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AMY EINHORN BOOKS/PUTNAM, 2009
(available in paperback from Berkley, 2011)
AIBILEEN, A MIDDLE-AGED domestic without a family—her adult son died in an accident—has raised seventeen white children as part of her duties. It is the early 1960s, and Aibileen is employed by Miss Leefolt in Jackson, Mississippi, as a nanny for her overweight daughter, Mae Mobley, who suffers a barrage of maternal verbal abuse from which Aibileen tries, quietly, to protect her.
Aibileen’s best friend, Minny, is as outspoken and provocative as Aibileen is demure. The mother of five and married to an abusive drunk, Minny is widely considered the best cook in Jackson. When the irrepressible Minny’s big mouth costs her another job, the only work Minny can find is with Miss Celia, a scattered woman new to Jackson who knows nothing of Minny’s reputation.
When an aspiring young white writer, Miss Skeeter, a newly minted graduate of Ole Miss, quietly seeks to mine the trove of stories Aibileen and Minny have collected over the years as domestics to white families in Jackson, Miss Hilly, a prim racist, gets wind of the project and seeks to undermine all three of them. In Jackson in the 1960s the power of a white woman’s word, especially when wielded against a black woman, can ruin lives.
As the three women struggle against Miss Hilly, Miss Skeeter becomes the vessel into which Aibileen and Minny pour two lifetimes of memory. As each of the three begins to acquire a larger sense of the world in which they are living, they cross the social, racial, and cultural boundaries that have long defined life in the South.
Kathryn Stockett shared recipes for two desserts from The Help, and both are Minny’s specialties. Aibileen describes Minny as “near bout the best cook in Hinds County, maybe even in all Mississippi.” These treats date to Stockett’s childhood, when her family maid, Demetrie, prepared them.
Stockett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and Demetrie began working for her father’s family at the age of twenty-eight. Stockett recalls that Demetrie used to talk to her for hours. “I’d sit in my grandmother’s kitchen with her, where I went after school, listening to her stories and watching her mix up cakes and fry chicken. Her cooking was outstanding. It was something people discussed at length, after they ate at my grandmother’s table.”
Stockett writes:
Demetrie didn’t write recipes down. She put in a pinch of this and a drop of that, adjusting her ingredients with the humidity or her mood. Her cakes and pies were exquisite. Finally, my grandmother asked her to please put her recipes on paper and that was probably the first time any of us admitted that one day Demetrie wouldn’t be there to cook for us. I ought to tell you, you might get some suspicious looks if you serve it at a book club. If you’ve read The Help, you’ll understand why.
NOTE: Do not use cocoa powder that contains powdered milk.
1 5 tablespoons sweetened cocoa powder, such as Ghirardelli (see note) 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 3 egg yolks, beaten 2 tablespoons butter |
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 9-inch pie shell, prebaked (plain or graham cracker) Whipped cream (or if it’s not too humid, you can top with meringue) Shaved chocolate to sprinkle on top, for looks |
In a medium-size cool saucepan, mix water, cocoa, and cornstarch with a whisk until all the lumps are gone, making a paste. Stir in condensed milk and egg yolks. Heat to just under a boil and stir until it’s thick.
Reduce heat to low and stir in butter. Add in your good vanilla, and keep stirring well. Turn off the heat and let it cool some. Pour into a prebaked pie shell, store-bought if that’s how you do things.
Let the pie set up in a cool spot, like a plug-in refrigerator, covered with waxed paper so you don’t get a skin. Dollop cream on top, or top with meringue.
Yield: One 9-inch pie, 6 to 8 servings
(See photo insert.)
Demetrie was best known in Jackson for her caramel cake and the recipe for icing was printed in the Junior League of Memphis cookbook. You felt loved when you tasted Demetrie’s Caramel Cake,” writes Kathryn Stockett.
The recipe for Caramel Icing is adapted from The Memphis Cookbook (The Junior League of Memphis, Inc., 1952); recipe submitted by Mrs. Phil Thornton, Jr.
The cake recipe was originally served at a tailgate at Ole Miss, Skeeter’s alma mater, and is adapted from Saveur (August 2007).
NOTE: To make self-rising flour at home: Add 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt to 1 cup of all-purpose flour. For this recipe, you would need to add 5¼ teaspoons of baking powder and 1¾ teaspoons of salt to the 3½ cups of all-purpose flour.
1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 3 cups sugar 5 large eggs 3½ cups self-rising flour (see note) 1½ cups buttermilk |
1 teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Never Fail Creamy Caramel Icing (see below) |
To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together for several minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in flour. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk and baking soda and beat into flour mixture. Add lemon juice and vanilla and beat well. Divide batter evenly among three cake pans. Bake until centers of cakes spring back when lightly pressed, 30–35 minutes. Let cakes cool in their pans.
When cool, remove cakes from pans. Put one layer on a cake plate. Brush one-third of the icing over top and sides. Set another layer on top and repeat icing and layering process, then repeat process again with remaining layer.
Yield: One 3-layer cake, 10–12 servings
2 large eggs, slightly beaten 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 5 cups sugar, divided |
1½ cups milk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Light cream (optional) for thinning |
Mix eggs, butter, 4 cups of sugar, and the milk in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat until butter melts. At the same time, melt 1 cup of sugar in a medium skillet slowly, over medium-low heat, until brown and runny. You don’t want the browned sugar to harden, so it’s important to cook these simultaneously. Remove sugar from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Raise the heat to medium on the egg mixture and add the browned sugar. Cook until it reaches the soft-ball stage (235°F); or when you drop a bit of it into cold water to cool it down, it forms a soft ball; or until mixture leaves side of pan. This takes about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until icing reaches spreading consistency, about 5–10 minutes. If it gets too thick, add a little cream.
Yield: This will ice a 2- or 3-layer cake.
“The Help offered a recent slice of American history that is rarely touched upon,” says Bev Ottaviano of the Blue Anklets Book Club of Arlington Heights, Illinois. “The subtle and not-so-subtle treatment of the staff by the white, suburban country club types to keep them ‘in their place’ was unsettling. Kathryn Stockett skillfully illustrated the ‘almost’ friendships that occurred between staff and employers through the dialogue between the ‘help’ and the women of the community. These characters were people you could picture. You could sympathize with their plight, feel concern for their well-being, and applaud them.
“In early film and book depictions of women who were maids, housekeepers, and cooks, the maids were more like props,” says Ottaviano. “Stockett showed skill in depicting the way the characters matured as the story unfolded.”
Ottaviano, who runs “Kitchen Chic—All About Aprons,” a program for local museums and interested groups, explores the culture of aprons. She brought a selection of aprons that the “woman of the house” might have worn in the 1950s and 1960s for members to wear during their discussion of The Help.
“The women hosting bridge parties or luncheons might wear a gauzy or frilly apron, but it was just for show, an accessory, really,” says Ottaviano. “They weren’t involved in preparation or even serving. The ‘help,’ however, had an apron issued to them, usually white starched cotton with little or no ornamentation. When possible, I like to bring visuals of something described in the book. It makes the descriptions in the book more meaningful.”
Southern Bridge Club finger food was on the menu for Angela White’s Anchorage, Alaska, book club when they discussed The Help: chicken salad, tea sandwiches, and mini desserts, including chocolate cream pie.
“I used my good china and silver and told the ladies that I would be counting the silver after they left,” says White. Unlike the characters in the novel, whose “help” would have done most, if not all, of the preparations, White prepared all the food and polished the silver and set the table herself.
Carol Crosby, the only southerner in the group, grew up in Matthews, North Carolina, and brought photos of her family’s maid, Mary Lee, who, says Crosby, was part of the family and not treated like the help portrayed in Stockett’s novel.
“It was important that I share my story with the group, which was quite different from the relationship between maids and families in the book,” says Crosby. “We played with African-American children when I was young and they were friends with our family. However, I’m sure those situations in the book existed. We were very naïve about the larger picture since we lived in the country.”
“We all were horrified by the treatment of the African-American maids and amazed that the white families would trust their beloved children—but not their silverware—to these amazing ‘maids,’ ” says Maryl Gavazzi of the Ladies of Autumn wood of Grand Island, New York. The Ladies enjoyed a full southern repast while they conversed about The Help: biscuits and jelly, sweet potatoes, fried chicken, corn casserole, corn chowder, and caramel cake for dessert. “We joked about making the chocolate pie but we were afraid no one would even venture a taste if we did! We’ll never look at chocolate pie the same way again.” Gavazzi provided small cans of Crisco for favors, and attached a note that read: “Minny said to Celia, ‘Crisco is the best new kitchen appliance since jarred mayonnaise!’”
The club attempts to replicate the type of dining and eating experiences depicted in each book they discuss. The chicken recipes were from a southern cookbook; a member made the caramel cake as close to the description as possible, and the warm fresh biscuits were served with homemade jelly.
“We plan each meeting around a meal—whether in a participant’s home or away—and we’ve found that even those who aren’t cooking contribute,” says Gavazzi. “While we dine, we always discuss how we perceive the eating habits and rituals in the books we’ve chosen and how the characters were affected by it. With The Help we talked long about how much work the ‘help’ did beyond the cooking, and acknowledged that they also had to go home and cook again for their families.”
The Stetson Book Club of New Haven, Connecticut, discussed The Help over caramel cake. “Even though it’s fiction, we thought the book was very realistic,” says Deborah Brown of the twenty-one-member group comprising African-American women. Members felt the “help” was treated better in the North than in the South during the time period portrayed in the novel. “No one in our group, some of whom have southern ties, was aware of the extreme treatment in the South having occurred in the North, such as separate bathrooms and eating utensils for the help. We were quite taken aback by those revelations. After all, the help could be trusted to clean, cook, and look after children!”
Another difference the group noted between northerners and southerners was etiquette. “It was ironic that despite the tense racial feelings in the South, generally African-Americans demonstrated respect by addressing whites as Miz, Miss, or Mister,” commented Brown, “although that could have been a way to keep a certain distance between the races.”
Brown further explored the topic by reading Susan Tucker’s Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South. “Reading firsthand accounts of help/employer experiences was very informative,” says Brown.
cups water