The Kitchen House and Southern Cornbread

I have had a hard time finding the time to sit down and write my book reviews lately!  A big part of the reason is that I am having a bit of a tech overload  - I finally got an iphone (I have used a blackberry for years and still do for work) and then a couple of days later I decided I needed an ipad too.  As a result, I have been distracted by apps, apps and more apps - the exact reason I resisted getting an ipad for so long - I didn't want it to take away from my reading time!  Oh well.  I have put the ipad and iphone aside this evening so I can finally write about The Kitchen House, which I read in a three day frenzy a few weeks ago.  If you are looking for an engrossing book that will really engage you, The Kitchen House is it.  The book follows the story of a young (white) Irish girl who becomes an indentured servant on a Virginia plantation circa 1791.  She lives with the slaves who work in the "Big House"of the plantation owner, the Pyke family,   works with the slaves and becomes part of their family.  A white girl who will eventually gain her freedom living amongst slaves is clearly a situation that will cause drama and strife and the book chronicles the troubles of the Irish girl, Lavinia, the slaves of the Pyke plantation and the dysfunctional, destructive Pyke family itself. Once I got into the book, it was hard to put down - it is filled with dramatic turns and moments where the characters make such bad decisions you find yourself screaming at the book.  The cornbread above was an easy choice for a dish - even though this book is called The Kitchen House, in light of the extreme poor conditions slaves were forced to endure, food was not plentiful.  But good food was celebrated, and this simple cornbread is surely something that Belle, the cook and Lavinia's surrogate mother, would have made. I have heard The Kitchen House compared a lot to The Help, I see the similarities and will speak more about this after the jump.

Kathleen Grissom's The Kitchen House is the story of Lavinia, a young Irish girl who is orphaned on her voyage from Ireland to the United States and taken on as an indentured servant by "The Captain," a Virginia sailor and plantation owner and grows up with the Pyke family plantation's slaves.  For the first couple of chapters of the book, I must admit, I was not sure I understood that Lavinia was white.  Grissom hints at Lavinia's race and her sad story bit by bit, or at least I took it in bit by bit until I suddenly understood that very unique premise of this book.  The story is partly told from Lavinia's perspective and partly through the perspective of Belle, a slave who also happens to be Captain Pyke's secret daughter.  Although Belle is the owner's daughter, she is still a slave and is in charge with the cooking for the "Big House."  Her father keeps promising her  "free papers" but never delivers them, nor does she want them, since the only family she has ever known are the other slaves who work in the "Big House." There is an aura of danger around Belle, since the Captain's wife and son (and his slave master Rankin) do not know she is his daughter but instead think she is his lover, and consequently treat her hatefully.  Belle is charged with caring for Lavinia, a small child, and while the two did not warm to each other immediately, they eventually formed a deep and loving bond.  Lavinia is also taken in with open arms by the other slaves - Mama Mae and Papa George, their daughters, son Ben and Uncle Jacob.   Now I said above that this book is compared to The Help - and the similarities between the books run to both the good things and bad things about the book.  On the good things side we have compelling stories that depict incredibly strong and admirable women (and in The Kitchen House, men) suffering through horrible inequality, poverty and violence. On the good side we also have an effort to tell the story from the point of view of the oppressed - the book is narrated by both Belle and Lavinia, though much more space is given to Lavinia's account.  On the bad side, we have stereotypes that for this liberal Northerner sometimes makes me uncomfortable. I felt this more with The Help, but here in the Kitchen House, even though I really enjoyed this book, I still wish that one of the most lovable characters of the book - Mama Mae - was not just another version of the stereotypical Gone with the Wind "Mammy" character.  In the Kitchen House Mama Mae is a large woman who  the matriarch of the slave family that works in the "Big House" - she becomes an adoptive mother to Lavinia and her love and support of her is heartwarming - but when you read the first description of Mama Mae you will have the sense that you have seen her before, and you have.  I also wish we heard more from Belle  - her chapters are too short.  And it is notable that we really hear an accent in Belle's chapters, but we do not read much of an accent with Lavinia, who is uneducated and Irish.  I will leave the negativity to that  - this book, even beyond Mama Mae, is a fairly stereotypical, standard portrayal of slave life in the South.   That said, I wasn't there, so I can't really say whether the depiction is accurate or not.  Regardless, the family that Lavinia, so clearly unlike the other slaves, finds herself in is loving and supportive.  Lavinia is welcomed by Mama Mae and her husband Papa George, who manages the horses.  Their two twin daughters are Lavinia's age and the three become fast friends.  The owner's of the plantation - the Pykes - are a train wreck of a family - an absent father, a drug addicted, grieving mother, many dead babies, and a truly abused and twisted son - Marshall.  It is clear from the start, even when they were children, that while Lavinia was drawn to Marshall and vice versa, any relationship between them would come to no good. As Lavinia gets older and moves away for a time to live with a family in Richmond, she becomes a less likable character and frankly, sort of stupid.  It is hard as a reader to endure the bad decisions she makes that in turn cause so much tragedy for both herself and those around here.  This is definitely a book where there is no happy ending, where from the start to the end bad things happen.  I respect Grissom for doing this, because in a book about slavery there can be no happy endings - these characters were able to find some love and happiness in their lives, but in the end the tragedy of slavery wrecks everything.  While I have my quibbles with it, I cannot deny that I really found this book affecting and absorbing and recommend you read it and judge for yourself.


Simple Cornbread with Fresh Corn, adapted from Hugh Acheson, found here
(printable recipe)
The cornbread I am used to, New England sttyle, is sweet and rich.  It is usually in muffin or tea bread form and is considered a treat.  Southern cornbread is more utilitarian - no sugar and a accompaniment to richer foods.  I took a recipe for cornbread from Hugh Acheson, who despite his unibrow is pretty dreamy, and just added some fresh corn to give it some texture.  I also cheated and added a little sugar, but this cornbread is still totally savory.  The other big change I made from Hugh's recipe is instead of bacon fat I used butter.  It came out great with butter but would of course be more savory with the bacon grease, if you happen to have any of that lying around.  Also, I think the cast iron skillet is key here to the firm, browned crust.  You see from the bottom picture that my cornbread came out a bit crumbly - I believe this was because of both the corn and I opted for a medium grind yellow cornmeal.  While this tasted great, this would best with fine ground cornmeal, preferably white, which as easy to find in the north.

Ingredients
2 cups Cornmeal (White if you can find it, I could not find it near me, so used yellow)
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
3/4 cup Whole Milk
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1 large Egg
1 cup fresh corn kernels
1/4 cup Bacon Fat or butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.  In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients - cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the milk, buttermilk, egg.  Add the corn and stir to combine.
4. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until combined.
5. Put the butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet and put the skillet in the oven until the butter melts.  When it is melted, take the skillet out of the oven, swirl around the butter so that it coats the bottom and sides of the pan (you can use a brush for this).
6. Pour the rest of the butter into the batter and stir to combine.
7. Pour the batter into the skillet.
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until the sides are slightly browned and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool completely in pan then turn out and slice. (Or you can cut it out of the pan as I did.)