Pork spare ribs smoked like bacon? We didn’t do those in West Virginia, but I have seen where it is done farther south. We tended to use the belly, the jowls, and the back to make bacon.

The pickles–we used to do quick pickled sweet onions in the late summer–Vidalias from Georgia are great that way. (Interestingly, folks in India do much the same thing with onions, only they add spices, especially dried ground chiles, to it.)

But, Steph, you are right–we southern hillbillies’ cooking comes from several sources: Ireland and Scotland–our first European immigrants were poor folks from those two places. Then, you have the Native American cookery–leather britches–dried mature pole green beans–and corn, sweet and green, or mature and roasted, or parched, or ground into meal–we learned a lot from the Native Americans when it comes to cooking–especially the Cherokees. (We also learned to eat ramps from the Native Americans, too, and squash.) I suspect that our prediliction for greens comes through the Native American foodways as well as through the next group of immigrants.

Then, a third thread comes from Africans–most Appalachians were too poor to own slaves, but there was still contact between the African-Americans and white Applachians (including intermarriage, particularly if there was already intermarriage with the Native Americans) –from the Africans came the use of okra, for example, which I still love fried the hillbilly way (dusted in cornmeal and fried in bacon grease, what else?) or stewed the Indian way with spices, tomatoes, onions and garlic.

Then, there was the later immigration, usually in the 19th century, of the Germans–that is where the strong influence of dairy products and the sausage-making traditions come from, as well as the prediliction for double-starch meals–like my beloved chicken and homemade noodles over mashed potatoes.

Applachian foodways are interesting and varied, and they are fun to try and parse out and figure what came from where and what went where, how and why. One of my first posts in this blog, in fact, titled, “Hillbillies, Pigs and Greens,” traces how the eating of greens cooked with pork spread north with the African-Americans, but is only really eaten by whites that way, in the Applachian mountains as far north as Ohio, and perhaps all the way up to New York. But in the lowlands–and in the cities–greens cooked long and slow with bacon or another pork product–is considered to be an African-American soulfood dish, and is seldom eaten by whites.

And the pickles – my Dad’s favourite is fresh onions thinly-sliced and soaked in vinegar and a little sugar, and the same with thinly-sliced beetroot and red cabbage….

Well that’s interesting! I always associate that style of green bean cooking with the French. We first had green beans (minus the chili) cooked forever and a day like that in France and only ever saw them that way whenever they were served. I have to confess that I was very nervous the first time I tried them, but as you say, they were fantastically delicious.

I love the caramelization on your corn. It looks just like our corn from last night. Instead of butter, salt and pepper, we rubbed the corn with a half a lime that was dipped in garam masala (I know I know; the limes and garam masala spices aren’t local but the rest of our dinner was and the corn certainly was! I think it had been picked that day.)

-Elizabeth

Though, I always thought cooking everything with smoked pig bits came from the African slaves–who knows?

It would be interesting to try and untangle the knotted skeins of Appalachian foodways.

I’m like you with the green beans – if I grow my own, they rarely even make it into the house as I usually eat them while standing out in the yard.

The fact that you have any calico salsa left is amazing! I used your recipe to make a batch on Friday night and I’ve almost finished off the whole bowl. I had some help over the weekend from family – but it’s mostly been me! It’s quite tasty.

Do you think you’ll post a gazpacho recipe? I’m thinking of making it (for the first time) sometime this month.