{"id":156050,"date":"2021-11-24T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=156050"},"modified":"2021-11-22T18:49:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T23:49:13","slug":"cooking-with-john-ehle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/11\/24\/cooking-with-john-ehle\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving with John Ehle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

PHOTO: ERICA MACLEAN<\/p><\/div>\n

The Land Breakers<\/em>, by John Ehle (1925\u20132018), the first in the author\u2019s \u201cMountain Novels\u201d series, is a story of America\u2019s founding, set in the mountains of Appalachia and full of the hardscrabble food of the early settlements\u2014wild turkey hen, deer meat, corn pone. These dishes are historically accurate, like Ehle\u2019s work, but diverge from those traditionally associated with the early American table, at least those represented on holidays like Thanksgiving. Ehle\u2019s novels depart from our traditional patriotic fare in more ways than one: they\u2019re mythic, like all origin stories, but hold a broad view of who should take part in them, and honor the country\u2019s origin without diminishing its moral complexity. To me his food suggested an opportunity for a better Thanksgiving, a project which also allowed me to make cornbread in a skillet, serve an entr\u00e9e in a gourd, and offer an authentic recipe for buckeye cookies found nowhere else on the Internet. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I made pickled green beans, a welcome lightening-up of a Thanksgiving standby.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Land Breakers <\/em>was published as a standalone work by New York Review Books in 2014. The story begins in 1779, with two former indentured servants, Mooney and Imy Wright, arriving at a chain of mountains that have been \u201cleft but lately\u201d by the Native Americans. It reflects, to some extent, Ehle\u2019s family history; the writer\u2019s mother came from one of the first three families to settle the western mountains of North Carolina in the eighteenth century, according to the book\u2019s introduction. That family history must have been oral to some extent and peopled by multitudes, because the book and the ones that follow it have a breadth of characters and an ornate, backwoods-vernacular prose style that brilliantly captures the time and place. The effect feels like a correction to some of the more sanitized versions of early American history (including ones I\u2019ve previously cooked from<\/a>). The books are worth reading for the dialog alone. In one snippet we learn that a man\u2019s feelings \u201c\u2018ain\u2019t like a wart on his thumb, to be took off with ashes.\u2019\u201d In another, someone new to the neighborhood is told \u201c\u2018…there was two nice new people last autumn, but they got et by snakes\u2026\u2019\u201d A woman says she\u2019s not finished making supper because the bread is not browned, \u201c\u2018I ain\u2019t served brownless bread yet, and I\u2019m not going to take up shiftless ways.\u2019\u201d The voices are extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Browning was an essential step in making my venison stew tender and flavorful.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ehle began his career as a writer of radio plays, and later married actor Rosemary Harris (their daughter is the actor Jennifer Ehle). In addition to writing novels and varied non-fiction works, he was an activist, working throughout his life for arts education, diversity in education, and anti-poverty initiatives, and spending two years as an advisor to the governor of North Carolina in the 1960s. Ehle\u2019s nonfiction works include a book on the student civil rights protests at the University of Chapel Hill, published in 1965, and a book on the history of the Cherokee nation, published in 1988. A man of diverse interests, he also wrote a book on how to make French and English wines and cheeses at home.<\/p>\n

Like some of the greatest Southern writers of the midcentury\u2014he shares literary DNA with Faulkner and O\u2019Connor\u2014Ehle understood race to be a central feature of American life, and his novels include the full scope of peoples who were part of the American story. In The Land Breakers<\/em>, enslaved people arrive in the story with the slaveowner Tinkler Harrison, the second settler to follow Mooney and Imy into the mountains, and while they aren\u2019t major characters, their presence is one of the book\u2019s moral poles. Connie, an enslaved woman who works as a midwife, curses Lorry on the birth of her child for the sin inherent to human nature. The curse seems unfair to Lorry, who is one of the book\u2019s quiet heroes, and we\u2019re forced to wonder if her sin is that she assumes she has rights over the land. In The Road<\/em>, the second of the Mountain Novels,\u00a0it\u2019s primarily Black convicts who work and die on the railroad construction project that is the book\u2019s setting. The white managers of the road project are the book\u2019s heroes, but again Ehle complicates their accomplishment, linking the process of mastering land with the action of mastering people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My buckeye cookies were inspired by a buckeye tree in the book, whose falling nuts, along with \u201cacorns, beechnuts and chinkapins…rattled always across the forest floor.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

In Ehle\u2019s fiction, his wideness of vision served a greater project: to show history as made by all types of men\u2014the strong and virtuous, like Mooney Wright and his second wife Lorry; the greedy and prideful, like the slave-owning Tinkler; the ne\u2019er do wells and music-makers, like Ernest Plover and his incredibly-named daughter, Pearlamina. These latter two do no work at all, and Pearlamina is a highlight of the book, precisely for her refusal to \u201cbreak land\u201d the way the others do. If the book frames the settlement project as a savage conflict between the men and the mountain, which is personified almost as if it were a character in its own right, it also understands the desire to live in peace with nature.<\/p>\n

Ehle shines a bright light of humanism onto his characters\u2019 lives, making them ask in their own words what their lives mean, and always finding different answers. There were so many of these passages that I began marking them when they occurred. One character thinks: \u201cwe are set not adrift as on a sea, for the sea supports whatever floats on it; we are adrift in the air and and move like dried leaves whisked about\u2026\u201d Another character, talking about his travels, says \u201cthe endless trails were like the patterns in a man\u2019s life, always progressing but not going anywhere that could be predicted, yet pleasant.\u201d For Mooney, work is the purpose of life, \u201c[w]ork cutting and splitting until your strength was ebbing\u2026go into the house and eat your supper, deer meat usually, a reminder always that the wilderness was close by, and bread made of new corn, and, of late, a piece of boiled cabbage.\u201d\u00a0 The purpose of his work is to make a family and a home, another topic upon which Ehle excels. Few passages are more beautiful than Lorry\u2019s reflections on the house she and Mooney make, where \u201cthey had come to be a family\u2026safe unto itself, in a house that smelled of cooking and herbs and wool and wine vinegar, each one in its special season as the family made for itself comfort and protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Apples appeared in the book, and lady apples are in season. I pickled them according to a recipe by celebrated Southern cooking chef Edna Lewis.<\/p><\/div>\n

As is often the case in books that are concerned with farming and homes, The Land Breakers<\/em> goes into great detail about food. The fare is gritty and poor in the settlement\u2019s early days. In Mooney\u2019s first encounter with Pearlamina, he says \u201c\u2018I have some turkey meat\u2026.Got that and milk. Got an egg to eat.\u2019\u201d Pearlamina has nothing but herself to contribute, and makes Mooney \u201cnervous and uneasy, lest she go away.\u201d Later, Lorry wins Mooney with her steadiness, going to his house and leaving him a stew of the humble things: \u201cdeer meat\u2026mushy with herb-cooking and brown gravy.\u201d\u00a0 When he goes to her house for the next meal, she has only three potatoes to eat, but also some treasured salt which she has been hiding from her sons in a gourd. She brings it out for Mooney, who says gratefully, \u201c\u2018I like salt better\u2019n anything on a piece of meat.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s a simple statement that tells much about the privations of settlement life.<\/p>\n

For my menu, I skipped the turkey in favor of the deer-meat stew with herbs and gravy, enhanced with dried apples, as a nod to the bit of dried apple Mooney keeps in his shirt to disguise his scent while hunting deer. To decide which leaves to use, I drew from a passage that details the herbs and greens Lorry would forage for: \u201cshe would take to the paths and find sallet greens, find poke, cut young green shoots from the wild grape vines, pick leaves of herbs she knew were safe, blue root and dock, for example.\u201d Sallet greens are any green used for cooking and might include sorrel or spinach. Poke is an oniony-tasting poisonous weed that grows in Brooklyn as well as Appalachia, where it\u2019s boiled three times to remove the toxins and considered a delicacy. I\u2019m fairly certain I see it in the summer on the bike path near my Brooklyn apartment. Wild grape leaves are available everywhere in my mother\u2019s metro-Boston suburb. Blue root and dock both inspired rabbit-holes of internet research; the former might be gingery, the other is tart and lemony. I couldn\u2019t forage out-of-season, but it was fascinating to realize how many of these items are available to me, even in the city. I worked ginger, onion and lemon flavors into the finished dish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Served piping hot, this version of corn-bread is crunchy-chewy perfection. Adding butter and honey would be cheating.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cornbread is ubiquitous in the books, so I made a corn \u201cpone,\u201d an appropriately austere cornbread often made without eggs or milk. As the farms become more established and successful, Mooney slaughters a pig, and the characters are able to eat more lavish meals, like \u201cfresh meat, field beans, and hot bread.\u201d I re-created the field beans, which research indicates were string beans, and pickled them as Lorry does, with vinegar she has made from muscadine grapes. I did not make my own vinegar, but I did ask my spirits consultant, Hank Zona<\/a>, for a Muscadine wine to serve with the meal, and he sourced me one from North Carolina, which came with the caveat that it was probably going to be \u201cfoxy\u201d and sweet-tasting, and more geographically relevant than good with my meal. Hank also picked a Passe-Tout-Grains from Maison Lou Dumont in Burgundy, based on Ehle\u2019s focus on the wines from Burgundy in his nonfiction work on wine and cheese. This particular type of Burgundy is unusual in that it\u2019s a field blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay, and is more rustic than the region\u2019s usual wines. Its style fit the interest Ehle shows in returning to traditional maker-culture in The Cheeses and Wines of England and France<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ehle wrote about wines from Burgundy. I served a rustic option in an old-is-new-again style that was intensely flavorful but light-bodied, like my meal.<\/p><\/div>\n

For dessert, there was an offbeat choice of my own, buckeye cookies. I\u2019m told these are the official cookie of Ohio, not North Carolina, but Mooney and Lorry had a buckeye tree outside their house, which turns yellow in the fall, and drops \u201cits eye-shaped seeds.\u201d This moment in the novel, when Lorry is meditating on the beauty of the land around her, is one of my favorite passages. She concludes that \u201c[a]utumn…in these lush, water-fed lands, was more colorful than springtime.\u201d I love fall, too, and those dropping buckeyes made me crave a football-season standby that\u2019s essentially a peanut-butter ball dipped in chocolate. A friend from Ohio shared his mother\u2019s recipe with me, which is distinguished by adding graham cracker crumbs and shredded coconut to the peanut butter filling, making the buckeyes lighter and less sweet than usual.<\/p>\n

My austerity foods were a revelation. The settlers had so few possessions that they often used dried-out gourds for dishware and storage. I served my venison stew in a roasted winter squash, accompanied by corn pone and pickled beans and apples. Mooney fell for Lorry because of these foods, and I understand why. My stew was incredibly savory and tender, and fresh thanks to the \u201cforaged\u201d greens. I ate the whole thing, while scraping out bites of the roasted pumpkin. This entree paired wonderfully with the crispy, light cornbread, the crunchy pickled beans, the sweet pickled apples, and the berries-and-spice profile of the Burgundy wine. If there was a relative lack of sugar, fat, starch and dairy on this table\u2014all the things that make Thankgiving such a gut-bomb\u2014I didn\u2019t miss them. I thought my holiday meal was better than the traditional one, and whipped up easy, too.<\/p>\n

I am a Lorry Wright type, so I suggest that readers run out and make my recipes instead of their planned Thanksgivings, dashing about town at the last minute for venison and individual-serving-sized winter squashes. But if you are more a Pearlamina Plover and plan to do no such thing, Ehle forgives you. He writes in his food book that he spends more time thinking<\/em> about making wine and cheese than actually doing so, and suggests that \u201c[i]f you do nothing more than daydream about making them, I will accept that, for even daydreams will help; daydreams are attitudes after all, and have influence.\u201d\u00a0 These are the views of a man with a subtle and expansive view of history\u2014and who sets a good table, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pickling Spice <\/strong><\/p>\n

This recipe will be used for both the Spiced Lady Apples and the Pickled Field Beans.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 tbsp: cinnamon chips, fennel seeds
\n2 tsp: crushed bay leaves
\n1 tsp: yellow mustard seeds, brown mustard seeds, coriander seeds, allspice berries, peppercorns, dill seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, celery seeds, juniper berries
\n\u00bd tsp dried chili flakes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spiced Lady Apples <\/strong><\/p>\n

Adapted from <\/em>In Pursuit of Flavor, by Edna Lewis. You will need a 1 quart mason jar. <\/em><\/p>\n

2 cups cider vinegar
\n2 cups white sugar
\n\u00bd cup light brown sugar
\n1 tbsp pickling spice
\n1 cinnamon stick
\n3 cups lady apples<\/p>\n

Put the vinegar and sugars into a large saucepan. Tie the pickling spices up in a piece of cheesecloth and add to the pot. Add the cinnamon stick. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wash the apples but don\u2019t destem them. Prick them 3 or 4 times with a knife, and add to the pot. Simmer gently for 30 minutes more. When the apples are tender, remove the pot from the heat and let them cool. Transfer apples and syrup to a 1 quart mason jar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pickled Field Beans <\/strong><\/p>\n

You will need a 1 quart mason jar. <\/em><\/p>\n

1 cup vinegar
\n1 cup water
\n2 tbsp sugar
\n1 tbsp salt
\n2-inch chunk of ginger
\n1 tbsp pickling spices
\nTwo large handfuls of green beans<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, ginger and pickling spices in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool. Wash and trim the beans, and arrange them in a mason jar so they\u2019re all standing up and neatly aligned. Stuff in as many as you can; they\u2019ll shrink a little in the liquid.<\/p>\n

Set a large pot of water on to boil. Blanch the beans in the water for 30 seconds, then shock them to stop them from cooking in a bowl of cold water with ice. Return the beans to the jar. Add the cooled liquid, cover and refrigerate at least several hours before use.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Corn Pone <\/strong><\/p>\n

2 cups cornmeal
\n1 tsp salt
\n1 1\/2 cups water
\n4 tbsp bacon grease or neutral oil<\/p>\n

Combine cornmeal and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Add water and stir to combine. Let stand for 2 hours (if time allows), to allow grains to soften and soak up liquid. Add bacon grease or oil to a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. Set the oven to preheat to 475, and put the skillet in so it gets hot. Remove the skillet from the oven and pour in the batter, using a spoon to baste the top with the oil that bubbles up along the sides. Bake for 15-minutes until brown and crispy on the sides. Set the oven to broil for the last 2-3 minutes to brown the top. Let cool before slicing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Venison Stew Served in a Gourd <\/strong><\/p>\n

Serves 2. This recipe requires an overnight marinade. <\/em><\/p>\n

2 medium-small winter squashes
\n1 lb venison stew meat
\n1 cup buttermilk
\n4 scallions, chopped
\n1 cup corn flour
\n3 strips bacon
\n3 tbsp neutral oil, as needed
\n1 tsp minced ginger
\n1 tsp dried thyme
\n\u00bd cup dried apples
\n3 cups water
\n4 cups washed, chopped greens; I used a mixture of dill, watercress and spinach
\nSalt and pepper to taste<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prepare the venison by cleaning thoroughly, removing every scrap of membrane and silver skin (essential for the venison to be tender). Cut into 1-inch pieces, add scallions, buttermilk and 1 tsp salt, cover and refrigerate overnight.<\/p>\n

On the day you plan to serve the meal, preheat the oven to 400. Cap the squashes and scoop out the seeds. Increase the size of the opening, if necessary, in order to make the squash \u201cbowl\u201d shaped. Rub the insides with olive oil, and season with salt. Place on a roasting pan, and roast for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until the interior is soft and the walls of the squash are visibly softened. Remove and reserve.<\/p>\n

Remove the marinade from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. Cook the bacon in a medium-sized dutch oven. Remove bacon and reserve for another use (alternatively you can crumble it over the finished dish). Leave the grease in the oven; you\u2019ll be using this to make the stew. Remove the venison from the marinade, shaking off excess moisture. Place the cornflour on a plate and season lightly with salt. Dredge the venison pieces in cornflour, shaking off any excess flour.<\/p>\n

Reheat the Dutch oven (with the bacon grease) to medium-high, adding more oil as necessary if your bacon did not release much fat. Brown the venison pieces in batches, turning so that all sides are evenly browned. This is where you develop flavor, so take your time. When all the venison is browned, return it to the pan, add the ginger, dried thyme and dried apples, \u00bd tsp salt, and stir to combine. Add 3 cups of water, cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, turn down to a simmer, and cook for 1 hour to 90 minutes, until the stew is thickened and the meat is tender. Add the fresh greens and stir until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into a roasted squash, and serve.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Buckeye Cookies <\/strong><\/p>\n

Makes 25 cookies. <\/em><\/p>\n

1 cup smooth, good-tasting peanut butter, no sugar added
\n4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
\n1 tsp vanilla
\n\u00bd cup crumbs from McVitie\u2019s Digestives biscuits, ground
\n\u00bd cup coconut flakes, fine
\n1 \u00bd cups powdered sugar
\n8 oz good-quality baking chocolate, 90-percent cacao<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a stand mixer, cream the peanut butter and butter until combined, using the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, biscuit crumbs and coconut, and mix to combine. Add the powdered sugar and mix again. The mixture will be stiff and a little bit crumbly, but should adhere if you roll a ball of it between your hands.<\/p>\n

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the peanut butter mixture into balls about 1-inch in diameter, place them on the cookie sheet, and freeze for 10-20 minutes until ready to use.<\/p>\n

Chop the chocolate coarsely, place in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute. Stir, then continue to microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until the chocolate is melted.<\/p>\n

Remove the peanut butter balls from the freezer. Spear with a toothpick and dip the ball in the chocolate, rolling the bottom and sides to create the \u201cbuckeye\u201d effect, and placing the dipped ball back on the cookie sheet. When they\u2019re all dipped and the filling has softened slightly, you can use your finger to smooth over the hole from the toothpick. Store in the refrigerator.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Valerie Stivers is a writer based in New York.\u00a0Read earlier\u00a0installments of\u00a0Eat Your Words<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cook a frontier-food Thanksgiving with John Ehle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30795],"tags":[15177,1671,38271,67827,1428],"class_list":["post-156050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eat-your-words","tag-americana","tag-cooking","tag-cooking-with","tag-featured","tag-thanksgiving"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving with John Ehle by Valerie Stivers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 24, 2021 \u2013 Cook a frontier-food Thanksgiving with John Ehle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/11\/24\/cooking-with-john-ehle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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