Food.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
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Subject: Food.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other


Food  
Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other 
Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past 
One of the first things the early settlers did after clearing some land was to 
plant a garden.  The young children were always excited about this event.  The 
plwing, the making of ridges, the opening of the small furrows for the seeds 
and dropping of the seed was a fun time for the children. 
The earliest planting was lettuce, cabbage and mustard that could be sown in 
the tobacco plant bed.  Potatoes, peas, beets and radishes soon followed in the 
garden.  The beans had to wait until the danger of frost was over.  Good Friday 
was the official day to plant beans.  In late summer, after the early garden 
was used up, it was time to plant mustard, winter and summer turnips. 
Most vegetables were planted according to folk rule or custom.  Potatoes and 
root crops should be planted in the dark of the moon; vegetables that grow 
above the ground were planted in the light of the moon.  Corn gorws a stalk 
according to the time of it's planting.  The stalks grow heavy and short if 
planted in the dark of the moon and tall and slender in the light of the moon. 
Housewives from the very beginning knew the art of prserving food.  Many years 
ago every kitchen was lined with long brown ropes of shucky beans hanging from 
the ceiling.  In the summer, when cornfield bean vines were loaded with long 
waxy pods, families invited the neighbors to come in for a bean stringing.  
Girls came equipped with needles and thread, and they worked away at running 
the coarse thread through the middle of the beans.  Many a family weathered a 
long lean winter because it had an abundant supply of dried string beans 
hanging along it's kitchen walls. 
The young folks came in for the evening to cut apples, and to pack them into 
earthenware crocks or barrels.  Apples were also sliced very thin and put out 
in the sun to dry.  After the apples were all finished, it usually called for a 
square dance afterwards. 
Cornfields yielded tons of hugh yellow pumpkins, but they would not keep 
through the winter season.  In order to have pumpkin from one season to the 
other, the housewife cut them into rings and dried them before the fireplace or 
strung them on a strong cord overhead on the porch.  The rings were stacked on 
shelves in the kitchen, and by soaking them in water at the time of cooking 
they recovered their juice making them suitable for making pies. 
Pumpkins and their cousins the squash and gourds have probably been around 
since the beginning of time.  The Indians of Massachusetts had generous crops 
of the vegetables in their cornfields when the Pilgrims landed in 1620.  
Pumpkins were valued by the Indians and treasured by the backwoods farmers and 
cooks.  They have been enjoyed for generations on Halloween. 
The Irish were the first to fashion the lanterns out of vegetables for display 
on Halloween.  There were no pumpkins in Ireland when children created the 
first lanters with leering eyes and menacing smiles, but there were rutabagas, 
turnips and potatoes.  Every Irish child knew the story of the Irishman name 
Jack who was so stingy that he was kept out of Heaven, but so mischievous that 
the Devil refused to admit him to Hell.  Jack was condemned to wander the earth 
with a lighted lantern until Judgement Day.  When large numbers of Irish began 
to come to the United States in the middle of the 19th century, they brought 
with them the tradition of "Jack O' Lantern".  Americans soon began to carve 
fanciful pumpkins with which to ward off the evil spirits that lurked in the 
woods on the night before All Hallow's Day. 
Early settlers, who did not extend to teetotalism, invented a pumpkin beer made 
with maple sugar and persimmons. 
Food is the main objective in the country.  Any native can tell you that he 
lives to eat. 
Kentucky has always been noted for good food from the beginning of the state 
history.  A man could kill six or eight deer everyday, which many did merely 
for their skins.  Wild turkey, very fat and large could be found in flocks.  
Elk and buffalo herds grazed in the grassy meadows.  Fish was plentiful in all 
the rivers and creeks. 
Frequently squirrel shoots were held and the hunters fetched large numbers to 
take home.  The pioneers would make a big pot of squirrel stew. 
In the early days a political dish was born and the famous stew was known as 
burgoo.  Burgoo is still a popular dish at many gatherings such as political 
speakings, festivals, picnics, etc.  The burgoo contained several meats and 
vegetables. 
The following are some recipes that I found for Burgoo. 
Six squirrels, six birds, one and one-half gallons of water, one teacup of 
pearl barley, one quart of tomatoes, one quart of corn, one quart of oysters, 
one pint of cream, one-quarter pound of buter, two tablespoons of flour and 
seasoned to taste with salt.  This recipe feeds six. 
This recipe must have been one for a huge group.  It calls for 800 punds of 
beef, 200 pounds of fowl, 168 gallons of tomatoes, 36 gallons of corn, 350 
pounds of cabbage, 6 bushel of onions, 24 gallons of carrots, 1,800 pounds of 
potatoes, 2 pounds of red pepper, 1/2 pound of black pepper, 20 pounds of salt, 
8 ounces of angostura, 1 pint of Worcestershire, 1/2 pounds of curry powder, 3 
quarts of tomato catsup and 2 quarts of sherry.  All this food is cooked over a 
slow fire for twenty-two hours. 
Ham has been a staple commodity in Kentucky's diet ever since the first 
settlers drove their hogs into the state.  Recipes for both sugar curing and 
dry salting and moking have come down from one generation to another.  Farmers 
offered fine hams for sale for generations.  The methods of curing have changed 
greatly and few are now done the old fashioned ways. 
Corn bread is as necessary in the Kentucky diet as is salt.  The are many 
varieties of corn bread.  There is the "flouncy", the kind made with buttermild 
and eggs, the greasy little corncakes, the corn pone and the rugged pioneer 
type, corn dodger.  The corn dodger is meal mixed with hot water, seasoned with 
salt and cooked brown on a greased iron griddle.  When the first corn crops 
failed, pioneer communities faced starvation. 
Beaten biscuits are another favorite of Kentucky.  It takes patience to make 
these biscuits and some hard work.  The recipe calls for a pint of flour, a 
tablespoon of lard, and a good pinch of salt, mixed with cold sweet milk to a 
stiff dough.  Work one hundred and fifty times through a kneader.  Roll into 
sheets one-half inch thick.  Cut out or make out with hands, prick with a fork 
and bake in a hot oven. 
There are many other foods that have given Kentucky the reputation of having 
fine food.  Some of the other foods are golden-brown crisp-fried chicken and 
gravy, fried mush, homemade sausage and lamb fries.  Lamb fries are confined 
almost solely to the Bluegrass.  What are lamb fries?  Lamb fries are lamb 
testicles cut in thin sections, breaded and fried in deep fat, and served with 
thick gravy. 
Submitted by: Dana Brown 
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 



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