Virginia’s Colonial Cuisine by Ruth Paget
Virginia’s modern-day survival cuisine was born out of its disastrous first years of colonial existence where gentleman farmers died of starvation in cold, damp winters.
My Pennington family had a gentleman farmer at Jamestown, who died of starvation, so when my husband Laurent was stationed at Norfolk (Virginia) when he was in the Navy, I researched recipes that Virginians eventually developed to allow English settlers to survive and thrive in a hostile environment.
The cookbook Dishing Up Virginia: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Colonial Traditions and Contemporary Flavors by Patrick Evans-Hylton preserves many pantry recipes that the entire United States can enjoy to add variety to their daily fare and manage grocery budgets.
The following recipes are some of my favorite colonial recipes from Virginia that allowed my family to eat well on a budget:
-hoe cakes – these pancakes are mostly made with cornmeal and very little expensive white flour which still has to be imported into Virginia from wheat growing states.
-cornbread – my grandmother Pennington from Pennington Gap (Virginia) used the same recipe in this cookbook to make cornbread, which I ate with buttermilk, strips of bacon, and tomato and cucumber salad dressed with cider vinegar and sugar
-sweet potato pancakes – vitamin-rich sweet potatoes are cooked and mashed with flour, a little white flour, eggs, butter, and milk in this pantry winner recipe. I like sweet potato pancakes with a thin honey-lemon syrup.
-mashed potato pancakes – Sir Francis Drake brought potatoes to Virginia from the Caribbean (originally from the Andes) in the 1600s.
-clams with leeks and white wine Рleeks are cut into strips and saut̩ed in butter in this recipe with clams and wine added in once the leeks are translucent. Mussels can also be prepared this way.
-apple smothered pork chops with molasses melted on top. Virginia has a multitude of apple trees.
-porter beer batter fried shrimp – porter beer tastes like chocolate and almonds which enhances the sweet flavor of deep-fried shrimp. Virginians also know that chunks of saltwater or freshwater fish can be made this way. Beer drinkers would probably like porter beer with this dish.
-oyster stew – this recipe calls for oysters and their liquor (juice), cream, and milk. This recipe is super easy and tastes great with crumbled crackers.
I made all of these recipes when I lived in Virginia and thought my family lived well on a budget, because we made use of local products.
If seafood, freshwater fish, sweet potatoes, beer, and wine dishes appeal to you as a cuisine, then Dishing Up Virginia: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Colonial Traditions and Contemporary Flavors by Patrick Evans-Hylton might interest you.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
