June/July 1983
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A UNC Sea Grant June/July 1983 G" where therc's frs^h in the kitchen all year. Find out how they cooked it in the Indians'days, the settlers'days, the good-ol' days. Hunt up one of those cooks who can stir today's conchs into chowders ilch as history. Inside, sea food worth rcpeatin$ \ An old en{raving of one of John White's druwinSs 7-- For coastal cooks, it's conch chowder and crab stew In kitchens f rom Currituck to favorites are stored in the heads of the the clearness of the eye may not Calabash, coastal Carolina cooks dish cooks who prepare them. Each cook always be accurate. Many times the up seafood with a pinch of time- has his or her own version of clam eye will be damaged in handling the honored tradition. Coastal cooks have chowder, adding a "nickit" more of fish, which doesn't mean the fish is not been stirring up hard crab stew and this or that. fresh, she says. downeast clam chowder as long as Landlubbers tend to think coastal Nellie Myrtle Pridgen-Nel1ie Myr- anyone can remember. cooks fry all of their seafood. "Tourists tle to those who know her-is a Nags To hear cooks like Eioise Pigott of and people from outside the area think Head resident and Outer Banks Gloucester and Nellie Myrtle Pridgen all we know how to cook is fried fish, native, who says she cooks seafood the of Nags Head teil it, you'd think there fried cornbread and fried potatoes," simplest way possible. "My father and was nothing special about their ways says Eloise Pigott, a Gloucester native. brother were fishermen and I learned of cooking seafood. They can hardly "That's a myth. Fried food is good and early on not to destroy the taste of believe you're asking about their some things are best fried, but we do seafood with a lot of batters and recipes-the recipes that were passed know how to cook seafood other seasonings, she says. along from a neighbor or relative and ways." Nellie Myrtle says she boils her fish are as much a part of coastal tradition Coastal cooks bake, broil, boil, stew in "a tiny bit of bacon grease and but- as boatbuilding and netmaking. and roast their seafood. And coastal ter." She dresses her clam chowder The recipes for clam chowder and natives like their seafood best if it's as with tomatoes, potatoes, onion and cornmeal dumplings aren't written in fresh as the day it was pulled from the green peppers. If left with a few small fancy cookbooks or touted by gour- net. (two to three inches) hard crabs in a mets. But that doesn't mean the end Marlene Hieronymus, a Wrights- catch, Nellie Myrtle cleans them, ro1ls result fails the tbst of good eatin'. It ville Beach cook, says to check a fish's them in cornmeal and a little season- doesn't. Most coastal folks had rather freshness by checking the gil1s. "If the ing, and fries them. "You can eat the pull up a chair to a bowl of conch gil1s are a nice red color and smell like crab whole, shell and all, if you have chowder or a plate of steamed shrimp the ocean, then the fish is fresh," she your own teeth," she says. than liver pate or beef Weilington. says. Hieronymus says the age-o1d Soft crabs have long been a favorite Most of the recipes f or coastal method of testing a fish's freshness by along the Outer Banks, Nellie Myrtle Conch Chowder Downeast Clam Oyster Fritters Soup Chowder or chopped oys/ers (about 1 cup) rneat from 7 to 8 1 quart chopped clams quarts water 1 eEE, beaten conchs 2 flour 2 to 3 potatoes, diced 2 mediurn onrbns, salt and pepper 1 small onion, slrbed chopped or chopped 3 to 4 sllces sa1/ pork or bacon drippings Mix together chopped chopped ib-side pork and 6 mediurn potatoes, oysters, beaten egg pat of butter or seasonings. Add j ust margatine cubed salt and pepper enough flour to hold thyrne together. Drop by spoon- pepper cornmeal durnplinPs salt and fuls into hot grease. Fry un- Downeast Clam quarts 1 1/2 oI water til golden. Bake In a large pot, combine first After tenderizing conch in six ingredients. Some Car- Eloise Pigott To a cheesecloth bag, add pressure cooker, chop in teret County cooks fry the pieces of cut-up fryer small pieces. Place chopped bacon before adding to chicken, a carrot, an onion, conch in pot, add water, chowder; others don't. Still potatoes (sweet or Irish), pork and butter. Salt and others use bacon drippings. Crabmeat Cakes an ear of corn qnd l/2 pepper to taste. Simmer Cook the chowder until the dozen (or more) cherry- two to three hours. Add potatoes are tender (ap- crabmeat stone clams. Allow one bag potatoes and onions 30 proximately 30 minutes). cracket crurnbs per person. Add water to minutes before chowder is Drop cornmeal dumplings dab of mustard bottom of a steam cooker. done. Also, sprinkle with on top of chowder. Cover Put tied-off bags in top sec- thyme. Add cornmeal dump- tightly and simmer for 15 Mix crabmeat, cracker tion of steamer. Cook three lings during final 15 min- minutes. crumbs and mustard. Shape hours. utes. into cakes. Fry in butter. Adapted from Bill Pigott Bill Pigott combination of recipes Nellie Myrtle Pridgen Photo by Neil Caudle says. She remembers when you could buy them for 10 to 25 cents a dozen, unlike the $10 to $20 price tag they carry today. "There's only one way to cook soft crabs and that's fried," she says. Nellie Myrtle is famous for her fish cakes, but she won't divulge her recipe. She does say that when choos- ing fish for any recipe she always chooses a female fish. "They're short- er, fatter and tenderer," she says. Seafood prepared in restaurants doesn't fare well by Nellie Myrtle standards. "I'd as soon eat a snake as eat in a restaurant," she says. "I never follow a recipe when I cook. I cook ac- v.,t cording to what I have and the number *Br*ffi" .lkFt-c' of people I'm cooking for." ' a.r$ , ,,. 1 In Wrightsville Beach, shrimp top .,,. * the list as everyone's summer seafood favorite. Steamed shrimp are heaped in mounds before hungry crowds in traditional "shrimparoos". Marlene Hieronymus says she steams her shrimp with the heads on. "The heads add fiavor," she says. AlbertWffi Cowan and Audrey Fulcher in the kitchen "You steam the shrimp in a smali Photo by Hilda LivinCstone amount of water until they turn pink," up conch chowder every Wednesday says Hieronymus, who provides for a loyal following of locals. Fulcher seafood recipes and tips once a month won't reveai the exact recipe for the on "The Jim Burns Show," which is chowder, but she says the ingredients aired on WECT-TV in Wiimington. are ground conch, water, potatoes, "Be careful not to overcook shrimp. onion, meat grease, sa1t, pepper and They become tough. If you're prepar- cornmeal dumplings. ing large quantities for a shrimparoo, Head cook Albert Cowan, who has *wff be sure to turn the shrimp in the pot so spent 21 years in the kitchens of Cap- they'11 cook evenly." tain Bill's, adds another ingredient to Hieronymus says she heaps the the conch chowder-Worcestershire \+*,}.;*s shrimp in a big bowl on the picnic table sauce. Cowan says the conch chowder and lets everyone dig in. To eat the recipe is his own, derived by varying ,# shrimp, guests pop off the heads and the ingredients until just the right peel the she1l away. taste was achieved. Cowan smiles and Hieronymus serves lots of whipped politely refuses to give out his recipe. butter, lemon juice and cocktail sauce After all, he wants to have plenty of &t,trli Nellie Myrtle PridEen for dipping the shrimp. And as side customers on conch chowder day when dishes, she prepares roasted corn in the he stirs up about 20 gallons of this Car- County cooks also prepare a water- husk, hush puppies and lemonade. teret County favorite. based "downeast" clam chowder. "We In Carteret County folks eat their Bill Pigott, Eloise's husband, says use no tomatoes and no milk," says seafood "downeast" style with making conch chowder requires some Eloise. The chowder is flavored with cornmeal dumplings and gravy. extra effort, but the results are worth bacon grease or pieces of bacon, Audrey Fulcher, who has cooked at it. First you should freeze the conch. potatoes, onions, salt and pepper. The Captain Bill's Seafood restaurant in Bill says freezing the mollusks makes chowder broth or gravy does turn Morehead City for twenty years, says the meat easier to pul1 from the shells milky as it cooks, but Eloise conch chowder is a Carteret County when they're thawed. Once you've emphasizes that no milk is added. olassic. There's even a saying that goes removed the meat, keep only the The aroma of hard crab stew, along with this dish, Fulcher says. "If cream-colored foot. Brush away the another traditional coastal offering, you ever eat conch chowder in Car- black coating with a brush, Bill says. f requently f ills Carteret County teret County, you never leave." The To tenderize the meat, either pound it kitchens when blue crabs are in season. conch, which is more accurately a or place it in a pressure cooker.