America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook (10 page)

This bizarre juxtaposition of authority and scorn is just one of the reasons why Ms. Tipton-Martin created the Jemima Code, an online project documenting her research into black images in advertising. She reminds us that each of these characters might easily represent the memories of our parents or grandparents, who at one time might have worked as cooks in the kitchens of prominent hotels or restaurants, as waiters on trains, or domestics in prominent homes or even in the White House.

Fast forward to today, when all three characters have undergone a redesign: Aunt Jemima is owned by Quaker Oats and went from mammy to hyper-stylized in the 1990s, losing her robust figure, jolly facial features, and now sporting free-flowing, seemingly relaxed hair. Rastus still beckons you with his welcoming smile, offering steamy hot cereal to comfort a child’s tummy. While his style is almost unchanged, his chef jacket appears structured with a more stylish ascot rather than floppy bow tie. Uncle Ben, still without a surname, has stepped into the 21st century. No longer fully viewed by his subservient cultural identity, he’s been promoted to chairman in the board room. In a
New York Times
article discussing the updated Uncle Ben, actual chairman Vincent Howell, president of the food division of the Masterfoods, USA unit of Mars, said he found the new and improved Uncle Ben to be a powerful image of an African American in a figure of prominence and authority—especially as an African American himself. Unfortunately, Uncle Ben’s style makers failed to erase his royal blue jacket and crisp white shirt and dowdy bow tie—cultural expressions still linking him to his past as a waiter or Pullman porter.

What’s puzzling is why American culture remains attached to outmoded icons to represent some of its most popular food brands. When they were originally introduced, they were a gentler depiction of an accepted “truth” of African American culture. Yet as each year passes, such icons must not remain cast as invisible men and women. In the 21st century they should be recognized as polarizing symbols that reinforce a culture unwilling to part with certain “benign” stereotypes. Hidden in the boxes of bland cereal, sweet pancake mix, and fluffy rice is a history, not just of scorn, but of a far greater injury: authority given lightly with one hand and snatched back with the other.

Dr. Carver’s Sweet Potato Biscuits

Tuskegee, Alabama

MAKES 12 BISCUITS

This truly delicious recipe for sweet potato biscuits appeared in
How the Farmer Can Save His Sweet Potatoes and Ways of Preparing Them for the Table
by Dr. George Washington Carver (Reprinted by Texas AfriLife Extension Service, Bulletin No. 38 (First edition) November 1922)
.

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (if desired)
2 scant tablespoons melted butter or lard
2 cups milk
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup boiled and finely mashed sweet potatoes

Mix together all the dry ingredients and stir into the milk, beaten eggs, and potato.

If too soft, add more flour, sufficient to make a soft dough.

Roll out lightly; cut with a biscuit cutter; bake in a quick oven until golden brown.

Dwight Jones’ Cream Biscuits

St. Louis, Missouri

MAKES 12 BISCUITS

Dwight Jones is an engineer, chef, barbecue pit master, hunter, and fisherman—and a skilled pastry chef. His cream biscuits are a luxurious take on traditional baking powder biscuits. And while you can substitute buttermilk or even plain milk for the cream, the White Lily flour, he says, is non-negotiable.

2 cups White Lily all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425o F.

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add butter and incorporate until mixture resembles coarse sand.

Add cream and mix until soft dough just starts to form. Do not over mix.

Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead just until the firm ball of dough forms. Roll the dough into a ½-inch-thick disc. Cut biscuits with a 2½-inch round cutter.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and place in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot.

I cast my bread on the waters long ago. Now it’s time for you to send it back to me— toasted and buttered on both sides.

— The Reverend Jesse Jackson

Jane Nganga’s Maandazi

Rancho Cucamonga, California

MAKES ABOUT 15

Maandazi is one of a group of East African fried breads that can be savory or slightly sweet, as this one is. It is most often eaten for breakfast. Similar fried breads that are moistened with coconut milk are called mamri.

10 cardamom pods, or ½ teaspoon powdered cardamom
5 cups self-rising flour
1/8 teaspoon castor sugar
¾ tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon snipped chives
1 large egg
2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
2 cups milk
10 cups canola or peanut oil for deep frying

If using whole cardamom, crush the cardamom pods in mortar and pestle and shake out the seeds. Grind seeds in the mortar to a powder and place it in a large bowl with flour, castor sugar, baking powder, cumin, and chives.

Beat egg and 2 tablespoons of oil together in a small bowl and add them to the flour mixture. Using your fingertips, mix well, then add the milk slowly to make a soft, firm dough.

Knead dough lightly until smooth and not sticky, and allow to rest, covered in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about ½-inch thickness and use a 3-inch round pastry cutter to cut out 15 rounds.

Heat the 10 cups of oil in a deep pot until it reaches 350º F or until a pinch of flour dropped into the oil bubbles vigorously.

Fry 4–5 minutes, flipping over once, or until donuts turn golden. Serve as a snack or an accompaniment to a meal.

Tater Pie

Chestertown, Maryland

MAKES 1 PIE

Hilda Hopkins was born in 1926 of mixed black, white, and Native American ancestry, and grew up on Maryland’s shore. She recalls that her mixed heritage meant that racism came from all sides. Life was often hard, especially being one of twelve children. Tater pie was a go-to dish her mother made when there was little or no food in the house. “My special memory is that my mother always said, ‘It’s time to make tater pie,’” says Ms. Hopkins. “She would bake five or six of these pies and it was all we had to eat for the day.”

1 pound of white baking potatoes, boiled and peeled
1 stick of butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1 can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon extract
1 piecrust

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Cut potatoes into chunks and place them in a mixer with the butter. Add sugar and salt, and mix on medium until smooth.

Add egg yolks one at a time and mix until well combined. Add milk, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to a stiff peak and gently fold into the potato batter.

Pour the batter into the piecrust. Bake 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a cake tester stuck into the middle of the pie comes out clean.

Sylvia Barton’s Spoon Bread

SERVES 6 TO 8

      
Sylvia Barton with her sons Craig and (Chef) Scott.

Scott Alves Barton is a noted chef, culinary historian, and lover of food culture. When he’s not cooking or teaching cooking to both adults and kids, he’s following the threads of culinary culture around the world, weaving them into the fine fabric of history and heritage. His greatest inspiration in food, he says, was his mother Sylvia Alves Barton, an outstanding educator and nutritionist whose aspirations in the 1930s to be a chef as a young New Yorker, although not realized in her own life, have been satisfyingly fulfilled in the life of her son.

His mother took inspiration from her West Indian heritage as well as her husband’s roots, which touched New England. “In the last few years, I’ve lost my mom and recently lost my dad too,” says Chef Barton, “so the legacy she gave us in delighting to be at home in the kitchen is a gift that has taken on a much deeper meaning.”

2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup stone-ground white cornmeal
4 large eggs, separated
¼ cup freshly grated grana padano cheese
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
6 4-ounce crocks or 1 9-inch loaf pan, buttered and floured with cornmeal

Preheat oven to 375º F. Place milk and butter in medium saucepan set on medium high heat. When the mixture comes just to a boil, remove from the heat.

Whisk in the cornmeal in a steady stream to avoid lumps. Place mixture in a large bowl and set aside.

Whisk the whites to soft peaks. Fold the yolks and cheese into cornmeal mixture, then gently fold in the whites.

Pour batter into the prepared pan or pans and bake 12–15 minutes until a thin bladed knife or cake tester comes out slightly moist.

Serve warm as a delicious appetizer or as a side dish to accompany braised meats, hearty stews, or as a special treat for company or Sunday dinner.