1½ cups distilled white vinegar
½ cup cider vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes, depending on desired heat level
Warm the vinegars either in the microwave for 30 seconds or on the stovetop. You are warming them only, not boiling. Add the remaining ingredients, stir to dissolve the salt, and pour the mixture into a jar. Set aside for at least 1 day to let the flavors fully meld, then serve.
Store any remaining sauce in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Shake well before using.
“TOO MANY PEOPLE THINK MEAT, often fried meat, sits at the center of the Southern plate. Maybe it does today, but historically we ate large pieces of meat once or twice a week. The rest of the time, cooks used “seasoning meat” as a condiment—a means to round out a vegetable-and-grain-focused meal. Seasoning meat is usually pork, but never a fancy cut. Instead, it is every nook, cranny, nugget, and bone salted, smoked, or ground into sausage to lend flavor to pots of anything you can boil.”
~ Vivian Howard
Air-Dried Sausage: The seasoning meat of choice in Eastern North Carolina. The tang and funk is unforgettable.
Smoked Pig Tails: An often overlooked option. These little morsels will give off a lot of flavor especially if you have them split it half.
Smoked Pig Trotters: That’s pig’s feet to most of us. Have the butcher split them in half so they give up their fat and flavor.
Smoked Ham Hocks: This is the seasoning meat everyone thinks of when making collards or other greens. That’s for good reason As hocks offer flavor, body, and good-size chunks of meat. It takes a long Cooking time to coax the flavor and meat out of these, but it’s time we’ll spent. Oh and then the potlikker.
Smoked Neck Bones: These nuggets do double duty as seasoning meat and centerpiece. They have a almost obsessive following that loves to gnaw at the luscious bits of meat.
Belly Bacon or Jowl Bacon: Bacon is typically made from the belly, but their cousin jowl bacon is fattier and more flavorful. Both are a cured and smoked meat that can either be rendered in the pot before water is added or simply added with the water. You might consider rendering half of it and then adding the rest with the water for a more complex seasoning.
Fatback: It’s just what it sounds like the fat from the back of the pig. If you’re going to use it as seasoning meat first cure it in salt and treat as you would bacon. It can also be used to make lard, but not as coveted as leaf lard.
Pickled Pork: A staple of Creole and Cajun cooking that is often added to red beans and rice. Usually made from Pork butt or pork belly.
Smoked Country Ham: If you have a limitless budget this is an option. It lacks fat for the most part and thus won’t add as much flavor. A better place for it is as the centerpiece of a meal, on a biscuit or with grits. It’s up to you though if you wish to experiment.
1 whole chicken, about 2 lb. 2 ribs celery, chopped 1 med. onion, sliced 1 bay leaf 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. white pepper 1/2 c. butter 1/2 c. flour 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas 4 ribs celery, diced and cooked 4 carrots, sliced and cooked 4 potatoes, diced and cooked 1 egg 2 tbsp. milk Pastry crust
Put chicken on stove to cook in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Add 2 ribs of celery, chopped onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring water to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until chicken is done. Remove fat and strain stock. Discard chicken and bones and cut chicken into large pieces. For a quick cheat see note.
Melt butter and flour. Cook 5 minutes making a roux stirring constantly. Add enough chicken stock, stirring constantly, to achieve sauce consistency desired. Simmer 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Divide chicken and cooked vegetables equally into 6-8 individual casseroles or 1 large one.
Add sauce to amount desired. Mix egg and milk together to make egg wash. Cover each casserole with pie pastry, brush with egg wash, and puncture pastry with a fork in several places to allow steam to escape. Preheat oven to 375 degrees for 10 minutes before the pies are to go in the oven. Bake at 375 degrees until crust is golden brown.
Note:A quick cheat is to use a rotisserie chicken to reduce cooking time on stove.
Dip chicken in water. Coat with mixture of flour and seasonings. Place skin side down in a 13x9x2 baking dish. Dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour milk around chicken. Bake 1-1 1/4 hours more or until chicken is tender.
When I think of trout amandine one thing comes to mind my family’s summer vacations to Glacier National Park as a child and relishing this dish at Many Glacier Hotel
½ cup whole milk ½ cup all-purpose flour 4 trout fillets (5 to 6 ounces each) Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided ½ cup sliced almonds Juice of 1 lemon
Add the milk and the flour in separate bowls. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste. Dip the fish in the milk, shaking off the excess. Then lightly dredge both sides of the fish in the flour, shaking off the excess.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. In two batches if necessary not to overcrowd the pan, cook the fish until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, around 3 minutes per side.
Remove fillets and ass the remaining 4 tablespoons butter to the pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom, until the butter begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the almonds, and cook until warmed through, usually 1 to 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, place a fillet on each plate and spoon the sauce over the top.
Parchment paper 4 skinless Grouper fillets Asparagus either whole or chopped depending of thickness A combination of fresh rosemary, sage and chives 1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced juice of ½ lemon and lemon slices freshly ground black pepper and garlic salt 4 teaspoons butter or olive oil
Heat oven to 400°. Measure four 24 inch long sheets of parchment.Fold each sheet in half, and starting from the folded side, cut a large half-heart shape.
Open one heart on a work surface and place one quarter of each of the ingredients on the parchment and top with a fish fillet. Repeat with the other three pieces of parchment and ingredients. Season each with garlic salt and pepper and a pat of butter or olive oil on top.
To seal, tightly roll the edges towards the fish to ensure no juices leak out while cooking.
Place packets on baking sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the packages are slightly browned and puffy.
No matter how you pronounce “pecan” this recipe is a home run!
¼ cup pecan meal or finely ground pecans
¼ cup panko crumbs
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound of skin-on grouper fillets, cut into 4-ounce servings
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3tablespoons minced shallot
¼ cup white wine
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the pecan meal, panko crumbs, Old Bay, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish.
Pat the fish fillets dry, then brush the flesh side with about 1 tablespoon oil. Place each fillet flesh-down in the pecan/crumb mixture and press lightly to coat.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until the butter is melted and foaming. Place the fish in the skillet with the pecan coating down. Lower the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
Using a fish spatula or whatever you have, turn the fish skin-down, careful not to dislodge the pecan coating. Place the skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the fish is white and cooked through.
While the fish is baking, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a small saucepan and add the shallots. Cook for a few minutes, until the shallots are translucent. Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half. Whisk in the mustard, then add the chopped pecans and remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Cook, stirring, until the butter is melted.
Place each fillet on a dinner plate and divide the sauce over the fillets
* White fleshed Grouper is perfect for this preparation, but you could always substitute a different white fish such as Tilapia, but I really wish you wouldn’t. *
4 soft-shell blue crabs
About 2 cups buttermilk, or just enough to cover the crabs
A few shakes of Tabasco
All-purpose flour seasoned with salt and black pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Place the soft-shell crabs in a shallow dish. In a bowl, combine the buttermilk and Tabasco. Pour the combination over the crabs and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Place the seasoned flour in another shallow dish. Remove the crabs from the buttermilk. Allow the excess buttermilk to drip off. Dredge the crabs in the seasoned flour.
Place a frying pan over medium heat and add the butter. When the butter has melted, slip in the crabs. Fry them for a few minutes until the undersides are lightly browned, then turn them over and fry the other side. Serve warm.
Oil for frying
2 pounds catfish fillets
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons crab boil seasoning
2 large eggs
½ cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 cups coarse-ground cornmeal
Tartar sauce
Heat 1 inch of oil in a Large, deep-sided cast-iron skillet fitted with a frying thermometer to 375˚F.
Rinse the catfish fillets and pat thoroughly dry with paper towels. Cut the fillets in half lengthwise. Season lightly with salt and pepper and set aside. Combine the flour and crab boil seasoning in a bowl. Beat the eggs with the half-and-half and hot sauce in a second bowl. Place the cornmeal in a third bowl. Dip a piece of catfish in the flour, shaking off excess, then into egg wash, allowing excess to drip away. Roll the fish in cornmeal and slip it into the hot oil 2-3 pieces at a time. Fry the fish for 3 minutes, carefully turn them, and fry for additional 3 minutes more, until golden brown. Transfer to a baking sheet and place in a 200˚F oven to keep warm while you continue to fry batches of fish.
When all the fish is fried, serve immediately with tartar sauce on the side.
Mark Bere Peterson’s Counterculture, Urban Legends, Paganism & Witchcraft 