HIGH COUNTRY COMFORT FOODS: Part 1
“A body can get the miseries or suffer from mollygrubs most any time,” my Grandpa Joe used to say, “but somehow they seem to come most often in the dead of winter.” He had a bunch of what he considered surefire remedies for these ailments, but virtually every one of them relied on the cooking wizardry of his wife, Grandma Minnie. She regularly prepared dishes which might have been reckoned as a country equivalent of chicken soup for body and soul. Grandpa rightly reckoned they were not only mighty fine fare but most useful cure alls and spirit lifters. As his frequent sidekick, curmudgeon in training, and perpetual greedygut teenager, I was blessed to enjoy these uplifting excursions into foodstuffs on a frequent basis.
Grandma prepared savory, stick-to-the-ribs dishes which not only tasted wonderful but enjoyed the undoubted advantage of utilizing ingredients which were standards in her cupboard, on her kitchen shelves, in the cannery (a small building where canned goods and hams were stored), or supplied by Grandpa’s small game hunting forays. Invariably they dispelled spells of the blues or cabin fever even as they issued a clarion call to “eat hearty.” Those words were part of the verbiage with which Grandpa Joe concluded every blessing: “You’uns see what’s before you. Eat hearty.” With one of Grandma Minnie’s offerings on the menu, you had to be sho’ ‘nuff sick not to do precisely that. Here is one:
SOUP BEANS AND STREAKED MEAT
Few dishes convey heartiness in a manner comparable to soup beans (pintos, navy beans, northern white beans, cornfield beans, or kidney beans all work well) slow cooked to perfection with some streaked meat added to the pot for seasoning. Preparation is the essence of simplicity and involves little but patience and a watchful, pot-checking eye.
Begin by “looking” your soup beans, checking carefully for any foreign matter. Then wash them in a pot of water, removing any beans or foreign matter that floats to the top. Rinse again and fill the pot two-thirds full of water and bring to a rolling boil. Then cut the heat back to a barely bubbling simmer. At this juncture, thoroughly rinse several thin slices of streaked meat (also regionally known by terms such as streak o’ lean, fatback, sidemeat, and the like) which has been previously been soaked to remove excess salt and then fry the slices to a crunchy crispness. Crumble two or three pieces of the fried meat into the bubbling beans and pour in some of the grease from the frying pan. Set the remaining slices of streaked meat aside atop paper towels to drain.
When the streaked meat and grease are added to the beans, sprinkle in freshly ground black pepper or, if you prefer a bit more heat, crumble one or two dried cayenne peppers into the pot. DO NOT add salt. The streaked meat will likely offer enough seasoning and if needed, you can always salt individual servings to taste. Cook until the beans are tender, checking periodically to see if you need to add water (this will likely be the case) and to ascertain whether the beans are done. Slow simmered soup beans take several hours, but this translates to magic in terms of the marriage of flavors. Adorn the top of a bowl of the beans with a slice of the fatback that was set aside after frying.
A Waldorf salad, cooked apples, or a green salad featuring winter greens such as kale, spinach, or Swiss chard goes well with this dish. The same is true for a more traditional accompaniment, mustard or turnip greens (also cooked with streaked meat).
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In company with his late wife, Ann, Jim Casada wrote a number of cookbooks focusing on game or foods from the wild. One of those, The Complete Venison Cookbook, is available from him or the Sporting Classics Store. Jim’s next book, Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir, is due out from the University of Georgia Press in mid-2022. He is currently taking advance reservations for copies now. To reserve a copy or learn more about his many other books, include his recent multi-award winning A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Memories, Musings, and More, visit his website at www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com or e-mail him at jimcasada@comporium.net.
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