In Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, on the night before the wedding, all the family has gathered at the Fairchild house for a family celebratory meal. Here's what Ellen Fairchild served:"They had been eating chicken and ham and dressing and gravy, and good, black snap beans, greens, butter beans, okra, corn on the cob, all kinds of relish, and watermelon rind preserves, and that good bread--their plates were loaded with corncobs and little piles of bones, and their glasses drained down to blackened leaves of mint, and the silver bread baskets lined with crumbs.... Then Roxie was putting a large plate of whole peaches in syrup and a slice of coconut cake" on the table."
The wedding dinner featured chicken salad--"two or three tubs and we've got it covered on ice"--along with cold lobster aspic, champagne, and of course, the cake. There was always cake, at all meals, it seems, served with fruit, and for all snacks and for tea when the aunts or anyone else came to visit.
Shown here is my favorite southern cookbook: The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.
4 comments:
Oh yummm....
I am a Gen X latch-key kid raised on hamburger helper and mac-n-cheese. I wouldn't know where to begin cooking that much food at once.
I love your blog.
Wonderful description of a meal from Eurdora Welty. Did you ever read the description of the dinner in "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf. One of my favorites. You have a lovely blog!
Hi Anonymous, Thanks for your kind words. Not to worry. Of course, they had help, but even so it is possible to learn to cook mountains of food, but you have to plan it like D-Day. It's a challenge! You have to build in time for disasters for sure, as I had several on the way to cooking Christmas dinner! LOL
Hi Sunday Taylor,
I'm glad you like the blog. Thanks for the pointer to To the Lighthouse. I love descriptions of heaps of food, or of cooking heaps of food, and of domestic activities in general. Maybe it just makes the book seem like a home...
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