ISSUE 61, TENNESSEE FOODWAYS, Part 2: Blackberry Jam Cake
Blackberry Jam Cake
Sometimes the association of particular foods with particular places becomes so intense that it becomes emblematic: Maryland Crab cakes, Virginia Ham, Texas Brisket, Louisiana Gumbo, South Carolina Shrimp & Grits, Georgia Peaches, Kentucky Burgoo, Florida Oranges. But what of Tennessee? There was a time when you wouldn’t have had to ask the question. Blackberry Jam Cake was Tennessee’s signature. Served in the holiday season, at weddings, at family reunions, at church suppers, it was the one dessert you could be sure would be welcomed. But is that still the case? And how many people outside of Tennessee know that Blackberry Jam Cake is the special treasure of the Tennessee table? One of the problems is that other places claim the treat as well: Louisiana and Mississippi.
There is so much more to a blackberry jam cake than flour and blackberry jam. There are nuts—pecans, walnuts, or (best of all) black walnuts—dried apples—raisins—and even dates (in the 1930s when U. S. bakers went date mad). Sugar of course. But you could fine tune the depth of flavor by the type of sugar: refined for weddings, brown for thanksgiving, brown & molasses for a traditional Christmas after turkey, goose, or game.
Blackberry jam was a summer preparation. Every Tennessee cookbook worth its cover price had instructions how to make it. I’ve supplied a minimal recipe from the 19th century below. But artful makers of preserves liked to add lemon juice.