Lizzie Moore gave Russell Bauman instructions on how she makes sauerkraut—a favorite use of cabbage in northeastern Georgia. “I make my sauerkraut by the full of the moon because my mother and grandmother made it that way, and their mothers before them made it that way. I always make my kraut on the full of the moon ’cause it’s always harder and firmer then than it is at any other time. I like my kraut hard and firm. I don’t like soft kraut. Other people may have different times of the moon when they make theirs—I don’t know about that. As far as my pickled beans and kraut go, I have always made mine on the full of the moon.
“Don’t put the kraut in a tin barrel. Put it in a wooden barrel. A tin barrel’ll rust, and you can’t eat your kraut. To make kraut in the barrel—now, this is an all-day job—you take your cabbage, trim the outside leaves off, and save them for later. Wash and chop up your cabbage in a washtub. I got a number two washtub, and I just wash mine in that. If you want to make chopped kraut, you chop ’em up as fine as you want it. If you want to make shredded kraut, you can just take your cabbage, cut it into quarters, and slice it just as thin as you can make in those little strips—either way. I don’t make the shredded ’cause I like chopped the best. Just take it, chop it up, and put it in your barrel.
“When you get your cabbage chopped up, put it all into that fifty-gallon barrel. Take those green leaves that you trimmed off the outside of your cabbage, wash ’em, and put ’em over the top of your barrel. Just take those leaves and lay ’em agin’ your barrel so that none of your chopped kraut is showing. Get a big ol’ flat rock and lay it down on top of your cabbage. That weights it down. It keeps the cabbage down in the bottom of the barrel instead of coming up when it starts working. With a fifty-gallon barrel, I’d say you’d have to get two pretty good-sized rocks to go across it and weigh it down. You don’t pack it in the barrel. These rocks pack it for you. Pack your cabbage in there ’til it comes up six or eight inches from the top. I forgot how much salt you put into a fifty-gallon barrel, but the way I do when I make it is I’ll take my water and taste of it and get it as salty as I want it. Pour your salt water in that barrel and put it away to set for a while.
“It’ll take anywhere from two to three weeks for a fifty-gallon barrel of kraut to work off and get sour. After it gets sour, you have to take it out of the barrel. Take your hands and squeeze all of the water out of it and put it in a cooker or a dishpan. Run cold water over it, wash it, and take your hands and squeeze all of the water you can get out of it again. Put it in another pan, put water over the top of it, and put it on the stove. Don’t let it come to a boil. Just let it get ready to come to a boil. Stir it so the heat can get all the way through. Pack it in your cans and don’t put no more salt or nothin’ in it. Pack it in your cans, seal it up, and set it away.
“You can eat kraut with just about anything. You can make kraut with weenies. You can make fried kraut. If you want to, you can always put pepper in your kraut. Now, a lot of people don’t like pepper in their kraut. I do, but now, a lot of people don’t. I like hot pepper in my cabbage. You can eat it out of the can. I usually just get me some out in a bowl and eat it raw. To me, beef’s not good in kraut like pork is. You can also eat kraut with cracklin’ bread.
“Another thing you can do with your cabbage is to take your stalks that are left over and pickle them. Take the stalk, peel it off, and drop it down in your kraut. It’ll sour and be good too. When you get ready to eat it, put ’em in a pan of grease from bacon or fried meats. If you ain’t got that, just put your Crisco or lard in a pan, let it get hot, and eat it. That’s all there is to makin’ kraut. Of course, when you’re makin’ it, it takes longer than it does to tell about it. When you make it in a fifty-gallon barrel, oh, my goodness, that takes fifty pounds of cabbage!”
Lola Cannon told us how she judges the correct amount of salt to put into the barrel of cabbage and how she knows when the kraut is through “making.” “I’ve always judged how much salt to put in by the size of the container I’m using. If it’s a gallon container, I put two tablespoons of salt, fill the container with water, and weight the top down carefully. Then I watch till it ferments. You can tell by the bubbles coming up in the jar. The time it takes to ferment depends on the heat. In cool weather, it will take quite a bit of time. I just have to watch it.”
SQUASH CASSEROLE
ILLUSTRATION 13 Effie Lord
I make a casserole out of squash, and the Florida people say I’m the only person they know that knows how to cook squash to eat. I take real small squash, and I always scrape them and cut them up in thin pieces. I put them in a pan and put onions and crumbled-up Ritz crackers on top. Then sprinkle a tiny bit of water and some grated cheese and dots of butter over the crackers. Then I put aluminum foil over it and put it in the oven to cook.
—Mrs. Effie Lord, Proprietor of Lord’s Cafe, Clayton
SWEET POTATOES
For candied sweet potatoes, I peel and quarter about 4 large sweet potatoes, put them in a pot with enough water to cover them, a cup of sugar, a dash of cinnamon and butter, and I let them boil until they’re tender and the juice is syrupy.
—Bessie Ramey
TOMATO SOUP
For tomato soup, take the juice from 1 quart of home-canned tomatoes. Stir 2 tablespoons flour into a small teacup of milk. Pour tomato juice into the flour-milk mixture and heat. Add ½ teaspoon sugar to taste.
PRESERVING VEGETABLES
DRYING
PUMPKIN—Mrs. Tom Kelly said, “This is a recipe that was used in most families in olden times. You slice th’ pumpkin around in circles, take th’ seeds out, peel it, and hang it on a stick crosswise of th’ joists of th’ house. Let it hang there until it dries. Then store it in sacks. It took a long time to cook, and you have to cook it several hours, and they season it with hog meat and grease.”
SWEET POTATOES—Boil the potatoes until done. Slip off the skins and slice. Put on a clean white cloth and put out in the sun each day. Then stack for winter use in pudding, pie, etc. Some people would just peel and slice without boiling, and set out to dry.
CORN—Corn was cut as if it were going to be cooked (twice around the cob, according to Mrs. Harriet Echols), and then spread out in the sun, sometimes on a piece of tin.
OKRA—Slice okra. Put on a piece of metal which has been covered with brown paper or on a white cloth to keep the okra off the metal or tin sheet being used. Place thinly on the sheet, and put out in the sun. Cover at night. Let dry until ready to take off the paper. Remove and put in bag until desired to use for cooking.
ILLUSTRATION 14 Leather Breeches Beans
LEATHER BREECHES BEANS—String tender green beans. Fill a long needle with a long strong thread. Push the needle through the center of the bean, pushing the beans together at the end of the thread, filling from knot end to needle. Hang up the string by one end in the warm air, but not in direct sunlight. This gives the beans a better flavor. Let them remain hanging until the beans become dry. Store in a bag until ready to use.
PEAS—Pick the peas when ripe, and lay them in the sun to dry. After they are thoroughly dry, place them on a sheet outside on a windy day, and beat the hulls off with a stick. The wind will blow the chaff away and leave just the peas. Store the peas in sacks in a dry place until you’re ready to eat them.
BURYING
CABBAGE—Dig a shallow circular trench on a gently sloped plot of ground. The diameter of the trench will depend on the number of cabbages you plan to preserve. Also dig a drainage ditch leading downhill and away from the circular trench. This will serve to drain off any surface water that might accumulate and rot the cabbages.
Throw the dirt from the trench into the center of the circle, thus making a low mound. Cover the mound with straw.
Pull up cabbages root and all. Place the cabbages on the mound so that the root of each is covered by the head of another. Then cover with straw and dirt. They’ll keep most of the winter.
POTATOES—Dig a hole a foot or two
below the frost line. Put in potatoes and cover with straw, and pack dirt over that. Put a piece of tin on that. They’ll keep all winter.
PICKLING
“Be sure that th’ signs are not in th’ bowels”, says Daisy Justice. “When th’ moon is new is th’ best time to make kraut, pickle beans, corn, or green tomatoes. If th’ signs are in th’ bowels they will be slimy or soft and not fit to eat. Do not use iodized salt for pickling.”
SOUR KRAUT—Select firm cabbage heads and chop. Have a clean churn jar (usually five gallon), and pack the jar with alternating layers of chopped cabbage and a sprinkling of salt (usually a half cup of salt per gallon of cabbage). You need not add water as the cabbage will produce its own.
When the jar is filled, cover the cabbage with a clean white cloth, large cabbage leaves, or a saucer. Then place a flat flint rock or other weight on top of this to hold the cabbage under the brine. Let this stand ten days, or as long as is necessary to get it as sour as you want.
When this is completed, take the kraut out and pack it in canning jars. Then put the jars in a pot of water and bring to a boil to both seal the jars and cook the cabbage.
Old-timers used to leave the cabbage in the churn jars, omitting this last step, but it turns dark. Jars keep it in serving-size portions, and keep it fresh.
Some add a pot of hot pepper to the churn at the beginning of the whole process for additional flavoring.
PICKLED BEANS—String and break green beans. Wash and cook until tender (about one hour). Then wash them again in cold water and pack them tightly in a clean crock jar, again alternating a layer of beans with a sprinkling of salt. When the jar is full, add as much water as necessary to fill the remaining spaces as the beans will not produce enough of their own water like the cabbage. Another way is to fill the churn with beans and then add salty water to fill (one-half cup per gallon of water).
Weight down as before and let stand about ten days or two weeks. There is no need to can the beans as you did the cabbage unless you want to for convenience. Many people just use them directly from the churn. They keep well this way as they have already been cooked.
PICKLED CORN—Shuck and silk corn that is in roasting ear. Boil on cob and then pack in the clean churn jar as before, sprinkling a little salt over the ears as you pack them. Some cut the corn off the cob before pickling, but many prefer to pack the full ears into the churn.
You may also add salty water as before if you prefer this to sprinkling salt over each layer.
Others line the churn jar before packing with a clean white meal sack. Then they tie the sack at the top when the churn is filled.
When the corn is pickled, you can eat it directly off the cob, or cut it off with a knife and fry in bacon grease or butter. No need to can it in order to preserve.
It is also possible to pickle the corn and the beans together in the same churn jar. Most remove the corn from the cob when doing it this way. Then it is served fried in bacon grease or in butter.
PICKLED BEETS—Boil beets six to eight hours until soft, and the skin slips off easily. Drain the water, peel the beets, and cut them into small cubes. Put the beets into a large pot, and for every quart, add a cup each of sugar and vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Put into cans and seal.
ICICLE PICKLES (cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, and green tomatoes)—This is a process that takes fourteen days, but is actually much easier than it sounds.
Select and cut up a peck (eight quarts) of the above, peel and all. Cut cucumbers into six- to eight-inch strips. Leave the tomatoes whole if they are small ones. Put in a crock, and pour boiling water over the top (fill the crock) and a half cup of salt per peck of vegetables. Let this mixture sit for nine days.
At the end of nine days, pour out the liquid, wash the pickles, put them back in the jar, add three tablespoons of alum (to make them crisp) and fill again with boiling water.
Let this mixture sit for twenty-four hours. Then empty the liquid again, wash the pickles again, and replace them in the jar. Meanwhile, cook the following mixture:
2 quarts vinegar
9 cups sugar
4–5 pieces ginger
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 tablespoon celery seed
Cook this mixture until it boils, then pour it over the pickles and leave until the same time on the following day. At this time pour the liquid into a container, reboil it, and pour it over the pickles again. Repeat this for four days in a row.
On the fourth day, the pickles are ready to serve. Keep them in the open jar in a cool place, or can them for convenience.
When pickling the above, the old-timers in the area would usually let the pickles sit overnight in a crock in salty water, then remove them the next day, boil them in vinegar, sugar, and spices to suit taste, and can them immediately. Grape leaves were often added while they were sitting overnight in the crock. These had approximately the same effect as the alum.
For spices and added flavor, they used pickling spice, strips of sassafras, and spicewood. These were called Bread and Butter Pickles.
CHOW CHOW
1 peck green tomatoes
1 peck string beans
¼ peck small white onions
¼ peck green peppers
2 large heads of cabbage
¼ peck red peppers
4 tablespoons white mustard seed
2 ounces white or black cloves
2 ounces celery seeds
2 ounces allspice
1 pound brown sugar
1 box yellow mustard seed
1 ounce tumeric
vinegar
Chop the tomatoes, let them stand overnight in their own juice. Squeeze out the brine. Chop the cabbage, peppers, onions, and beans, mix together, and add the tomatoes and the spices and sugar. Put in a porcelain kettle, cover with vinegar, and boil three hours. When cool, seal in jars.
RIPE TOMATO PICKLE
3 pints tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup celery
4 tablespoons chopped red peppers
4 tablespoons chopped onions
2 cups vinegar
4 tablespoons salt
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons mustard seed
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Mix ingredients in order given. Put in stone jar and cover. Allow this uncooked mixture to stand a week before using.
GREEN TOMATO PICKLE
8 pounds green tomatoes, chopped fine
4 pounds brown sugar
1 quart vinegar
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
Boil tomatoes and sugar for three hours. Add other ingredients and boil fifteen minutes more. Let cool and seal in jars.
ICEBERG GREEN TOMATO PICKLE
7 pounds green tomatoes
builders lime
2 pounds sugar
3 pints vinegar
1 teaspoon each of cloves, ginger, allspice, celery seed, mace, and cinnamon.
Soak the tomatoes in a mixture of 1½ cups lime to 1 gallon water, making enough to cover the tomatoes. Drain and soak for four hours in fresh water, changing hourly. Make a syrup of the sugar, vinegar, and spices, and bring to a boil. Pour it over the tomatoes (after the last change of water has been drained off), and let stand overnight. Then boil for one hour and seal in jars.
WATERMELON PICKLES
4 pounds watermelon rind
2 quarts cold water
1 tablespoon slaked lime
2 tablespoons whole allspice
2 tablespoons cloves, whole
1 quart cider vinegar
4 pounds sugar
10 two-inch pieces stick cinnamon
Remove all pink pulp from watermelon rind. Peel outside peeling from the rind. Weigh. Cut in 1 inch circles or cubes. Combine cold water and lime. Pour over rind. Let stand one hour. Drain. Cover w
ith fresh cold water. Simmer 1½ hours or until tender. Drain. Tie spices in a cheesecloth. Combine vinegar, 1 quart water, and sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves. Add spice bag and rind; simmer gently two hours. Pack rind in clean hot sterile jars. Fill jars with boiling hot syrup. Seal. Makes about twelve half pints.
MUSTARD PICKLE
1 quart cucumbers, chopped fine
1 quart green tomatoes, chopped fine
1 head cabbage, chopped fine
4 sweet peppers, chopped fine
1 cup salt
1 gallon water
6 tablespoons mustard
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 cup flour
2 quarts vinegar
Make a brine of the salt and water, and let the first four ingredients stand in it for twenty-four hours. Drain. Make a mixture of the last four ingredients, add to the first mixture, and cook for three minutes. Seal in jars.
PEAR RELISH
1 peck pears
6 large onions
4 red bell peppers
2 pounds sugar
1 tablespoon allspice
5 cups vinegar
Grind up vegetables in a food chopper. Add vinegar and sugar, and cook for thirty minutes. Seal in jars.
CUCUMBER RELISH
12 cucumbers
4 green peppers
4 onions
Pickling and Preserving: The Foxfire Americana Library (3) Page 3