Taproots of Tennessee

What was served at President James K. Polks White House dinners? What foods graced the table of John Sevier, Tennessees First Governor? In Taproots of Tennessee, Lynne Drysdale Patterson answers these questions and more, exploring nearly two centuries of Tennessee foodways. Readers will discover that Tennessee taste encompasses the exquisite, such as President Polks French-inspired Croquettes Poulet with Bechamel Sauce and General James Winchesters spoils-of-the-hunt Roast Goode with Wild Rice and Wild Fox Grape Stuffing, to simpler fair, including Dr. Humphrey Howell Bates fried pies and Alex Haleys boyhood menu of sweet tea and Southern staples. Patterson takes readers on a historical and culinary tour of the Tennessee Historical Commissions seventeen state historic sites with a collection of period foods from each site and menus with updated recipes for the twenty-first century food enthusiast. Pattersons site histories provide readers with a journey through the accounts of Tennessees early settlers, their homesteads, cookery, schoolhouses, stage coach stops, and religious life. Her site recipes range from historic offerings, such as peaches from General Daniel Smiths Rock Castle State Historic Site orchard fashioned into a delectable peach pound cake-potentially shared with neighbors Andrew and Rachel Donelson Jackson-to more modern representations of historic foodways, such as Scottish-influenced Scotch Barley Soup and Scotch Egg likely eaten by Sam Houston. From homes of Tennessees first families to stagecoach stops in the 1830s, from Civil War command posts to rural schoolhouses, foodies and academics alike will delight in this compendium of Southern recipes, served with a generous helping of history.