ISSUE 96, FOOD OF THE 50 STATES, Part 3: Kentucky

Kentucky Dishes

Kentucky is known more for its signature beverages—bourbon, rye whisky, the mint julep, Kentucky toddy—than any food it produced. And it produced numbers of significant items, both ingredients and dishes –buttery Bibb Limestone Lettuce, cushaw squash, the Dyehouse Cherry—burgoo, Benedictine, the hot brown sandwich, lamb barbecue, bourbon balls, beer cheese, Derby Pie.

Possessing an environment similar to neighboring Tennessee, it shares certain dishes with that state, insisting its connection to them equals that of the volunteer state. Both celebrate chestnut soup, blackberry jam cake, black walnut cake. Yet certain of the baked goods found in the classic bluegrass cookbooks (I’m thinking of Lettice Bryan’s A Kentucky Housewife 1837, Housekeeping in the Blue grass 1879, Minnie C Fox’s The Blue Grass Cook Book 1904, Mrs Peter C White’s The Kentucky Housewife or Marion Flexnor’s Out of Kentucky Kitchens 1949) are particular to it: bluegrass plum cake, Kentucky Cake, Watermelon Cake. And there is a decided penchant for certain puddings: bluegrass pudding, chicken pudding, eggplant pudding, and apple pudding. We shouldn’t forget corn meal pudding bread.

Since the early 19^th century Kentucky has developed a diversified grain culture. It grows soft winter wheat, oats for horses, corn, particularly yellow and white dent corn, six row winter barley, white mammoth rye (for the rye whiskey). The famous country gentleman white sweet corn came from the eastern part of the state in the late 19^th century. The widespread planting of meal corn and sweet corn found expression in the diet. Corn bread and corn dodgers appear in every recipe collection. Hominy puffs appear in pre-1920 collections. Corn soup (a chowder style affair), corn pudding (old style with milky green corn cut from ears of field corn, or new style using sweet corn), stewed corn, and fried okra & corn were standard fare.

There were experiments with upland rice in the 19^th century. Perhaps the only relic of that effort was recipes for rice muffins found in 19^th century recipe books.

All of the standard garden vegetables were grown in Kentucky, yet few inspired distinctive preparations. Sweet fried tomatoes and green tomato catsup marked the horizon of innovation with that popular vegetable. Cabbage catsup was more daring. Parsnip fritters are an item with a distinctive taste that has fallen out of fashion. It is a classic vegetable preparation that deserves rehabilitation. Cucumber sauce too is an old pleasure that needs revisiting.

Meats were central to Kentucky diet. Turkey, lamb, beef, ham, venison, and game birds enjoyed favor when company called. Chicken salad became a dish subject to a great deal of elaboration. Chickens were fried, barbecued, stewed, and baked. Young birds were favored for frying, old birds were sent to the stew pot. Hog brains had a following. Veal hash and turkey hash appeared on many hotel breakfast menus. Yet Kentucky deviled turkey was the more imaginative handling of leftovers from the big bird.

Home cookery and hotel cookery engaged in a productive dialogue from the 1860s through the 1950s; then restaurants joined hotels as venues of professional culinary practice. The major population centers—Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Owensboro, and Covington all offered a cosmopolitan array of ingredients, including seafood early on. Lettice Bryan’s seminal cookbook, The Kentucky Housewife (1837) features an eye-popping number of fish and shellfish recipes. Pelagic fish was transported up the Ohio River in live wells in ships and barges. The pantries of home bakers were stocked with spices from across the globe—mace, allspice, cinnamon, clover, and nutmeg. Apple pies and apple marmalade featured the flavors of the world besides the local fruit. Groceries in the state’s smaller towns were invariably stocked with cinnamon and nutmeg, salt and pepper. Just as they carried coffee, tea, sugar, and salt. Since World War II the road systems and air travel amplified the circulation of global ingredients to complement the things grown and raised locally. This access was important because in the early 20^th century the restricted corn-based diet of Kentucky mountain folk led to outbreaks of pellagra, the vitamin deficiency disease.

Apple Marmalade

Baked Apple Pudding

Baked Indian Pudding

Beer Cheese

Benedictine

Bluegrass Plum Cake

Bluegrass Pudding

Bourbon Balls

Bourbon Pickle

Bread Fritters

Burgoo

Cabbage Catsup

Chicken Pudding

Chicken Salad

Corn Dodgers

Corn Meal Pudding Bread

Corn Muffins

Corn Soup

Cucumber Sauce

Cushaw Squash

Derby Pie

Deviled Turkey

Dried Cherries

Egg Bread

Egg Plant Pudding

Fried Eggplant

Fried Okra & Corn

Fried Sweetbreads

Green Tomato Catsup

Hogs Brains

Hominy Puffs

Hot Brown Sandwich

Kentucky Cake

Kentucky Toddy

Lamb Barbecue

Limestone Bibb Lettuce

Madeira Ice

Mint Julep

Parsnip Fritters

Potato Biscuits

Rice Muffins

Steam Pone

Stewed Green Corn

Stuffed Tomatoes

Sweet Fried Tomatoes

Turkey Hash

Veal Hash

Watermelon Cake