“Mississippi Come Back Sauce”

BRIGHT ORANGE COMEBACK SAUCE SAYS "HAPPY TASTES"

Mississippi’s Come-Back Sauce

 From the Great Delta to the Bayou,  one thing about Mississippi…It’s a drivers state. You’re always gonna see trees and water wherever you drive. I believe the historians when they say that a squirrel used to go across the whole state and never hit ground because of the trees here. Mississippi loves its trees so much, we have the largest collection of tree farms in the USA.  When I was growing up, there were an abundance of trees that had food on them like nuts and berries, and juices flowing from them that were as valuable as oil is to us today.

Cuisine of all kinds is abundant here.  Before refrigeration,and even after, for those who couldn’t afford it, hunting and catching wild meats and fish was a daily task.  That’s goes back before slavery times when people needed more protein than they were allocated so they could do all that physical labor from sun up to sundown needed to keep their farm going.

I used to love playing near the creeks. That’s where I got my first biology lessons. The ponds and creeks were my first swimming pools. The white sands on the creeks were my first beaches. I realized the value of using everything when I realized you could eat mussels and grind the shells for use in growing plants and making other items to use everyday.
Walking in the woods you always were aware that you were being watched by something. I always wished I could do that. Watch things and never be seen. That was the closest I would come to being invisible.  I enjoyed drinking the water from and underground spring. That’s when I realized that real water is suppose to have a taste and be so cold that it made it’s own ice. I remember how my grandmother would take that water and take fresh lemons and quarter or slicr them kind of thick  and put them in a brown tan colored clay like bowl, then add some cane sugar and take a potato masher and mash then until all the juices were squeezed  and the smell of fresh lemons danced in the air with other molecules.  She then added some more sugar and that  icycold spring water. Ain’t nobody made lemonade like that for me since.

That’s why after traveling  and residing all over the USA,  I always end up coming back to Mississippi. If you’ve ever really experienced it’s charm and graciousness amongst all the negative rumors, you too would come back. Speaking of coming back,  there was someone in the 1930’s who knew about coming back and they made a sauce with just that name.  It used to be in all the eateries just like ketchup is today, but now there are only a few classic establishments that know of this sauce and still use it today. Let me share the recipe with you. This sensational sauce is a collaboration between Thousand Island dressing, tartar sauce and remoulade sauce. It can be used as a dipping sauce for grilled or deep fried vegetables, poultry and seafood or a salad dressing. Just leave it on the table and see how long it lasts.

Mississippi’s Best Come-Back Sauce or Dressing

2 large garlic cloves (peeled)
1 large onion (cut into quarters)
1 cup Hellman’s or Blue Plate mayonnaise
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup French’s mustard
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 cup peanut , canola or olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon each white wine vinegar  and fresh squeezed lemon juice with zest
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon of smoked paprika
2 tablespoons cold spring or bottled water

Put the garlic and onion in a blender and puree.

Add all the other ingredients and blend until well mixed.

Refrigerate overnight so all the ingredients can marry into each other. You can recycle a used plastic ketchup bottle or some other plastic squeeze bottle and sit it on the table . It is best served chilled, I like to keep it in a bowl with ice and water 30 minutes or so before serving so that I can get that underground spring coolness.

This  sauce can be used on chicken, fish, sandwiches, salads, french fries or however your taste buds prefer.

Here are some places to eat at while in Jackson,Mississippi:

1. Big Apple Inn – 509 North Farish Street
2. Bully’s Soul Food – 3118 Livingston Road
3. Crechale’s – 3107 Highway 80 West
4. Mayflower Cafe – 123 West Capitol Street
©2008 (oldschoozchef)

How To Roast A Chicken In A Coconut-Vintage Recipe

A Treasure Of Bohemian San Francisco Classic Recipes

I discovered a treasure of classic San Francisco Bohemian cuisine as I was browsing through an old cookbook there. People often brag about NYC and it’s food and restaurants and how world class they are. Of course, they’re right, but  personally I love to go to San Francisco and enjoy their eats being that New York City is so far from Los Angeles.

Look out into the ocean in NYC and tell me if you picture clean tasting oysters or other shellfish. I think not. Now take a view out into that beautiful Pacific Ocean anywhere from the hills of San Francisco and you can see that the oysters and shellfish are happier and more carefree, they don’t mind coming to someone’s dinner table and delivering great taste. Dem darn NYC seafood critters pull weapons on you, want to play 3 card molly before they let you eat them and then want you to give them a separate subway token just to ride home with them.

I love both cities for the great choices of food and prices they provide. San Francisco to me is more romantic and has beautiful women that I think appreciate romance a bit more than those New Yackers…I find myself sneaking over to San Francisco whenever I can get me one of those cheap tickets so I can go on a “great food at cheap prices” treasure hunt. The city never let’s me down.

Here in Mississippi this week we were bombarded with Gustav, who peed all over the state , with fresh water of course, a few downed trees, and power outages along with many of our fellow Louisianians. Thanks folks for coming here. We always enjoy you.

Now that we have 2 other hurricanes working there way here(don’t know the names yet) I figured I’d catch up on reading some of my vintage cookbooks, so I could come up with some kinda meal that reminds me of sunny days. The book I chose is titled,”Bohemian San Francisco :Its Restaurants and Their Most Famous Recipes.” The Elegant Art of Dining. This book is a 4 out of 5 stars in my opinion, and that’s only because I wanted more of those recipes!!!!

This book was written in 1907 and the recipes are just as good today as they were back then. I promise you that. It takes you on a tour of the restaurants that were popular back then and I think some of them still exist. The chef and cooks(some of them sneaked the recipes out) talk about some of their most famous recipes and popular dishes. One of the dishes I discovered in that cookbook immediately caught my attention because it uses a whole coconut to cook the chicken in. I immediately went to the store and got me some coconuts.  I would suggest you following the directions in the recipe but know that I cook so much in my professional life, I made some changes to accommodate my cooking style. I add kaffir lime leaves, (or lime zest,) lemongrass, chopped cilantro and chopped fresh jalapenos in mine. I also use a serrated knife or small coping saw to cut the tops of the coconut so that I can place them back on the coconut once I have put my ingredients in it. I also wrap the whole coconut with heavy duty aluminum foil. That’s just me though, You do what you like …but please… enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Chicken Portola a la Coppa

Take a fresh coconut and cut off the top, removing nearly all of the meat. Put together three tablespoonfuls of chopped coconut meat and two ears of fresh, green corn, taken from the cob. Slice two onions into four tablespoonfuls of olive oil, together with a tablespoonful of diced bacon fried in olive oil, add one chopped green pepper, half a dozen tomatoes stewed with salt and pepper, one clove of garlic, and cook all together until it thickens. Strain this into the corn and coconut and add one spring chicken cut in four pieces. Put the mixture into the shell of the coconut, using the cut-off top as a cover, and close tightly with a covering of paste around the seals to keep in the flavors. Put the coconut into a pan with water in it and set in the oven, well heated, for one hour, basting frequently to prevent the coconut’s burning.

A bare recital of the terms of the recipe cannot bring to the uninitiated even a suspicion of the delightful aroma that comes from the coconut when its top is lifted, nor can it give the slightest idea of the delicacy of the savor arising from the combination of the coconut with young chicken. It is not a difficult dish to prepare, and if you cannot get it at any of the restaurants, and we are sure you cannot, try it at home some time and surprise your friends with a dish to be found in only one restaurant in the world. If you desire it at Coppa’s on your visit to San Francisco you will have to telephone out to him in advance (unless he has succeeded in getting back to the city, which he contemplates) so that he can prepare it for you, and, take our word for it, you will never regret doing so. If you want to get this cook book just go to my bookstore: Oldschoozchef

You will not be disappointed in this or any of the recipes from my other Vintage Cookbooks. If you’re serious about cooking and want to get back to authentic cuisine…

Try Vintage Cookbooks at Oldschoozchef

How To Make The Best and Juiciest Homemade Burger In The USA

How To Make The Best and Juicest Homemade Burger In The USA

By Kevin McClain (a.k.a. Oldschoozchef)

During my 30 years as a chef all over the USA, one of the things that I have always been in search of is a great hamburger. I haven’t had one in over 10 years and that was at an old friend’s  house, and he is a farmer.

I was just kicking it at his house,(J.C) when he suddenly told me he had a taste for a ham burger, but he didn’t eat at any of the restaurants around because he couldn’t trust the cooks and their cleanliness habits of preparing food, which is another article in the making. He decided to prepare some and he just wanted me to watch and walk me through his process, which I pleasantly agreed to do.

Now, my friend J.C., whom is in his 60’s, is a great home cook and also a renissance man. He knows about a lot of things here in the great state of Mississippi. He lives on a few acres where he has cows, chickens and a pond with bass, bream and catfish. He usually has a small garden every year with corn, tomatoes, okra and a variety  southern staples. He is a man of great humor and in fact, if I known James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, I would have wanted him to be like  J.C., who is the “Godfather of Black Life” here in Central Mississippi. J.C. loves the music of James Brown and even at his age he still mimics his dances when he hears any of his music. He is the hardest working man I know and a true industrious hustler in the highest regards.He is black as coal and has a heart of gold.

J.C. comes from a large family and they all pretty much live in the same neighborhood (the street he lives on  bears his family name)  and people are always seeking him out for one reason or another, so I am always delighted when he spends time with me to talk about food, my favorite subject. This is how he just one day out of the blue decided to share with me his way of making a juicy hamburger, and I did listen in tunnel vision when he shared this recipe with me.

Let me be clear about this recipe. You can forget about buying the pre-ground beef or chuck in the supermarket. High – end meats are not necessary.  It’s best to have a meat grinder or have the butcher grind it for you while you wait. The buns should be 4″-5″ inches in diameter, not those small ones. The iceburg lettuce should be ice cold(double rinse and leave in ice water for no more than 5 minutes and then pat dry before putting in burger) and the tomatoes should preferably should be organic beefsteak and ice cold. Use only sweet onions,such as Vidalia, Maui, Texas Sweet  or Red onion which has been thinly slices and kept cold because you want the hot to meet the cold in this recipe. Use whole kosher dills and slice them yourself if you want pickles.  You should use “Come Back Sauce” for the dressing and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper should be sprinkled on after the meat is cooked. If cooking on a grill, use hardwood smoke, for flavor enhancement or if cooking inside , try using a cast iron skillet,(medium heat is fine), this is how us food purists in Mississippi do it. Forget about those teflon coated pans or any of that other gimmicky cookware. Get yourself some cast iron cookware if you don’t have any. By the way, each burger should be portioned into 8 oz. loosley packed patties.

This recipe is for  4 people. I do have a golden recipe for the best homemade fries and milkshake, but I’ll have to give that to you later.

The Best Homemade Burger In The U.S.A.

1 pound each – beef short ribs and beef brisket. (take the meat off the bone on the beef short ribs and peel away the layer of what I call sinew, from the back of the short ribs) then cut into small oblong chunks to fit into the meat grinder chute so as to not clog it up. Do a course grind.

4 Tablespoons peanut oil, or olive oil or clarified butter or any oil of your choosing.

Ice cold Iceburg leattuce leaves

4″- 5″  fresh hamburger buns or Authentic New Orleans French Bread or San Francisco Sourdough (my fav)

Comeback Sauce … … or get recipe here.

Sliced kosher dill pickles

Thinly sliced cold sweet onions…32 degrees is considered cold for anything that is supposed to be cold.

Rinsed and sliced cold Beefsteak tomatoes. I prefer fresh “Organic” in all of the vegetables here when available.

Directions:

1.  After grinding meat add oil and form into thin loosely packed patties about 5 1/2 inch in diameter. Poke a hole in the middle of the pattie to lessen shrinkage. I like to use a patty maker myself.

2. Place on grill or skillet and begin cooking but DO NOT TURN THE PATTIES BUT ONCE after 3-4 minutes.  They will be ready once you turn them over when the juices run clear if to be cooked well-done. Cook at least to medium.

3. Put some butter on the buns and lightly toast the side the patties are to face. This seals the bun.

4. Assemble burgers with preferred condiments but add Come Back Sauce especially and enjoy. See how simple that was…Enjoy!!!

Please Note: You could use as many cuts of the cow as you want. Just make sure that the fat is at least 10% and no more that 20%.

©2008 oldschoozchef