ham. The waitress then sweetly informed me that breakfast came with grits and asked if I want plain or cheesy. That’ s when I made my ignorant Yankee faux pas.
Her sweet demeanor took an immediate leave of absence and she looked at me like I had just inquired about getting an order of par-boiled horse hockey. She called over her shoulder to the cook behind the grill, saying there was somebody out here asking about hash browns. The cook didn’ t even look up, he just said,“ I don’ t do hash browns, we got grits— both ways.”
I have been thinking about how food ways are like folk ways in that they define where we live and to some extent who we are. Which brings up the question of what makes Brown County special, food-wise?
One way to investigate what people do and why they do it is to study migration patterns; in other words, find out where they came from. Indiana has been called the northern-most southern state. And I believe it, because the preponderance of pioneers to the state were Scots-Irish who up came from the south.
You can hear echoes of the south in our hoosier twang. Photographs of Brown County folks and their homesteads, taken a century ago, are practically indistinguishable from pictures of Appalachia. And along with their accents, the early settlers brought their culinary preferences.
As soon as possible, the settlers planted gardens consisting of corn, beans, onions, and cabbages. They brought along milk cows and chickens. Apple orchards were established. Wild game and fish were abundant as well as foraged nuts, berries, and greens. There was no shortage of food but what was in short supply were those things that make food taste better. Things like pepper, spices, and especially sugar.
I figure that’ s why the southern settlers worked out recipes that didn’ t call for much sweetening. It was also a good way to use buttermilk. But a later wave of migration brought folks of German ancestry in from the eastern states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. And those folks brought their own food ways.
I know the first thing I think of when I think about German-American food is sauerkraut. It is easy to prepare, easy to store and pretty tasty. And the same can be said about their sausages. But what I think of most are the desserts. Apple strudel, doughnuts, and stollen— all made with sugar.
I figure maybe those were the folks who first put sugar in their cornbread. I do know that we are lucky to live here in a beautiful Brown County where we can have both kinds of cornbread or even fried biscuits. They’ re all good with apple butter. •
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May / June 2024 • Our Brown County 31