The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-03-06
OLD TIME DINNERS.
rhe Way the Well to Do In the South
Lived Before the War.

Lived before the War.
An old fashioned gentleman growing
eloquent on the subject of southern
hospitality and the viards that We're
set before friends and neighbors when
invited to Il feast, a reporter said:
"WiH you state your recollections of
what was served on such occasions if
write it down for your"
"Of course i will,' was the reply. Il
can see such a. table in my minds eye
right now. First, there was soup, of
rourse. If it was cold weather, we had
oyster soup, or perhaps fish. If it was
ia the midst of the vegetable season,
we had rich, high colored beef soup,
with plenty of tomatoes, okra, grated
corn and such like, well proportioned
and well seasoned with pepper and a
| little onion.
! ''When the soup plates were taken
| off, and after the tureen was set aside,
| then a fine home raised ham took its
place in front of the hostess. l can
discern the delicious flavor right now
| in my recollection. Sometimes the skin
was peeled off and the outside plenti-
fully sprinkled or busted with black
pepper, and that delicious meat was
good as long as piece was left on the
bone. For my part, liked it best with
the skin left on, because the meat was
cured so perfectly that even the skin
was toothsome and preserved the
juices until the meat was consumed.
''At the other end of the table, in
front of the host, you would see a fine
roast turkey-if the season was winter
or early spring-garnished with pars-
ley and slices of cold boiled eggs The
dressing was rich, made of bread
] crumbs if you had them, otherwise a
pan was filed with thick, rich batter,
plenty of eggs, plenty of butter, dain-
| tily seasoned, and cooked until the
stuffing was of the right consistency, and
then the fowl was packed full, and lit
tie cakes of the dressing, baked along
in the pan, to garnish the sides of the
great turkey dish. If the time was mid
Isummer, the turkey was replaced by
huge dishes full of fried chicken and
baked chicken, sometimes with the
fowl 'smothered.' The chicken menu
was varied if the time was ripe for kid
meat or fat mutton, as it happened.
Late in the fall a shoulder of fat pig OF
a whole young pig was seen, roasted to
a turn.
"All along down the table you would
lind bowls of apple sauce, green OF
Tried; stewed peaches, sweet and
choice: rice, every grain standing
Ialone; pickles of all kinds, potatoes
lbutter. honey, light bread, nice beaten
biscuit and such desserts. Mince pies,
lapple and peach pies, the crusts crisp
and iaky; apple dumplings, rich with
sugar, spice and butter; cakes that
lwere cakes sure enough, sponge jelly
land pound cake that took an hour to
make and three to cook, fruit cake
that was better six months after it was
made than at first, jellies, preserves
boiled custards and syllabub that Il
!makes my mouth now water to recall
them in such bountiful profusion. Ora
cious plenty was in the kitchen as wei
as the house, and no chef in a million
laire's kitchen is as much gratified al
the old time cook, whose head kerchie1
or turban was as white as her fresl
lapron was spotless whenever her mis-
tress called her name and introduced
her to the ladies who fingered at the
table after the men folks had gone tt
the piazza or the parlor fire for an aft
er dinner smoke. Atlanta Journal.