Tag Archives: Iron

August 23, 2010 · 10:00 am

Southern Fried Chicken Challenge

fried

My fifth Yankee Challenge was a bomb. Well, the whole meal wasn’t a bomb, just the fried chicken part. The fried chicken was supposed to be the guest of honor and ended up on the back burner.Fried chicken is my new nemesis. I thought I was doing everything right – soaked the chicken overnight in buttermilk, mixed seasoning into the flour, used Crisco instead of oil, and baked the chicken after it was fried. After 30 minutes in the oven, my chicken was crispy on top, soggy on bottom, and rare inside. I didn’t follow the rule about the fryer chicken because I needed to feed 5 people and I figured ginormous chicken legs would do the trick. I was so wrong. There was so much meat on what I have decided were probably the calves of all-star-track-running-chickens. The entire time I stood in front of my cast iron skillet filled with melted Crisco and was splattered all over my apron, I tried repeating to myself, “You can’t lose to the chicken.”

Continue reading →

15 Comments

Filed under Cooking, Food, Southern Food, Yankee Challenge

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

July 26, 2010 · 11:17 am

Southern Culture – Cast Iron and The Delta Blues

cast iron

We’re glancing at the end of a classic, hot, July here in the “Deep South”; wishing August didn’t exist.  The Hungry Southerner is escaping it in the comfort of my A/C and a playlist full of the Delta Blues.  Not those happy melodies you hear on the modern radio, but the saddest guitar strumming and picking, mixed with the static of a worn record needle, recorded on the front porches of old Delta farm houses. The music of the “Delta Snow”, those rows of beautiful cotton fields that go on forever, occasionally interrupted by an abandoned gas station or soy bean field.  So what does this classic Southern scene have to do with Cast Iron, or Southern food?  Culture.

Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Cooking, Food, Southern Culture, Southern Food

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 7, 2010 · 9:30 am

Meet The Yankee

Caitlin

Caitlin "The Yankee"

We would like everyone to welcome Caitlin, “The Yankee”, from Mrs. Bear’s Tasty Fare .  She has sacrificed herself at the alter of Southern Culture and decided to take up The Hungry Southerner’s “Yankee Challenge“.  Once a month Caitlin is going to be challenged to cook a classic southern dish, with authentic ingredients and using our favorite family recipes.  Caitlin doesn’t know this yet but she’s really going to learn to appreciate the experience of cooking with real butter, and the muscle building exercise of wielding a cast iron skillet.  Caitlin’s going to be writing about her experiences with the ingredients, the challenges of slow cooking, or the easy surprises of preparing real southern comfort food. The Hungry Southerner is all about growing southern culture and connecting with each other through food, so this will be a great opportunity for us to all experience the wonder of learning southern cuisine.  We would love for our readers to get involved, so leave us a recipe suggestion, ingredient or seasoning for Caitlin to try in a comment below, twitter to us @HungrySouthernr, or join our fan page on Facebook just search for TheHungrySoutherner. We will will post out the monthly challenge early, we would really enjoy hearing what your experiences are with the recipes and ingredients as well. Caitlin is getting ready for the first challenge, which will involve learning her way around her first cast iron skillet, seasoning it and  cooking a classic southern breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, and stone ground grits. Visit Caitlin’s blog and send her an email to give her some tips for success, and don’t forget to remind her the number one rule of cooking with cast iron (never,never,never use soap and water).

-The Hungry Southerner

6 Comments

Filed under Food, Southern Recipes, Yankee Challenge

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,