Here’s what I see: down a rusty rail by a weedy factory shell, next to silo cisterns and ripped sections of nowhere track, an old boxcar. A stuck door, unclosing, warped, smoothed with the rubbing of hands and cargo; floorboards unjoined and soiled. If wood could sing from knots, what lyrics would seep out? What tunes were whistled here by gap-mawed ghosts? These characters from Steinbeck‘s novels train-hopped as the cars rumbled across the South, moving eastward with wheat, corn, and rye from Kansas, trading for pecans in Georgia and sticky treats of tobacco and molasses in the Carolinas. Then, clacking westward, they wound back to the clinking track of Kentucky bourbon bottles to repeat the circle. This antiquity, this marriage of wood, smoke, whiskey, and leather, has flavor.

And so, Boxcar. Cracked corn, rye berries, and smoked barley malt are swelled with whiskey and molasses and mixed with caramelized pecans and whole wheat flour. Searching for a wisp of smoke, I use the smoked Chinese tea, Lapsang souchong, for its intense pine character.

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Pecans

The lightly sweet pecans are delicious in this bread, and can also be a crunchy addition to a green salad, used as a garnish on a fall-themed soup (savory roasted apple and potato, or pumpkin, would be nice), or tossed with a mixture of roasted root vegetables. To prepare, put the pecans in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Flick or spray them with a light coating of water (about 1 teaspoon), stirring to coat. Then add 1 teaspoon of confectioners’ sugar and stir to coat. Cook them over medium heat, stirring and shaking the pan, until they are dry and brown in spots.

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