Have You Ever Eaten Leather Britches?

Last week, I was in need of some comfort food. Whew, what a week it was! My husband was in Costa Rica for work and since it was just my son and I to cook for, we started the week off with simple suppers of a sandwich, soup, or takeout. That lasted until about Wednesday and I was ready for some REAL food. I decided on a menu of chicken 'n dumplins, sourwood honey glazed carrots, and leather britches. 

Some of you may be wondering, "What in the world are leather britches?!" No, I didn't cut up and cook a pair of leather pants. Leather britches are what people in my part of Appalachia (western NC) call dried green beans. As you can see from the picture below, dried green beans are wrinkled and brown...much like what a pair of wet leather pants end up looking like once they've dried. These dried beans are also called shuck/shucky beans and fodder beans in different parts of Appalachia.

 Long before canning jars and freezer bags, people needed a way of preserving food for the winter and most vegetables and fruits were dried. Beans were a main staple to be "put up" because they provided a great source of protein throughout the winter months. 

According to the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, "Two drying methods were commonly used. For both, the bean was harvested when mature but while the pod was still edible. The first method involved stringing whole, unbroken pods, like stringing popcorn for Christmas garlands. Using a big darning needle, the processor carefully inserted strong thread between the two middle beans in a pod. When the string of whole beans was three to four feet long, the thread was knotted and the string of beans hung to dry, traditionally in such places as the porch, from roof rafters, or on a wall behind a wood burning kitchen stove. The beans slowly dried, turned straw colored, and shriveled. After drying, they were stored in cloth sacks or, more recently, in glass jars or freezers."

I use the first method to prepare my beans and hang them up in a warm upstairs room. Once dried, I remove them from the strings and store them in glass Mason jars.

"The second method was to snap the pods into bite-size pieces, then spread them on white cloths and place them in a sunny place to dry. Many women chose to break their beans before drying because it was nearly impossible to pull the threads out of beans dried by the stringing method." My husband's Granny Bertha used this method but would spread the broke beans out on a cookie sheet and place it in the back window of her car until they were dried. 

I always remove the strings from the beans before I thread them up into the "garland." I use kite string but any good strong thread will do. I found that it took around 4 weeks for my beans to be completely dried but the time will differ based on the temperature and humidity of where you choose to dry them. 

When I'm ready to prepare the beans, I soak them in a bowl of water over night...just as you would any dried bean. 

The next morning, you'll notice that the beans have swelled back up to normal or close to normal size. Drain the water and add the beans to a pot. Cover the beans with fresh water and add a piece of fatback or bacon. Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender. 

The finished product! My husband kept rubbing in the fact that he was getting to enjoy some fresh, Costa Rican pineapple. I sent him this picture and told him that he could have his ol' pineapple because I was planning to eat "high on the hog" that night! ;)

I've had some people tell me that you can cook these beans in a slow cooker all day and I plan on trying that method out very soon. I'll let you know how they turn out!

I canned most of my green beans this year (white half runners and greasy backs). Even though canning has replaced the need for drying beans, I feel connected to my past when I string up, dry, and then cook a pot of leather britches. The intense meaty flavor and good memories they bring will probably encourage me to continue working up and cooking them for many more years. 

Isn't it amazing how a bite or smell of certain foods can transport you back to a different place and time? My great grandma Collett (Mamaw) always had leather britches for holiday meals. After my first bite, I was taken back to sitting in Mamaw's kitchen while she buzzed around making sure that everything was ready to be enjoyed by her family. Food seems to provide an express ticket to Memory Lane for me.

Have you ever had leather britches? Is there a certain food or foods that take you back to a different place and time? Please leave a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

Canning & Preserving

A few things that I've worked on putting away this summer: strung up green beans 
for drying (leather britches), grape juice, peaches, salsa, and vegetable soup. 

One of my favorite things about Appalachia is the FOOD. Most southerners equate food for love. I've been a foodie long before that was ever a term and you can tell by looking at me that I am well loved. Ahem. We tend to show up with a casserole dish for every kind of occasion: births, baptisms, graduations, reunions, engagements, weddings and even deaths. 

The story of how we obtain and prepare food, like most of Appalachian culture, is a saga of change. The region has evolved from simple self-sufficiency to more of a Wal-Mart, Ingles, fast food culture. 

"Traditional food and cooking in the Appalachian highlands have a strong association with self-sufficiency and hard times. Families in isolated areas were obliged to grow most of what they ate, buying only those products they could not raise, such as coffee and baking soda. Before the advent of food preservation technologies such as canning and freezing, mountaineers had to depend on root cellars or trenches for storing potatoes and cabbage, and the diet in winter could become seriously deficient in vegetables and fruits, leading in the worst cases to scurvy and other nutrient-deficiency diseases."
Encyclopedia of Appalachia

When my Granny was my age, the majority of women she knew canned vegetables, fruits, jellies, etc. I only know a handful of people my age who do. The most common reasons are the lack of time and the belief that it's cheaper just to buy it at the grocery store. I assure you that your time invested will not be in vain and in this case, as in most, cheaper is not better. There is nothing better than opening and cooking a jar of home canned green beans, or anything really, on a cold winter day. It's like a spoonful of summer right there on your plate. 

Of all the things that make up our cultural identities, people seem to cling to food the most. I have recently been more interested in learning to cook and preserve food the way my family has for dozens of years. This summer, I have canned more food from our family garden than I have in the past 16 years that I've been married. It is a lot of work but so rewarding to see those jars fill up and know that my family will eat well after the garden has withered away. 

Do you or anyone you know enjoy canning? What kind of things to you put up for the winter? I look forward to sharing some of the recipes and methods that I've learned this summer!