Kentucky’s Cookbook Heritage

One theme that dominates many of today’s Kentucky cookbooks is the local sourcing of foods. In this way, Kentucky cookbooks reflect a movement that is national and perhaps even worldwide. The local food move-ment advocates more direct relationships between food consumers and producers, with the goal of obtaining cleaner and higher-quality food in a way that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. Kentucky poet, essayist, and novelist Wendell Berry (1981, 2009) and novelist-essayist Barbara Kingsolver (2008) have made important contributions to this discussion locally, nationally, and internationally. Other writers whose works resonate with this idea are food writer Michael Pollan (2006, 2009), journalist and cookbook author Mark Bittman (2009), and restaurateur Alice Waters (2007). There are many others.

The motivation to “eat local” relates to a number of concerns about the sustainability of the contemporary food system as it has evolved. One concern is the cost of transporting food from faraway places to local tables. These costs are diverse and include the expenditure of fossil fuel to ship foods, the breeding of plants and animals that are suitable for industrial food production at a distance, and the demise of local family farms. The archetypal food that demonstrates the eat-local philosophy is the tomato. Just compare the durable, uniform, mealy, tasteless tomatoes produced on industrially scaled farms with the succulent but vulnerable tomatoes raised in one’s own garden or bought at local farmers’ markets.

Historically, the Kentucky food system started out as more or less highly local and was then radically delocalized, largely through market forces and state and national policies (van Willigen and van Willigen 2006). Today, with some exceptions, the food systems that operate in Kentucky have become largely dependent on the national and international systems. As Jim Embry, director of the Sustainable Communities Network of Lexington, wrote in a 2012 op-ed piece for the Lexington Herald-Leader, local food systems “have been steadily dismantled in favor of a centralized model that requires large scale monocultures, massive chemical inputs, fewer farmers and ever more transport.” Fayette County farmer Todd Clark, who produces for the local market, notes how the food system has changed: “Our ancestors a century ago would laugh at some of the conversations we’re having now. They would be confused about how we got to where we are. What do you mean you’re going to do local food? Where else does it come from?” (Spence 2012, 1).

Prior to World War II, for many rural families, eating local meant producing food on their own farms. In the oral history interviews conducted for my earlier book Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms 1920–1950 (van Willigen and van Willigen 2006), the men and women interviewed stressed that they bought little more than salt, sugar, coffee, kerosene, and matches; they produced and preserved most of their own food. Although it was a different story in the cities, for many urban Kentuckians, eating locally was still the norm. To do this now would require the development of many new practices. This chapter discusses some of those practices and how they are reflected in cookbooks.

Farmers’ markets are an important source for locally grown and produced foods. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture maintains a roster of about 150 farmers’ markets throughout the state, many of which have existed for a long time. Although they vary considerably in size and complexity, most are locally organized, maintain a set of rules about what is marketed, and have a stable relationship with the community. Farmers’ markets have many advantages, including allowing consumers to buy food directly from the growers. The food is far fresher than that found in stores; it has usually been harvested that morning or no later than the day before, rather than being picked and shipped days earlier from who knows where. Supermarkets generally carry only one or two unidentified types of each produce item, whereas farmers’ markets offer many different varieties, with the selection changing from time to time. For example, at the peak of the green bean season, one can choose from a range of pod-dominant varieties such as tenderettes, jade, or blue lake or bean-dominant varieties such as Kentucky Wonder pole beans, white half-runners, cornfield beans, and various heritage types. One can also get more information about the use of pesticides, since in many cases the growers are available to answer questions about their practices. Also, recipes are often available either directly from the growers or on the market’s website.

blackberries	tomatoes
garlic	tomatillos
green bell peppers	stringless green beans
yellow squash/zucchini	eggplants
rainbow Swiss chard

A similar direct relationship between producer and consumer is found in CSAs (an acronym derived from the concept of community-supported agriculture). With CSAs, participants buy shares of a farm’s produce for the season and receive a weekly portion of the vegetables produced on the farm. The term share is important: as a participant, one is sharing both the payoff and, to some extent, the risk of operating a farm. For example, when growing conditions are good, there is more produce of a higher quality. Some farms also offer egg and meat CSAs. The CSA I belong to, Elmwood Stock Farm of Scott County (elmwoodstockfarm.com), supplies almost all organic produce. I generally participate in the spring and summer season, although this past year, I also participated in the fall. I make a single payment prior to the first delivery; then, during the season, I collect my box of vegetables at a local pickup point every Wednesday. The vegetables included in my share change from week to week, ensuring that I eat seasonally. I wait impatiently for the first tomatoes and try to come up with strategies to prepare the large amount of greens in the first few boxes. Sometimes the allocation includes vegetables I would otherwise eat infrequently. Occasionally I get something that causes me to blurt out, “What’s that?” Think purple kohlrabi. Anyway, it’s fun to figure out how to cook these new items. Elmwood Stock Farm includes a number of recipes, often from shareholders, in its weekly newsletter.

In addition to farmers’ markets there are also farm markets. Whereas farmers’ markets involve producers who gather temporarily on a regular seasonal schedule, farm markets are typically located at a permanent site with a single proprietor. There are many different kinds. Marksbury Farm Market, established in 2009 in Garrard County, provides affordable slaughtering to local farmers, allowing local livestock producers to market their products to local consumers while following all the government rules. In addition, Marksbury has a retail store that sells the beef, pork, chicken, and other products produced in the region. Information about this and other farm markets can be obtained from the directory compiled by the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s certified roadside farm markets program. It includes information about fruit and vegetable producers, greenhouses, landscape nurseries, Christmas tree farms, vineyards and wineries, dairy producers, meat markets, and cheese makers. The Farm Bureau program also provides marketing assistance.

Kentucky Proud

A related program that goes beyond farmers’ markets and farm stores is the Kentucky Proud program, which certifies Kentucky-origin farm produce and food products. Kentucky Proud is administered by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to increase farm incomes by promoting food products grown, raised, or manufactured in Kentucky through programs directed at consumers, distributors, and producers. The Kentucky Proud logo is familiar to anybody who visits farmers’ markets, farm markets, or participating restaurants. The current advertising slogan is “Nothing Else Is Close.” The program provides cost sharing for advertising, support from marketing specialists, free Web pages, and direct sales through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture website (www.Kyproud.com).The University of Kentucky’s School of Human Environmental Sciences, the Family and Consumer Sciences Program in the Cooperative Extension Service, and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture have established a Kentucky Proud Recipe Database Project. Some large corporations such as Kroger’s, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Meijer also participate in the program.

The Kentucky Proud logo. (Commonwealth of Kentucky)

Farm-to-Fork Restaurants

The value of eating locally is also expressed by restaurants that feature local produce—sometimes called “farm to fork” or “farm to table” restaurants. These include chef Jim Gerhardt’s Limestone, chef Cathy Carey’s Lilly’s: A Kentucky Bistro, and chef Edward Lee’s 610 Magnolia in Louisville; chef Ouita Michel’s Holly Hill Inn in Midway; and chef Jonathan Lundy’s Jonathan at Gratz Park in Lexington. These restaurants follow the advocacy of Alice Waters, who in 1971 organized the Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California; it featured organic local produce and became an icon in the local food movement. Her Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook (1982) has been recognized as an influential contribution to the cookbook genre. An important part of Waters’s strategy is that she developed ongoing relationships with producers. This idea has been adopted by a number of Kentucky restaurants that feature the names of local producers on their menus and websites.

Many restaurants that are not in the “fine dining” category also have a strong commitment to local food sources. Some examples are Ouita Michel’s sandwich shop, Wallace Station of Midway; the Windy Corner Market in rural Fayette County; and the downtown Lexington institutions Alfalfa and Stella’s Deli. There are many others around the state.

Kentucky Cookbooks that Support Local Eating

The importance of eating local is expressed in various ways in contemporary Kentucky cookbooks. Generally, they exhibit an increased commitment to placing foods in their local cultural, social, and historical context.

This is expressed most directly by the inclusion of much more information about local foods and producers and the inevitable emphasis on seasonality. Also, respectful descriptions of local food practices and traditions, as well as more robust depictions of local history and culture, communicate an eating local orientation. These concerns are reflected by expanded narratives in cookbooks. As a result, contemporary cookbooks are often very interesting to read. In concrete terms, the expanded narratives often include information about and advocacy for local food sources such as farmers’ markets, farm markets, community-supported agriculture, and state and local programs that support local producers.

One manifestation of the eat local movement is the strategy used by the Kentucky Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in its 2003 compilation titled Pride of Kentucky: Great Recipes with Food, Farm, and Family Traditions (supported by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture). Its distinguishing feature is the extensive participation of state-level commodity groups, including beef, soybean, poultry, pork, egg, and sorghum producers. This is reflected in the choice of recipes. The involvement of the Kentucky Soybean Association and Promotion Board is represented by a number of recipes that use tofu and other soy-based products, for example. The recipes for catfish and freshwater shrimp reflect the participation of the Kentucky Aquaculture Association. Other participating organizations included the Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, and the Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association. Pride of Kentucky also contains recipes from restaurants and from celebrity chefs with Kentucky ties. This volume was the official cookbook of the 2003 Kentucky State Fair.

Montgomery County Lemon Shrimp (2003)

1 pound freshwater shrimp, peeled and deveined

5 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (2 cups)

1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips

1½ cup bias-sliced celery

¼ cup sliced green onions

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (6-ounce) package frozen pea pods

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

⅛ teaspoon pepper

1 cup water

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Sauté the shrimp, mushrooms, bell pepper, celery and green onions in the hot oil in a large skillet for 5 to 6 minutes. Add the pea pods. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes. Combine the cornstarch, sugar, salt, bouillon and pepper in a bowl. Stir in the water, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir in the shrimp mixture. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Serve over hot cooked rice. (Kentucky Extension Association 2003, 81)

A recently published Kentucky cookbook with a focus on healthier and local eating is Maggie Green’s The Kentucky Fresh Cookbook (2011). She has a strong commitment to eating locally, and the recipes make use of seasonally available Kentucky-produced ingredients. The cookbook is organized as a seasonal calendar of menus, with special attention paid to holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Derby Day. Traditional Kentucky foodways are part of the Kentucky Fresh Cookbook story, and many of Green’s recipes are fresh takes on traditional favorites.

Maggie Green is from Lexington, and her knowledge of and interest in food grew out of her family’s kitchens, her study of food and nutrition at the University of Kentucky, her culinary arts studies at Sullivan University, and her work as a registered dietitian. The book’s focus is cooking meals at home using fresh ingredients, which ties in to another important concept: seasonality. Consistent with this, Green provides the tools to build menus and prepare dishes based on the seasonal availability of food and herbs in Kentucky. Further, she discusses a strategy for incorporating local and fresh food into one’s cooking, makes suggestions for Kentucky-sourced foods, includes references to many growers and suppliers, and provides a “Kentucky Produce Availability Chart” organized by month. Some of her recipes are adapted from other Kentucky cookbooks such as Pride of Kentucky.

Maggie Green’s cookbook advocates preparing seasonal, locally sourced foods.

Stove Top Bourbon Barbecue Chicken (2011)

One 3½- to 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Salt and pepper for seasoning

1 sweet onion, finely diced

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons honey or Kentucky sorghum or molasses 1 tablespoon Kentucky bourbon

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven or skillet with a lid, brown the chicken on both sides over medium heat. Set the chicken aside. Drain out all but 1 teaspoon of the fat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ketchup, scraping brown bits off the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the vinegar, honey or sorghum, bourbon, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and turn to coat with the sauce. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook 15 more minutes to cook the chicken thoroughly and thicken the sauce. Serve hot. (Green 2011, 246)

Local food traditions are clearly the basis of the Kentucky cookbooks distributed by McClanahan Publishing House in Kuttawa, near Land between the Lakes in western Kentucky. McClanahan was established in 1983 by Paula Cunningham to publish a book on local history written by her husband, William Cunningham (Egerton 1990, 180). Although McClanahan has published books on a range of topics, it specializes in cookbooks. The business was recently sold, but current owner Michelle Stone continues its emphasis on Kentucky cookbooks, and there is no question that McClanahan still leads the way in the publishing of attractive Kentucky cookbooks. I found a number them to be especially interesting. For instance, Elizabeth Ross’s Kentucky Keepsakes: Classic Southern Recipes (1996) and Cornmeal Country: An American Tradition (2004) include many variations for standard preparations. In Kentucky Keepsakes she includes thirteen recipes for the Hot Brown sandwich and eleven recipes for hush puppies. Ross cites her sources, and the list of cookbooks she consulted is extensive. Cornmeal Country has more of a southern than Kentucky orientation, but it is an excellent source for scoping out the wonderful world of cornbread.

Sharon Thompson’s collection of iconic Kentucky recipes.

Another noteworthy McClanahan cookbook is Sharon Thompson’s Flavors of Kentucky (2006). It contains contemporary versions of many iconic Kentucky recipes and could be used as a primer on Kentucky cuisine. She includes Kentucky classics such as the Hot Brown sandwich, beaten biscuits, blackberry cobbler, burgoo, and beer cheese. Many of the recipes are from Kentucky’s professional chefs. Thompson, currently the food editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader, has a blog and a website based on Flavors of Kentucky. The following recipe is from Thompson’s sister-in-law.

Margaret’s Blackberry Cobbler (2006)

2 cups fresh blackberries

1 cup all-purpose flour

1½ cups sugar, divided

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup hot water

Place the blackberries in the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan. Combine the flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, butter, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl and pour over the blackberries. Combine the remaining 1 cup sugar and hot water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. (Thompson 2006, 136)

There are a number of Kentucky restaurants that combine iconic Kentucky cuisine, a commitment to locally sourced ingredients, and worldclass culinary innovation. As mentioned earlier, one of these restaurants with a farm-to-fork orientation is Jonathan at Gratz Park, and chef Jonathan Lundy has documented his approach in a cookbook: Jonathan’s Bluegrass Table: Redefining Kentucky Cuisine (2009). Lundy, who was raised in Midway, has deep roots in Kentucky and a strong commitment to the use of locally produced ingredients. His culinary training involved serving as an apprentice to chef Emeril Lagasse and completing the program at the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson and Wales University. Lundy’s restaurant is organized around the concept of blending “the traditional flavors of the Bluegrass with modern world cuisine” (Lundy 2009, 9). His cookbook includes a number of iconic Kentucky dishes, including burgoo, macaroni and cheese, pimento cheese, beer cheese, cheese grits, corn pudding, deviled eggs, wilted lettuce, country ham, and the Hot Brown sandwich. There are also many Gulf coast dishes that have become a part of Kentucky cuisine, such as bananas Foster, oysters Rockefeller, and shrimp and grits. That said, Lundy puts a significant twist on virtually everything, which indeed redefines these basic dishes. Cheese grits is one example. The cookbook version is called “Pimento Cheese Grit Fries.” The grits are cooked in a red pepper puree, heavy cream, and water to which white Cheddar cheese, salt, white pepper, and cayenne are added. This is then spread on a greased cookie sheet, refrigerated until stiff, cut into bars, and frozen. The frozen bars are then fried in oil. The final result is dressed with green tomato piccalilli relish and plated with fire-roasted banana pepper mayonnaise. Sounds great! Local ingredients are also the basis of Colonel Newsom’s country ham pot stickers. Lundy adds the Winchester-produced soft drink Ale-8-One to cocktails, and he uses Spaulding’s doughnuts to make New Orleans bread pudding, attesting to his whimsical approach.

In larger cities, there are community groups that advocate for the creation of local food policies, especially to address school lunch programs and food for low-income families. In 2009 the organization Sustainable Berea published a cookbook containing recipes contributed by participants in its annual 100-Mile Potluck (a meal based on ingredients grown within 100 miles of Berea). The following recipe was contributed by Kent Gilbert.

Oven Braised Pork Shoulder Roast with Garlic and Rosemary (2009)

Pork shoulder roast

10 cloves of garlic, peeled into slivers

2 cloves elephant garlic, peeled into slivers

onions, chopped

1–2 cups water or water/wine mix

rosemary sprigs

oil

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Optional: potatoes

Make cuts in pork (especially the fat) and insert all garlic slivers. Stuff fresh rosemary sprigs into slits as well. Sprinkle onions over meat. Add potatoes to pot if desired. Add water or water/wine mix to bottom of heavy roaster or ovenproof crock and roast at 325–350 degrees for about 35 minutes per pound of meat. Add salt, pepper and oil to taste. Cover the dish. (Sustainable Berea 2009, 40)

Another important theme in contemporary cookbooks is ensuring a healthy diet. Eating healthy is part of the eating local movement—in particular, eating fewer processed foods and more organic foods. This has been a concern for many decades, in fact. There are numerous examples of how recipes have changed over time to make them healthier. A clear example can be found in the series of fund-raising cookbooks produced by the University of Kentucky Women’s Club, starting with Stay for Tea in 1948. To celebrate the club’s centennial in 2009, it published Stay for Tea, the Centennial Edition (2010), which presents new, healthier versions of recipes from earlier editions. This project involved collaboration with the university’s program in nutrition sciences and extensive taste testing. Faculty and students in the nutrition program apparently prepared both the original and the new alternatives and organized taste tests, which often revealed that the tasting panels preferred the new version over the original. The modified recipes employed various strategies, including reducing the amount of fat by using fat substitutes such as applesauce, replacing fattier meats with ground turkey, reducing the number of egg yolks (or whole eggs), using skim milk and fat-free dairy products, substituting whole grain flour for white flour, reducing the amount of refined sugar or using noncaloric sweeteners (e.g., Splenda), and adding less salt.

The following recipe for gingerbread was modified by Alicia Arnett of Dietetics. The original recipe from the 1948 cookbook was contributed by Frances Jewell McVey, wife of university president Frank McVey (to whom that first cookbook was dedicated). Mrs. McVey did some food writing in addition to her duties as campus hostess and recipe writer. The use of applesauce as a moisture-providing fat substitute had a large impact of the number of calories. The original 1948 recipe called for a cup of shortening (half butter and half lard). The revised version retains the word “shortening” in the description of the process.

Gingerbread (2010)

1 cup applesauce

½ cup sugar

1 well-beaten egg

2½ cups sifted all purpose flour

1½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup sorghum

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together applesauce, sugar, and egg in a large bowl. Sift together dry ingredients. Add sorghum and buttermilk alternately with dry ingredients to shortening, sugar and egg mixture. Beat well and bake for 25–30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (University of Kentucky Women’s Club 2010, 177)

Coda

This book reflects changes in the social and economic context of cooking and meal preparation, different degrees of cooking knowledge on the part of cookbook users, new technology related to cooking and preservation, the appearance of new ingredients, changing views on diet and health, and evolving styles in the format of the recipes themselves, among other topics.

How have the users of cookbooks changed? The earliest Kentucky cookbook, The Kentucky Housewife, was apparently written for mistresses of large households employing staffs that might include enslaved people. With the Civil War and emancipation, these circumstances changed dramatically. Some argue that the surge in cookbooks published toward the end of the nineteenth century was related to the decreased availability of household staff and the loss of their food preparation expertise.

Another difference in cookbook users was their level of knowledge of cooking, which seemed to be connected to the changes brought about by World War II. Often mentioned is the decline in cooking information con-veyed through “apprenticing” to one’s mother or auntie. If Mom was off working, she didn’t have as much time to cook and pass on her knowledge. As a result, cookbooks became more detailed, and people learned to cook by reading text rather than by watching older, more experienced cooks and modeling their techniques. In addition, there was greater experimentation in cuisine. The American diet started to become much more multicultural in the 1950s. Pizza, tacos, lasagna, mousse, and chop suey have now been thoroughly integrated into the American diet. These dishes have become Americanized—adapted to American tastes, available food items, and modern cooking technology. For those who are interested, new foods and new recipes appear more or less continually, transforming their cooking through new cookbooks, magazine and newspaper articles, and the Internet.

The changing technology of cooking is evident in some of the recipes. Cooking meats on the hearth was hard work and involved the risk of physical injury. This slowly changed with the advent of the wood-fired cookstove and then the availability of gas and electric cooking. This transition is difficult to factor out, as there was great variation in when and where these changes occurred. Middle-class Louisvillians abandoned their woodstoves in the nineteenth century, whereas this occurred almost fifty years later in some rural counties.

The template for recipes also changed over time: ingredients were listed separately from procedures, precise measurements were specified, and far more detailed instructions were included (some early recipes did not mention procedure at all). In the middle of the twentieth century, many cookbooks began to couple recipes with elaborate narratives on a variety of topics. Cookbook writers provided far more contextualizing information, and readers were taken beyond what was needed to re-create the recipe. Authors told stories about how they obtained a recipe, provided word pictures describing the context for cooking or eating the food, and revealed details about the originator of the recipe. In the domain of Kentucky cookbooks, this started with Marion Flexner’s Dixie Dishes (1941) or perhaps even earlier, with Tandy Ellis’s Camp Cooking (1923). These books include the historical background or cultural meaning of food preparation; the personally oriented social context of the recipe, including experiences cooking or eating the dish; and how the food relates to community or regional history, among other topics. These narratives reflected the fact that more and more cookbook users were interested in reading about food in addition to actually preparing it. With some exceptions, the amount of narrative in cookbooks produced by the specialized fund-raiser cookbook publishers was somewhat limited, whereas cookbooks produced independently by community groups were often rich sources of narratives about cooking, social life, and history.

The concern for health started in the 1950s and became more emphatic over time. In some cases, cookbooks provided healthier options, such as reduced fat and sugar or increased fiber. (Very early in the twentieth century, improved nutrition sometimes meant adding calories.) One significant change involved the kinds of fat used in cooking. Lard more or less disappeared, and there was a slow ascendance in the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil products such as Crisco and Spry, followed by a reduction in their popularity. Likewise, margarine seemed to replace butter and then declined in importance. Over the twentieth century there was a steady increase in the use of vegetable oils (often called salad oils, indicating their original purpose).

The most recent trend in cookbooks is concern about the environment. This can be seen in cookbooks that focus on eating locally. Accompanying this trend is greater appreciation of regional cooking traditions and greater concern about the sources of ingredients and seasonality.

Eating Locally and Sustainably