Rabbit and Spare Ribs
If you're the hunting type and aren't opposed to shootin' or snarin' a nice, fat rabbit - or even if you're not the hunting type and just like experimentin' with different kinds of wild meats - like bear, venison, etc. - you can find dressed rabbits in certain specialty meat stores. Personally, catching a rabbit is my preference.
- 1 rabbit, cut into pieces
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 lbs pork spare ribs
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried sage
- 2 teaspoons salt
Wash the rabbit well and place in a large pot covered with water. Let come to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and cook slowly for 45 minutes. Add the ribs, seasonings and 3 cups water. Cover the pot and let come to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low; cook until all the meat is tender, about 45 minutes. Note. 3 lbs pork neck bones can be substituted for the spare ribs.
Serves 6-8.
Pickin’ Tobacco
When I was a very young boy, barely standing as high as a full-grown tobacco plant, my Dad asked me one summer if I was ready to help pick tobacco. My full day’s pay for picking tobacco was to be the great sum of one dollar. Well, in those days, one dollar was a whole lot of money – especially to a young boy like me – so I immediately said “Sure!” – thinking I was making easy money for hardly any work – boy, was I wrong.
The next morning, my Dad woke me up before dawn. We got into his pickup truck and drove over to the tobacco fields. It was August in North Carolina and the cool of the early morning would soon give way to the hot, humid and hazy heat of the day. If you have never seen or touched a tobacco plant, it has a sticky resin all over its leaves and coats your clothes and skin after touching it. At the end of the day, your whole body is coated with the resin, which is very hard to wash off. I would pick the leaves and carry armfuls to a trailer that was pulled over to curing barns by a tractor. The tobacco leaves were tied in groups to long sticks and then hung inside the curing barns, which were like hot ovens – temperatures inside would be almost 130 degrees. You could walk inside for only a few seconds before becoming soaking wet with sweat. And you had to be careful of the snakes – cottonmouths and copperheads – they were everywhere.
At the end of the long, steamy hot day – almost at dusk, my Dad said we were finally done. I was way past done – I immediately fell asleep in the truck on the way home. I didn’t want to take a bath after supper because I was so tired, but I had to because I was filthy. The next morning, we got up again at dawn and did it all over again. This went on for a couple of weeks, until all the tobacco had been picked and hung for curing.
I was finally paid for my two weeks of work – a grand total of $14 – plus an extra $1 as a bonus for getting the job done ahead of schedule. I never had so much money in my life. I couldn't wait to spend some of it, so the first place I went to was the “Toot ‘n Tell It” drive-in in Garner, North Carolina. They had the best “All The Way (mustard, chili, coleslaw, and Frosty Morn weiners)” hot dogs I'd ever eaten – and their ice cream milk shakes were to die for. I put the rest of the money into my piggy bank.
I’ll never forget those tobacco pickin’ days. It was hard work, but I sure loved it.
- Rick Gurkin
North Carolina Stump Beer
Also known as “Pure Old Panther Piss”. This recipe is very simple and can be made without having to go out and purchase a lot of equipment. If you happen to have a fermentation lock and carboy, use it. But if you don’t, this method will work fine. This beer was popular in North Carolina during the Prohibition because the main ingredients, malt syrup and hops flavoring, plus sugar and yeast were sold in most food stores (still is in some places).
- 1 3-lbs can Blue Ribbon or other hops-flavored malt syrup
- 4 lbs cane sugar
- 1 packet beer yeast (bakers yeast works – but beer yeast is preferred because it settles better)
- 1-1/4 cup cane sugar (for priming)
- 5 gallons water
Boil malt, 4 lbs sugar and water for 30 minutes, and then pour into a sterilized food-grade plastic bucket, marked at the 5-gallon level. Add boiled water to the 5-gallon mark, cover with a plastic trash bag secured with rubber bands. When cooled to room temperature, add yeast and let it work until only a few bubbles are breaking the surface (about 5 days at room temperature).
Next, siphon your beer into another sterilized bucket, leaving the gunk (lees) that’s settled to the bottom behind. Cover and let settle for about 3 days until bubbling has ceased. Your beer is flat at this point. Dissolve 1-1/4 cup of sugar in about a quart of boiling water and pour into a sterilized bucket. Then siphon the beer into it carefully, being sure to leave the gunk (lees) behind again. Mix the beer and bottle. The beer will carbonate in the bottle.
For success and safety, bottles must be sterilized and strong. For sterility, clean them with a diluted bleach/water mixture, then rinse well. Be sure to rinse the bottles completely of bleach, as bleach kills yeast. Regarding strength, use only bottles that require a bottle opener to remove the cap. Bottles with twist-off caps are thinner and prone to explosion. Or use the 2-liter plastic and aluminum containers, which some beer comes in. You should buy new caps and a capper from a homebrew store. 5 Gallons = 640 fluid ounces, or 54 – 12 oz. Bottles.
This recipe is very simple and can be made without having to go out and purchase a lot of equipment. If you to have a fermentation lock and carboy, use it. But if you don't, this method will work just fine.
This beer was popular in North Carolina and during Prohibition because the main ingredients, malt syrup with hops flavoring, plus sugar and yeast were sold in food stores (still is in some places).
- Bob Gurkin
Building The Baseline
Back in the year of'1948 the Dismal Swamps stretched about 60 miles from the edge of Pinetown, North Carolina - clear over to the other side of Little Washington. Every tree in sight had been hacked down and hauled out of the swamps on a narrow gauge railroad spur that had been run 7 miles out into the swamps for the express purpose of hauling those trees out. That spur later became a short stretch of road called Gurkin's Switch. My Great Grandfather James David Gurkin drove that train, and my daddy, James Lewis Gurkin was a Southern Railroad man all of his working life. That spring of'1948, several trucks from the North Carolina Department of Prisons pulled up to the edge of the swamps and after all of the Prison Guards got their double-barreled, 12-gauge shotguns ready, the convicts on the chain gang were turned out and pointed to the swamps and told to "Git to diggin".
Two sets of prisoners consisting of 50 men in each set started digging a huge ditch. Here in the swamps the main ditches are actually canals and are called draglines. A parallel line of canals about 60 feet apart was dug, headed into the swamps, straight as an arrow. All of the dirt and muck removed from the draglines was thrown into the middle to create a roadbed. I cannot begin to describe the misery and hard life of the men on the chain gang. The working conditions were appalling. The pair of draglines was about 15 feet deep. The convicts had to work in two layers. The bottom crew would be in water all day long. Sometimes up to their waists. They would shovel the dirt and muck to a height of about 8 feet. Then the next layer of convicts would shovel it up to the edge of the roadbed. Then the last group of men would shovel and rake it mostly flat but humped up in the middle. Huge stumps from the old forest were wrestled by hand out of the dragline. Rain or shine. Heat of the summer or cold of the winter, those convicts pick-axed and shoveled. If a man didn't work hard enough he was dragged out of the ditch and chained to one of the trucks and beaten till he couldn't move anymore and then thrown into the back of a truck till time to go back to the prison camp. But the draglines kept moving. If a man died on the job he was put into the back of the same truck and the dragline kept moving. Today that road between those draglines is called The Baseline. It stretches as far as the eye can see, straight as an arrow through miles of the dismals. I take the long way around; I don’t drive the Baseline road.
Southern Boatman’s Fish Stew
A really good 1960's ‘down south’ recipe. If you can't find any cod, haddock, or halibut, you can use whatever firm-fleshed white fish you can buy at the supermarket. A good, inexpensive and filling stew.
- 2 lbs firm-fleshed white fish (cod, haddock, halibut), cut in large chunks
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 onions sliced
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 6-oz can tomato paste
- 3 cups water
- ½ teaspoon each; red pepper and black pepper
- 1 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 6 slices of Italian bread (toasted, if desired)
Sprinkle fish with ½ teaspoon salt; let stand 1 hour. Meanwhile, lightly brown onion in hot oil; drain. Stir in water, tomato paste, red pepper, black pepper, 1-½ teaspoons salt, parsley and wine. Simmer 20 minutes. Add fish; simmer about 10 minutes longer or just until fish flakes easily with a fork. To serve, place a slice of bread in each soup bowl, ladle soup over. 6 servings.
