Category Archives: american regional cuisine

Graduation Fried Chicken

Deep frying. Look at that golden brown color! Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Perfectly cooked fried chicken! Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

For her high school graduation lunch last week, my daughter asked for my fried chicken. Normally, I break down a chicken into 9 pieces and cook it and serve it. But we’d invited friends, bringing our total number to 20. Fried chicken for 20 is different from fried chicken for four. I had no intention of spending all that time frying while hosting the lunch. But it wasn't until we were seated and one of the guests, while biting into a juicy drumstick, asked, “You can do this ahead of time?” did I realize that I must, must post on this subject, to deepen our understanding and encourage more cooking of one of the greatest dishes in the American ...

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BBQ Season Yet?

Russ Parsons talks about Texas BBQ where they take their brisket seriously, via LA Times.

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The Key to Flaky Biscuits

Nothing beats an oven fresh biscuit. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Nothing beats an oven-fresh biscuit. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Ages ago a reader requested a biscuit post and now, in something of a dreary February brain hibernation, I thought would be the perfect time. Donna shot this biscuit while I was writing Ratio and what I love about it is not the ratio itself (3 parts flour : 1 part fat : 2 parts liquid) but rather how the rolling technique results in layered flakiness. It's kind of a cross between a pie crust and puff pastry. A pie crust is flaky because random knots of butter separate layers of dough and puff when baked. With puff pastry, one sets out to create precise layers of dough and butter, hundreds of them, by successively folding and rolling out a ...

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Thoughts on the Eve of a New Year

Hoppin' John for New Year's Day good luck. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

News of tragedies has been heaped upon us, the fortunate, and actual tragedies have made the end of 2012 catastrophic for so many families. Our hearts go out to them, most of all to the parents who lost children in Newtown, CT, and all parents who have lost children of any age. (If any of my readers know actual parents, I urge you to read the novelist Ann Hood's moving and useful words on helping the bereaved.) Meanwhile Congress seems certain to throw our economy back into recession in what is a colossal disgrace of a house divided, and I think the lot of them should be run out of town on a rail. One of the shamed, Senator Joe Manchin, put it rightly ...

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How to Make Thanksgiving Gravy
and Amazing Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Sauce for My Dad. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

My dad made this cranberry sauce when my daughter was very young. He was mystified, as I recall, having never cooked cranberries before, always used the kind with can-ribs, sliceable. That his granddaughter loved it made it very special to him. He continued to make it. His granddaughter is no longer four but rather seventeen and she will be making it this year (and so did I, because I wanted to share it in this post and think of my dad while it cooked). It's really simple, can be done today or the day of (or several days ahead, next year). Just throw everything in the pot, bring it to a simmer, and set a timer for 90 minutes. It will thicken up, but you may want to give it ...

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