Crystal Wilkinson remembers how every morning of her childhood, her tiny grandmother put on an apron and cooked breakfast, using eggs from the family’s chickens and rendered lard from their pigs for biscuits.
Today, Wilkinson is an award-winning poet, author and professor, whose latest book, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks,” takes readers on a culinary exploration of the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians. Wilkinson will speak about the book on Nov. 13 as part of the Carole Weinstein author series at the Library of Virginia.
Wilkinson, a former poet laureate of Kentucky, is the Bush-Holbrook Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky. Part memoir and part cookbook, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” presents a culinary portrait of a family that lived and worked the Appalachian earth for over a century along with nearly 40 family recipes.
The book was inspired by a lyric essay of the same name that Wilkinson wrote for Emergence Magazine. “The core of the choice for this title was about paying homage to my ancestors, especially my matriarchal ones,” she says. “I like the word ghosts for ancestors or spirits. When I think of ghosts, that’s who I’m thinking of, not the “boo!” ghosts with white sheets from the movies I grew up watching.”
Originally, the book was to be stories centered around food with recipes embedded in each chapter and written in the way her grandmother would have instructed her. “I spent many hours researching my family history and hired a genealogy expert who helped me unearth some of the stories,” she says. “But mostly they were stories that I experienced, stories that I was told growing up, stories that I researched.”
A history of bold flavoring
In doing so, she learned that Black and white Appalachia had overlapping traditions, but with distinct differences in some flavor profiles. Because of the lasting impression of Native American and West African influences, Black Appalachian cooking tended to feature a bolder flavor seasoning profile that could include hot pepper.
While all poor people were accustomed to using lesser cuts of meat — pigs’ feet, ham hocks, fatback, chitterlings — those cuts were part of the diet of the enslaved and so carried on into successive generations. “So, some of the key ingredients were the same and some were different, but I also think that the cuisine of the Black Appalachians also has some hints from soul food, which comes from the deeper South,” Wilkinson says. “But if you go far enough into the hollers, you’ll find some of the meals indistinguishable.”
Foraging was extremely important to all families in Appalachia, especially by the end of winter and beginning of spring. Because of how harsh country winters could be, much of the community’s existence depended on the preservation of food. Potatoes were saved in attics or in holes covered with leaves, meat was smoked and cured, and vegetables were canned in jars or dried. Says Wilkinson. “By the end of winter when food was becoming scarce, foraging not only helped supplement the food supply, but it also provided nutrients and tonics to fortify everything that was lost during winter.”
Biscuits and cornbread
Sorghum, an ancient grain from the grass family, was among the cargo brought over with chattel slaves from Africa. Sweet sorghum became popular during shortages of refined sugar such as the Civil War and the Great Depression. Wilkinson’s family made sorghum for years and her grandfather was known for having the best sorghum in their community. “Making sorghum is seasonal and often an event that the entire community participated in and was excited about,” says Wilkinson. “Sorghum is also rich in iron, calcium and potassium, so it was used for more than a poor man’s sweetener.”
Hers was a childhood where there was often something dead in the kitchen, sometimes a squirrel or rabbit, perhaps some recently caught fish or chickens with their feathers still on, and occasionally, an entire hog’s head, its tongue sticking out. Wilkinson’s memories of cooking involved watching her grandmother cook, peering into a pot on the stove standing on a kitchen chair when she was very young. “I think I was perhaps 10 or 11 years old when I began to cook for myself,” she recalls. “First, simple things like a hamburger or soup or biscuits and then the more sophisticated dishes that my grandmother cooked.”
With a lifetime of cooking experiences, Wilkinson has a very specific idea of what constitutes the perfect Appalachian meal. “For me, it’s chicken and dumplings and cornbread. Or soup beans and cornbread,” she says. “The cornbread is important.”
How important? “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” makes clear that the two most central to Black Appalachian cuisine are biscuits and cornbread. But what if she could have only one or the other for the rest of her life? “It would absolutely be cornbread. It’s been a staple in my family all my life,” she says. “Biscuits are a staple, too, but I think of biscuits as perfect for breakfast. But cornbread you can eat at dinner or supper. Of course, if you’re hungry, they’re both good anytime”
The Carole Weinstein author series with Crystal Wilkinson on “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks,” takes place on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St. Free.
