Fish and Chips

Our Mom, Alice was from St. Johns, Newfoundland and married our Dad, Jim when he was stationed there in WWII. One of her favorite things to eat was fish and chips (French fries) and she used to make it for us kids when we were growing up. The authentic way to serve fish and chips is to wrap them in a newspaper page shaped as a cone.

• 1 lb. fish fillets
• 1 egg yolk
• 1-1/2 cups cooking oil for frying
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup flour

Cut fish into serving-size pieces. In medium bowl, first combine 1/2 cup flour and salt. To make the batter, make a "well" in the center; add egg yolk, water and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Stir until batter is smooth. Fold in egg white. Dip fish in the remaining 1/4 cup flour, then into batter. Deep fry fish until golden brown in cooking oil heated to 375 degrees (about 1-1/2 minutes on each side). Serves 3-4.

To make the French fries, slice 2 large russet potatoes into long strips. Fry the potatoes in the same oil used to fry the fish, until golden brown. Remove the fries from the oil with a strainer and allow to dry briefly.

The Bear

Hunting was, pretty much, a way of life for me. I started out settin snares for birds and rabbits and used slingshots for squirrels and finally traded a mess of skins for a 30-30 Winchester and used that rifle for many years. I know a lot of guys opt for the high-powered rifles nowadays, like the semi-automatic 30-06 and the 7mm's. Those are well and good, but with a good 30-30 (we pronounce that thuty-thuty), you can put the balls in a 1-inch circle at 150 yards all day long. In the swamps, if you get a shot much over 20 or 30 yards, it will be because a tree has fallen down. It is some kind of thick in there. After several years of hunting with the thuty-thuty, I finally gave it up for a black powder rifle I made and finally gave up guns all together and hunted only with a bow and arrow.

My favorite hunting area was just in the edge of the Dismal Swamps. This is in Beaufort County, North Carolina and is home to deer, bear, alligators and every kind of poisonous snake on the North American Continent. Including water moccasins, cottonmouths, coral snakes, and diamond back rattlers. I don't kill the snakes. I figure God put them here to do a job and their business ain't none of mine. I didn't worry about the gators, cause unless you got real dumb, they were no problem.

Over the years I had been seeing and hunting for this one particular black bear, but rarely, if ever saw him during hunting season. This bear had a track about 6-1/2 inches across and claws about 4 inches long and I followed that track enough miles to recognize it anyplace in the swamps. Bear season is about a month after deer season starts and is only 1 week long. When I would go deer/bear hunting, I would generally stay out in the swamps until dark and then come on back to the cabin. The part of the Dismal Swamps I hunted in was about 15 miles across and a little over 30 miles long. So it would be pitch dark by the time I would walk the 2 or 3 miles out of the swamps. When I was too far out and there was much quicksand in the area I would climb up a Live Oak and spend the night in the fork of a limb. No need to bother with a light, cause you would just get confused and lost if you tried to actually see your way. I never did get lost in the swamps, but once I was mighty confused for a day. It took me most of the next day to walk back from where I finally came out.

Once, I was in the swamps and a hurricane blew through. When I had walked in I was on dry land. When I came out I was wading in water up to my waist and from the edge of the swamps out to the first land that was not under water was over a mile away. My pocket watch in my bib overalls was a quarter of the way filled with water. That was a lot of rain. Just to give you an idea of how much rain can fall in a hurricane, we had a big one about 3 years ago and it flooded a lot of eastern North Carolina up to a depth of 8 feet. Over 38,000 homes were destroyed.

Anyway, back to the bear. One night I had finally worked my way out of the Dismals to where the trail forked off to the left to my cabin. It was a moonlight night and I could see this big ole hound dog walking down the trail towards me. We keep getting closer and closer to each other, until he was about 10 feet from me and then he turned off the trail going up into the trees alongside the trail going to my cabin. When he made the turn I could see that it wasn't a hound at all, but it was that big ole black bear. That was a lonesome walk up that half-mile long trail. Another time I was up in a homemade tree stand out in back of the cornfield and about a mile back in the woods. Dusk is about the best time for deer hunting and it was just starting to get kinda dark when I heard a low grunt. Sometimes a deer will grunt and I got my bow and arrow ready and was peering out into the trees and brush looking as hard as I could. Couldn't see a dang thing. Kept hearing that low grunt though.

About that time my tree stand kinda jumped and I looked down. There was that dang ole black bear with his paws on my tree stand looking up at me. It was not bear season and I could not legally shoot; I'm not saying that I ran out of the woods, but if that bear had managed to claw me, he would have done serious damage to my butt. Just to let me know that he was boss of the woods, the bear got to where he would either claw up the trees I had stands in or he would claw and chew up my tree stands. On two separate occasions, he drug up deer he had gotten from someplace and ate them within sight of my tree stand. That bear and I had many run ins over the years and I kinda got to where I halfway expected him to be someplace close by. I'm not going to tell about killing him. I can't think of any humorous way to tell it and to be quite truthful, I miss that bear something bad. I don’t hunt anymore.

- Bob Gurkin

Moonshine Recipe

Moonshine Recipe

Always remember. Think before you drink!  Hmmmm, do I have enough moonshine for the party tonight?

Materials

• 1 - 5-gallon container with a bottle neck (glass works best)

• 1 - cork with a hole through it

• 1 - small funnel with an extended glass end (a straw or glass tube will work)

• 1 - balloon

• 5 lb bag of sugar (Optional--2-3 pkgs of fruit)

• Any amount of brewers yeast. (Can be ordered from any chemical supply co)

Process

Start off by mashing the berries (if you have them) into a pulp. If you have the berries you are making wine, if not, you are making shine.  Pour the berries into the container and add the yeast. Slide the glass funnel or straw through the cork. Place the balloon over the funnel or the part of the straw that will be outside the bottle. Cork the bottle and place it in a well-heated place. After a couple of days the balloon will have inflated. Crack the cork open and let some of the air out (not all of it though!).  Smells good doesn’t it? Keep this up for about 5 weeks, until the balloon no longer inflates.

Filtration

Remove the cork and set up some type of filtration into another container. Use a funnel along with a filter (coffee filters work great).  Pour all of the mix through the filter. After the filtration you have wine/moonshine. This needs to age a bit to really start tasting good. It will taste pretty good right out of the bottle, but will taste better a month later. Store it in glass containers in a cool dark place.

Like it Stronger?

After distillation, the mix is about 20 to 30 proof.  If you can obtain a distiller, distill the alcohol out and remove some of the liquid.  Add the alcohol back in.  You can make it as strong as you like – 170 to 180 proof is easily obtained.

-Bob Gurkin

Kilgore Futch and the Motorcycle

Kilgore Futch and the Motorcycle

Kilgore and his brother Boo Hutch were two of the roughest customers in the Dismal Swamps. Both wore their hair long and combed back into a 'Ducktail'. They always had a pack of Bull Durham tobacco in their shirt pockets and the string with the round paper tab was always hanging on the outside of that pocket. They wore heavy engineers boots that were shod with steel toe and heel taps and the boys called them 'stompin' boots'. Their shirtsleeves would be rolled up two laps and you would never find them without a toothpick stuck in the comer of their mouths. If a moonshine still got robbed or a hog stolen or the general store broken into, the High Sheriff always paid them a visit first, but he always had 2 or 3 deputies with him when he went.

One hot summer day, Kilgore came riding up Main Street in Selma, NC on one of the prettiest motorcycles I have ever seen and was it throwing up a nice plume of dust behind him. He revved the motor and kicked it into a slide and skidded right up to the boardwalk in front of the General Store. What part of the motorcycle that wasn't chromed was pure, snow white. It had a 2 cycle, upright motor on it and had 2 spark plugs even though both of them were on top of the only cylinder on the motor. It was some kinda pretty and would do a top speed of 45 mph. This was in the days when the national speed limit was only 35. On the side of the gas tank was emblazoned "Simplex Service Cycle" with the wings of eagles sprouting behind those words. A belt ran from the motor up to a clutch assembly and then a bigger belt went from that clutch to a big pulley that went around the rim of the rear wheel. I wanted that motorcycle some kinda bad.

About 3 months later I was over to the roadhouse and a few of us boys were in the back room, tugging on a little shine and playing poker. About 10 that night here come Kilgore. He joined in the game and it won't very long till it was just him and me playing stud poker, no limit (which won't very much for us). We had a couple of good hands between us and finally up came one hand in which Kilgore was showing 3 of a kind and I was showing an Ace high spade flush. Kilgore bet a couple of times and on the last card I hit it with everything I had. Kilgore studied long and hard and finally in the face of that flush he folded. As I was raking in the pot I let my hold card "accidentally" turn over and it showed the 3 of hearts. I had won that pot on a busted flush. Kilgore got really quiet and I could see that he was about as mad as I have ever seen him get without someone getting hurt. He didn't say a word and we kept playing. About 7:00 am I was starting to get a little tuckered but Kilgore would not stop. Then on the next hand he was showing 4 cards to a straight and was betting pretty heavy. I was showing 4 cards to a diamond flush and didn't raise any, but wouldn't fold. On the last card I placed a modest bet and Kilgore called and raised by sliding all of his money into the middle of the table. I called, then I raised by putting my Winchester 30-30 on top of the pile. Kilgore had to call or fold. He got a thoughtful look on his face and slowly slid his wallet out and took out the registration paper to the Simplex motorcycle. I nodded my acceptance and with a chortle he turned over an Ace to give him a high straight. The boys standing around all sighed and it looked like my Winchester was going home with Kilgore this day. With fingers that trembled ever so slightly, I turned over the Ace of Diamonds for a straight flush. If you would ever like to see that Simplex Motorcycle, jest stop on by.  It’s as pretty as the day I got it.

Bob Gurkin

Grandma Estelle's Chickens

Grandma Estelle's Chickens

Uncle Bud and Uncle Jessie were two of the best moonshiners in Johnston County. Unfortunately, they did their own 'taste testing' and most of the time the revenuers were a tad smarter than they were. So we only saw them occasionally. They drove the same old rusty Studebaker truck all the time and most of the fenders were just a memory. Each wheel wanted to go in a different direction and I believe they were the inventors of 'straight pipes'. You could hear them coming from away off And they thought that if they put a layer of straw over the 'shine' in the back of that truck it would be pretty well hidden.

One afternoon in August they were out to the house paying their respects to Grandma Estelle, and Bo Beasley came running into the house yelling that the revenuers were sneaking up through the cornfield. Course it won't true. (That boy always did have a mean streak). Anyway, Uncles Bud and Jessie took off through the cotton patch and dumped the corn likker into the spring on the way. In just a few seconds they were bouncing down the Old Stage road heading for Beaufort County.

The livestock would drink out of that spring and in just a short while every chicken on the place was laying as stiff as a poker and dead to the world. Grandma Estelle cried awhile and then put us to work plucking chickens. We plucked chickens up till time to go to the 'camp meeting' and gospel sing at the Shilo Hard Rock Baptist Church. We left the chickens laying in a pile and figured to finish them up by lantern light later that night. We all had a rousing time and sometime later I will tell you a little about some of the religions we have down here.

When we got back to the house later that evening all of the chickens were gone. We figured that the 'no account' Hutch family who lived just up the holler had taken them. Kilgore Hutch was about the worst of the lot. The next morning, at sunrise, we were awakened by a rooster crowing. They jest won't no way. That rooster had been laying dead with the other chickens last night. When we got to the back porch and looked, the back yard was full of bald chickens that we had plucked. Grandma finally figured out what Uncles Bud and Jessie had done and that the chickens hadn’t been dead at all, but just passed out drunk.

Bob Gurkin (posted by Brother Rick)

Hoppin' John

Hoppin' John

In the South, eating Hoppin' John on New Year's Day is thought to bring a prosperous year filled with luck. The peas are symbolic of pennies or coins, and a coin is sometimes added to the pot or left under the dinner bowls. Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, chard, kale, cabbage, etc. along with this dish are supposed to also add to the wealth since they are the color of American currency. Another traditional food, cornbread, can also be served to represent wealth, being the color of gold. On the day after New Year's Day, leftover "Hoppin' John" is called "Skippin' Jenny," and further demonstrates one's frugality, bringing a hope for an even better chance of prosperity in the New Year.

Best made with fresh shelled or frozen black-eyed peas, because it won’t get as dry as when you use dried peas.

• 1 lb fresh pork neck bones
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 4 cups fresh black-eyed peas or 3 packages (10 oz each) frozen peas 
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme 
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 cup rice, uncooked

Wash the neck bones, put in a pot with enough water to cover them, and let come to a boil. Turn the heat to low and cook slowly until tender, about 1 hour. Remove the neck bones from the pot, skim off the fat, and strain the liquid. If necessary, add water to the broth to make 4 cups liquid. Put the liquid back into the pot and add the peas, onion, garlic salt, thyme, and red pepper. Let come to a boil. Put in the rice. Stir well and cover. Reduce the heat to low and let cook slowly for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pick the meat off the neck bones. Add it to the peas and rice for a one-dish meal.

Serves 8.

Bob Gurkin (posted by Brother Rick)

Asking Mama Cora for a Rich Potion

Asking Mama Cora for a Rich Potion

Great Aunt Coralee Lewis was well known in the Dismal Swamps of North Carolina. The swampers all jest called her Mama Cora. She was a JuJu Woman and could make up potions to cure most ails. She could talk the warts off anyone and she could make you a mojo that would protect you from another JuJu Woman. Love potions and casting spells kept her right busy.

She lived in a cypress clapboard cabin that had turned grayish silver from age. It sat on pilings at the edge of the swamps and was a little rickety with age, but suited her jest fine. You hardly ever caught her without her corncob pipe or a 'dip' of snuff She was tanned to about the color of old leather and for as long as I can remember, she would have some young feller staying in the cabin with her. They would jest show up and stay for 6 months or so and then disappear. I don't remember ever seeing one of them again after they left, but directly here would come another one for a while. Her back porch hung over the edge of the swamps and the gators that hung out there were unusually fat from all the garbage she would feed them. She sure loved those gators and even had pet names for some of them.

When I was about 20 years old, I stopped by Aunt Coralees to visit for a spell and asked her to give me a potion that would make me rich. She kinda chuckled and told me to wait there. I could hear her rummaging around in her cabin and shortly she pushed open the screen door and said "Here, Boy. You drink this" She handed me a dipper that was filled with a bilious green liquid that kinda glowed in the twilight. I steeled myself and drank it right down. It tasted pretty good. I kinda got just a little floaty; something like after a couple of good shots of moonshine, but it didn't last very long.

Soon after I left the Dismals and started working for a living. During the years I have made a decent living, married a really fine lady and we had a passel of children. The children all grew up in fine health and married well themselves. The wife and I do love to have our children and grandchildren come visit, but I never did get rich.

Eula's Home Made Ice Cream

Eula’s Home Made Ice Cream

My Dad gave me this recipe a few years ago from Lib Gurkin's Aunt, Eula, who lived next to the Gurkin Quiet Place in Smithfield, NC - Eula passed away not long ago. Definitely use fresh peaches if they're in season. But I love this simple recipe - it's simple to make and doesn't require an ice cream maker if you don't have one - and you can even make some in the middle of Winter!

• 4 Eggs
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 can Peaches (Sweetened)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Flavoring
• 2 tbs Flour
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 can Evaporated Milk
• 1 qt Whole Milk

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and refrigerate overnight.

The Passing of Bob Gurkin

It's been a long time since my Brother, Bob and I posted on our blog. The reason being that Bob passed away unexpectedly in August 2013. After his passing, I sort of forgot about everything.

Bob was the creative genius behind the White Trash Cooking blog. His recipes were as he remembered them over the years, from a very young age. Bob had a wonderful memory. He could remember many recipes that our Grandmother used to make when he was a little boy. Bob's tall tales came from his wonderful imagination for the most part. He did intertwine stories from our family in his tales as well. But for the most part, the names were changed - to protect the innocent I suppose. I sorely miss that amazing mind of his.

But life goes on and I'm going to attempt to pick things back up on our blog. I don't know about all the tall tales but I will add more recipes.

Thanks for visiting our blog and if you'd ever like to share a recipe, an experience or your own tall tale, I'd love to hear them.

Y'all take care and come back soon!

Rick Gurkin