Dr. David S. Shields, MCClintock Professor of Southern Letters http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/eal/davidsshields/
777-7630 Dshields@mailbox.sc.edu
Office Welsh 207 Office Hours 11-12:15 M-T-W
Mission:
An examination of southern food from the period of European contact to the present, reflecting upon its agricultural production, processing, consumption, and symbolic uses. You will learn how to grow it, cook it, eat it, and talk about it. An important dimension of the course will be the exploration of Native
American, African American, French, and Spanish-American influences on Anglo-American culture of the kitchen. Our inquiry will be historical. Yet great attention will be given to enduring elements of the cookery—ingredients, communal functions, and commercial treatments. Home cookery, camp cookery, restaurant fare, and industrially processed food will be discussed in turn. As part of the classroom experience, guest speakers—farmers, chefs, commercial food producers, and food historians will address the class.
Required Texts:
James G. Thomas & Ann Abadie The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 7: Foodways (Chapel
Hill: University of N. Carolina Press, 2007)
John Egerton, Southern Food: at Home and On the Road (Chapel Hill: Univ. of S. Carolina Press, 1993).
Sarah Rutledge, The Carolina Housewife (Columbia: U of South Carolina Reprint).
Grading will be based on three written exercises, three open book quizzes, and a final exam.
Three writing exercises: [Detailed protocols will be provided in the assignments section of the blackboard site for this course.]
1.
An exploration of a culinary ingredient, indicating its production, its history, and and its culinary uses. 6-8 pp. Due Sept 25
2.
An essay on labor, food, and identity, with particular issues drawn from a list of possible topics that will be circulate on Sept. 15. 8 pp. Due October 18.
3.
An analysis and critique of a southern cookbook or food memoir. 6-8 pp. Due November 20.
Grade percentages:
Writing 1 20% Quiz2 7%
Writing2 20% Quiz3 6%

Writing3
Quiz1
20%
6%
Final 20%
Non-attendance will be penalized by subtraction from your final grade score. If you miss more than 5 sessions, there will be an automatic failure of the course registered for your grade.
AUG 24
AUG 26
AUG 31
SEPT 2
SEPT 9
SEPT 14
SEPT 16
Land as Provender—Native American Foodways
Fish and Game, Fruits & Berries. Special Foci: The Chestnut. The Squash.
Reading: Eden, Cooking in America, pp. 1-15.
Maize becomes Corn. Special Focus: Hominy
L. M. Berzok, American Indian Food, pp. 49-96 [Blackboard].
Importing English Ways
Beef and Wheat. Special Foci: Bread. Beer.
Eden, Cooking in America, pp. 44-51, 75-80, 102-107
Apples, Pears, and Peaches. Special Foci: Cider. Fruit Pie. Peach Brandy.
Blackboard folder on Cider & Fruits
The Pig
The Types and Temperaments of Hogs. Focus: Pig food—mast or corn?
Peter Kaminsky, The Pig Perfect, Chapters 1-3
Ham. Speaker: Emile deFelice, Caw-Caw Creek Farms
Shields, “The Search for the Cure,” http://www.common-place.org/vol-08/no-01/shields/
Barbeque. The emergence of local traditions. Tasting.
Encyclopedia-Foodways. Entries on Barbeque/Carolinas/Memphis/Texas

SEPT 21
SEPT 23
SEPT 28
SEPT 30
OCT 5
OCT 7
OCT 12
OCT 14
The African Contribution
Benne, Okra, Cow Peas, Watermelon. Focus: The lost sesame cookery.
[Blackboard folders on Benne, Okra] Anne Bower, African American
Foodways, 17-45
Frying and Stewing. Cooking in one pot, the African-American legacy.
Jessica Harris, Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons, 15-56.
The Carolina Rice Kitchen
Carolina Gold Rice, a History.
Shields, “Carolina Gold Rice” [Blackboard] Rutledge, Carolina Housewife
Hoppin’ John, Rice Bread, and Perloo. Focus: recreating rice bread 2009
Hess, Carolina Rice Kitchen. Littlefied, Rice and the Making of SC, 12-44.
Sweet Stuff
Sweet Potato, Cane Sugar, Beet Sugar, Sorghum.
Mintz, Sweetness & Power, Chapters 4 & 5. [Sweet Potato, Sorghum Files]
Sweetmeats and confections. Special focus: the history of the praline.
Sybil Kein, Creole, pp. 251-260. [Confections File, Blackboard]
Baking
The cake, the cook book, and the world of women’s culinary prestige.
Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household, 7-50.
The Southern Gardner & Receipt Book, pp. 163-232. http://books.google.com/books?id=ztnX7QxhK1gC
Quick bread, corn bread, spoon bread. Special foci: baking soda & powder.
Encyclopedia-Foodways, Baking, p 223 passim.
Rutledge, Carolina Housewife—baking chapters

OCT 19
OCT 21
OCT 26
Hunting & Cooking
Wild fowl. Special foci: The Canvasback Duck. The Rice Bird.
[Blackboard Folder: Wild Fowl]
Deer, hares, and squirrels. Special foci: burgoo & Mulligatawny stew.
Billy Joe Cross, Cooking Wild Game & Fish Mississippi Style.
Beverages 1
Bourbon.
Cowdery, Charles K. Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American
OCT 28
NOV 9
NOV 11
Whiskey, 34-88.
Madeira, Sweet Tea, & Lemonade.
Madeira: http://www.juniata.edu/services/jcpress/voices/pdf/2008/Madeira%20-
%20James%20Tuten%20-%20Juniata%20Voices.pdf
Sweet Tea: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/IcedTeaHistory.htm
New Orleans
NOV 2 The Gumbo Aesthetic. FocI: 3 visions of soup—seafood, chicken & andouille, z’herbes [Gumbo folder on Blackboard] Encylopedia-Foodways, Gumbo entry
NOV 4 French Creole, Cajun, and Soul: 3 ways of looking at crawfish.
Lafcadio Hearn, La Cuisine Creole (1888): http://books.google.com/books?id=QXEEAAAAYAAJ&dq
Restaurants
Fine dining & the canon of southern cooking. Foci: Menus.
Galatoire’s Cookbook, Introduction. Soups. Meats.
Local fare: funky cookery in neighbor eateries.
Egerton, Southern Food: at Home and On the Road, pp. 51-109

NOV 16
NOV 18
NOV 23
NOV 30
DEC 2
Chicken
A history of fried chicken.
John T. Edge, Fried Chicken, an American Story.
Industrial farming & fast food eating.
Joe Gray Taylor, Eating, Drinking, and Visiting in the South, pp. 149-172.
Beverages 2:
Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Nehi Orange soda
Mark Prendergast, For God, Country, and Coca Cola, pp. 3-135
Neo-Southern Cooking
Authentic food & sustainable agriculture. Speaker: Glenn Roberts.
Television, publishing, and regional cooking. Speaker: Nathalie Dupree.