Louise Glanton’s breakfast centerpiece carried a history her readers never saw. Across rural Alabama, lower-caste women raised chickens in the yard and sold eggs and young birds for cash. That egg money bought shoes, schoolbooks, and seed, and landlords found it harder to claim than a cotton crop. George Washington Carver, a scientist at Tuskegee Institute in Macon County, turned that small economy into a strategy. Carver rebelled against the one-crop system that wore out the soil and trapped families in store credit. His farm bulletins, written in plain language, urged tenants to keep poultry, plant gardens, and put up their own food so they bought less from the landlord. Arjun Appadurai’s gastro-politics asks who holds power over what people grow, cook, sell, and eat (Appadurai, “Gastro-Politics in Hindu South Asia,” 496–497). In Baltimore, a smothered chicken signaled hospitality. In Macon County, the same bird could signal a household edging toward independence. Ownership of the chicken mattered more than the recipe.
Question: What foods in your community still work like egg money, earning a little freedom at the margins?
[Side Bar]
Louise Glanton bakes a split young chicken under butter and hot water, then smothers it in pan gravy and pours that gravy over waffles in place of syrup.
Smothered Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
1 young chicken, opened down the back and cleaned
1/8 lb. butter, plus 3 tablespoons for the gravy
1 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
2 cups hot water
Flour for dredging, plus 3 tablespoons for the gravy
White pepper (optional)
Directions
A young chicken is opened down the back and cleaned as usual. The chicken is laid flat in a baking dish with the skin down. Into the hollows put one-eighth of a pound of butter, a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar and one teaspoon of salt. Into the pan put two cups of hot water. Be careful to keep the water up to that amount during the cooking. Set in a moderate oven and baste from time to time with the liquid in the pan. After thirty minutes turn the chicken over, dredge with flour and put on cover. Baste frequently. Cook till tender. Mix together three tablespoons of flour and three tablespoons of butter. To this add one-half cup liquid from the pan. When well mixed, return all to the pan and stir till the gravy is thickened. Be careful to get plenty of salt to taste. A little white pepper may be added if desired. Serve hot, using sauce for waffles in place of syrup.