The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-05
HOW SOUTHERN NEGRO COOKS
We're Trained in the Days Before the
War;
calvin Dill Wilson in New York Ledl

calvin Dill Wilson in New York Ledg-
er.)
The southern negro cook has great ex-
cellence along special lines OF Der work;
we may claim that the negro has a par
ticular faculty for cookery. as the white
man has for intellectual matters.
1t is certain that the negro
has very keen palate, sensitive
to degrees and kinds of fiavorings, and
sensitive to the agreeable tastes of many
foods. While touching upon this point,
we may note that the negro has been the
discoverer of several foods He showed
his appreciation of watermelons long be-
fore he was enslaved by Americans; 1T
was one of his discoveries in Africa many
ages ago. In this country we owe the
finding of several dainties to the negro
cooks. The diamond-back terrapins were
not appreciated by white men, until long
after the negro was familiar1n. with their
superior qualities; rs years ago these ter
rapins iwere used by white haeh only to be
broken up with axes and fed to swine.
But the negroes had already learned how
to find Etnese creatures lin their winter
quarters in the mud and they had learned
to eat them both roasted and steWed. Ii
WAS by their example and recommends
ton that the people in the great houses,
came at last to prize the dainty that had
long bsen enjoyed in the quarters
The methods of serving many dishes
now generally adopted throughout our
land are those that were inventedby negro
cooks. They have added many novelties
and now recipes; they have distinct gen.
ius in this line. Many negress in the
South is accu stomed to prepare food for
the family in which she Is employed, or
for her own household, in a way that Is
not surpassed. from certain standpoints,
II it is eoualed, lin the restaurants and
hotels OF great cities, where French cooks
are employed Many men an d women in
our country who have the opportunity to
eat at many tables, to partaks of many
dishes in many la Dds. are OF the fixed
opinion that the honors in cookery belong
easily first to the colored cook.
It was the custom on the old planta-
tions. in the slave days, to arrange for q
succession Of cooks by putting several
darkey girls under the old aunty in the
kitchen. Several girls were at the same
time trained for cooks and several for
nurses. The training of the young cook
was q severe ones she was under the iron
discipline of the old aunty already in pos
session, and was initiated into the myster-
les of every part of the pantry, and the
cellar and the kgardep. 1t must be con-
fessed, however tempting the products of
the kitchen were, that q domain was in
itself not always in the most orderly con-
dition. Mrs. Stoves picture of the con-
fusion in st. Clare kitchen was verified,
no doubt. in thousands of southern homes
in that part of ssthe establishment where
the black cook reigned. Dried herbs of
various kinds hung from the rafters; nu-
merous dogs and cats lay about on the
floor. and little darkies were everywhere.
The young cook, under training, inher-
tied the recipes of the older generations,
and by degrees ventured upon experiment
of her own; so the dishes, new and Old,
ascend to the table Of the white people
1t is also certain that many of the favosite
dishes that were prepared originally only
for the colored people, and which were
euioyed by them in the quarters or in the
kitchen when the white folks had been
cared for, came after awhile to be adopted
permanently for the tables of the masters.
Inc COlOE6u COOk Wno d0SOiuoO ops1OAEA
of the kitchen; even the mistress was for
hidden that domain, or had to bow as a
subject when she entered it; ordinarily
the cook had everything her own way. and
at most was willing to receive Eonly gen.
eral hints as to what kind of materials
were to be used for special occasions rath-
er than suggestions as to the manner OF
preparation.
There, in those southern kitchens. the
negresses, with their abundant supplies
of all manner of provisions, vegetables
from the gardens, fruits from the Or
charis, cereals from the fields, home-pro
duced meats, wild game, fish, oysters,
CLANS turtles, and ducks, used her old
recipes, experimental with new ones,
in course of time gave to the world new
cookery. Their product was always
tempting, but with their rich materials
and high spicfngs was not always friendly
to continued strength of digestion. Their
hot breads, to the use of which they
trained all the southern people, may reas-
onatsiy be thought not to have been favor
able to blooming compilations.
The southern way of cooking wild
duck. of dealing with terrapins. crabs.
oysters and fish has become accepted by
the civilized orld; with the exception
that there is a dispute between Philadel-
phia and Maryland clubs as to the man
nor OF serving GerraplH. Lis genius u
forgotten negresses for many generations
has gone into all this; their pones and
hoe-cakes Maryland biscuits, corn mullins,
waff1es and half dozen other products of
other manipulation of the cereals have
become generally accepted. Hominy :,
which came, indeed, froza the Indians,
was improved and perpetuated by the
negro cooks and TO-DAY southern hominy
is very superior to all other kinds in use.
Amid the plenty of a southern plan ia.
ton, it is not to be wondered at that the
southern cooks were not careful of the
food supplies, and that extravaganza
reigned in their kitchens. Their waste
fulness has probably never been surpassed
so that until this time the colored cook
requires for the purposes of your kitchen
a third or q half more of provisions than
any one else. This habit, however.
probably runs even further back than the
southern plantation, even into the bar
barism of Africa, as it is notorious that
the barbarians have little foreth ought in
regard to tomorrow. Stanley tells us
that In his last march across Africa,
when his men would be starved for days,
and would come into place of plenty
and load themselves with a new stock of
provisions for further journey, he had
the greatest difficulty to prevent their