Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-03-05
THE SOUTHERN MENU.

Guinea Squash, Corn Ffitters, "Hoppin0.
John" and Other Concoctionss
The average northerner who at.
tempts to compile menu to tickle the
southern palate usually makes a mess
Of it, Some of the bills of fare from
northern sources that are from time to
time to be seen In southern publica-
tions are well calculated--not designed.
ly, however, it IL to be hoped-to mako
the southern housekeeper drop and en-
pire from "that tired feeling" About
nine times in ten the alleged southern
dishes in the bills are pure fictions, and
almost without single exception the
menu Is unsuited to this latitude and
to the pslates of people who know bet
ter.
No southerner in good health and in
his right mind ever eats ''lominy with
milk and sugar" for breakfast, not
withstanding the dish Is undoubtedly
safer than salmon, with egg sauce"
for supper. Hominy in this part OF
the country is dressed with butter or
little Of meat gravy, and is eaten with
q chop or beefsteak, or bacon and eggs.
or broiled ham, etc. Hominy thus
served is a standard breakfast dish in
the south, and is fit for king. 1t needs
no sugar or cream or nutmeg, and to
put either on it is to commit q crime
against gastronomy. The same OBJ
servations apply to rice, which the
northern menu-makers toll us to sorvs
with cream and sugar.
The cooking of rico, by the way. il
an art which has not yet been acquired
in the north. Properly cooked, each
grain of rice stands firm, dry and
separate from its fellows, yet 1t is a.
soft as dead-ripe fruit, and the whole
mass as white as snow. In the north
they boil the grains into . glutinous
mass, utterly destroying its beauty
and individuality, and then sweeten it.
Sometimes southern folks sweeten rios
for sick people or ailing children. and
call it rice pudding. Again, they
make a pillau of rice and peas; this
they call hopping john" and it is Q
food fit for all upright and healthy
men. Other pillaus, made of rice and
chicken, or okra and bacon, or birds,
are distirctively southern dishes, and
the person who sits down to either dish
with an appetite has reason to thank
Heaven for his good fortune. Rice is
also used in soups and gumbo. But
sodden rice dressed with cream and
sugar, for breakfast-hah! Out upon
the infidel who suggests It'll
There are dozens and dozens Of real
southern dishes that delight the souls
of those who eat them when prepared
properly-sugared sweet potatoes,
guinea squashes, corn fritters, etc.
but the northern-built menus seldom
ur never mention them. They tell US
TO eat hominy with sugar for breakfast,
and salmon with egg sauce for supperl
One may we'll wonder how he would
get through the night and where he
would be the next morning after fol-
lowing such objections.
There are in the south, however. poo
pie who pretend to like the northern
bills Of fare. 1t is all pretense. They
affect oatmeal. The northerners eat II
merely because they do not know any
thing about hominy and rice properly
cooked, and their southern mimics eat
II because they think it is moro toney.
Such people, we feel constrained to say.
sacrifice both their brains and their
stomachs to "style. ."-Savannah News.