The The China Press column (see yesterday’s post) opens in Virginia. Arjun Appadurai tell us that gastro-politics unpacks one's power or lack of power related to food consumption and production. Louis Hughes, enslaved in Virginia during the antebellum period, remembered that when the households he served held a feast, the enslaved did the cooking. Sam Bowers Hilliard called chicken a semi-luxury item: the people who fried it most often ate it least. This recipe ends with butter and cream over fried cornmeal mush. The mush tells the story. Cornmeal fed sharecroppers; cream did not. One recipe holds two Souths at once.
Virginia Fried Chicken (with fried mush and cream gravy)
Ingredients
2 frying chickens
1 cup white cornmeal
1 egg yolk
3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup thin cream
Salt, flour
1 tablespoon butter
Lard
Directions
Disjoint and wash the chickens. Bring the water and salt to a full boil, then sift in the cornmeal slowly to prevent lumping. Cook for 30 minutes over low heat, then cool and add the egg yolk. Dredge the chicken with flour and salt, then brown it in hot lard, the fat a half inch deep in a heavy frying pan. Brown each piece slowly, drain on absorbent paper, and set aside in a hot place. Into the same pan drop spoonfuls of the mush to form thin round cakes. Brown on each side and arrange in a border around the chicken. Add the butter to the same pan, then the cream. Stir until slightly thickened, season with salt and pepper, and serve with the fried chicken and mush.
The China Press, September 11, 1936.