kettle for 2 hours. Drain, rinse well in several changes of cold water, and set aside. Also rinse the kettle well.
  
• 2.
  Wash and rinse 8 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
  
• 3.
  Bring the two vinegars, sugar, mustard seeds, peppercorns, turmeric, celery seeds, salt, and onions to a boil in the rinsed-out kettle over moderate heat. Add the okra and as soon as the mixture returns to the boil, cook uncovered for 1 minute exactly; no longer or the okra will soften.
  
• 4.
  Remove the jars from the boiling water one by one and pack snugly with the okra and onion slices. When all the jars are packed, ladle enough of the hot pickling liquid into each to cover the okra and come to within ¼ inch of the top. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of each jar to release air bubbles; wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure.
  
• 5.
  Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (212° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
  
• 6.
  Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
  

PICKLED FIGS

MAKES
4
TO
5
PINTS

There were two giant fig bushes in our backyard and my job was to pick the green-skinned figs when they were firm but ripe. From a neighbor woman, who’d just moved to town from the country, my mother learned how to pickle figs the old-fashioned southern way. I never liked fresh figs, but I do dote upon these pickled figs.

5 pounds small firm-ripe figs, washed but not peeled or stemmed

2 quarts (½ gallon) boiling water

3 cups sugar

4 cups (1 quart) cider vinegar

4 cups (1 quart) cold water

1 tablespoon whole cloves, bruised

½ tablespoon whole allspice, bruised

1 cinnamon stick, broken in several places

One 2-inch strip lemon zest

One 3-inch strip orange zest

• 1.
  Prick each fig with a sterilized needle (this is to keep the figs from bursting in the boiling water bath), then place the figs in a large, heavy kettle. Pour in the boiling water and let cool to room temperature.
  
• 2.
  Meanwhile, place the sugar, vinegar, and water in a large, heavy nonreactive kettle. Tie the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and lemon and orange zests in cheesecloth and drop into the kettle. Set over moderate heat and bring to a boil.
  
• 3.
  Ease the figs into the kettle, adjust the heat so that the pickling syrup barely bubbles, then simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes or until the figs are translucent. Discard the spice bag.
  
• 4.
  Meanwhile, wash and rinse 5 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
  
• 5.
  Lift the preserving jars from the boiling water one by one. Using a slotted spoon, pack the figs snugly in the jar, leaving ¼ inch head space at the top. Ladle enough boiling pickling syrup into the jar to cover the figs, again leaving ¼ inch head space. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of the jar to release air bubbles; wipe the jar rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure. Repeat until all the jars are filled.
  
• 6.
  Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (212° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
  
• 7.
  Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf several weeks before opening.