Nostalgia on ice: Cold, sugary tea is a sweet Southern tradition

wilmington star ^ | 13 June 2007 | Lisa Singhania

[The KG9 Kid]

Next time you make fresh brewed iced tea, make it with Earl Gray:

[RockinRight]

Here in Maryland it’s usually unsweetened, but once you cross the Potomac into Virginia they usually give you an option.

By the time you hit the Carolinas, it’s sweet all the way.

[Tokra]

Switchel anyone?

Actually - I've tried it and liked it. Another old-time Northern drink was Shrub - a fruit drink with a vinegar base. Rasberry, cherry and blackberry shrub are great!

Raspberry Shrub

4 quarts ripe raspberries
4 cups white or red wine vinegar 1 1/2 lbs. sugar

Wash 2 quarts of the raspberries, pour vinegar on top and mash with a wooden spoon in a glass dish. Cover and let stand for 48 hours at room temperature.

Wash remaining raspberries and pour over them, through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, the liquid formed by the first batch, discarding pulp. Let stand another 48 hours.

Mash well and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.Add the sugar to the juice and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup has come to a full rolling boil. Strain again through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Cool and bottle. Yield: 8 - 10 cups.

To serve as a long, cool drink,pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup into a glass and fill with ice and water or soda water. To serve as a liqueur, pour 1 -2 Tbsp. into a small glass and add double the amount of gin, brandy or vodka and stir. Serve well iced.

Nectar of the gods.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Most French cuisine is the same. All of the sauces and marinades were to tenderize tough cuts of meat. My mother was a great cook (I didn’t get that gene), and she could take an old shoe and make it tender and tasty.

[-YYZ-]

When I was younger I made the mistake of taking “Iced Tea” from the self-serve tap at a Burger King in the US (I’m from Canada). To my disgust, it was unsweetened iced tea with no lemon. I was used to the Canadian BK stuff which was made from concentrate and had sugar and lemon in it. But that type of stuff is not very good compared to proper iced tea made from brewed tea, sugar and lemon. The worst of all iced tea made from powder (instant tea with sugar and artificial lemon flavour), or bottled and canned iced teas made form the same, like “Brisk”, or “NesTea” canned iced teas. Lipton and Snapple do sell bottled iced teas made from real, brewed tea, which are much better.

[Daffynition]

I like the “gin, brandy or vodka” part!

[Tokra]

I am a southerner and its always been called a cold drink. I have only heard northerners call it a soda. Its always a cold drink or a coke. No matter what brand, its always called a coke.

I found that out while living in Oklahoma City. I ordered a coke and the waitress asked "what kind?" I thought she meant regular or diet. She said, "Do you want a 7-Up coke or a rootbeer coke or what?"

I thought maybe I had wandered into a mental institution.

[Tokra]

Apples and oranges. Chicken-fried steak is originally from the poorest cuts of beef. Beating the hell out of it, breading it and frying it for a bit actually did it some good. You’ll find that many Southern dishes are based on what rural poor people could get.

Same in the North - only we didn't fry it, we'd braise it and call it Swiss Steak.

[Wyatt's Torch]

“Best Served with BBQ”

Dang straight. Anything else with BBQ should be a crime and likely is in some small towns...

[Tokra]

The cuts of steak used for chicken fried steak are usually the less expensive, less desirable ones, such as chuck steak, round steak, and occasionally flank steak, cuts of meat usually relegated to hamburger or stew meat. The better cuts are seldom used for this dish. It probably originated in Texas, where German immigrants applied their weiner schnitzel recipes to the tougher cuts of steak. It spread from Texas into the South and Midwest, and is sometimes called country fried steak in those regions.

We do the same thing (almost) with the tougher steaks in the North - but we don't dip them in batter and deep fry them.

I'm from Michigan which was settled mostly by the Germans also.

[KMJames]

“Ocra” is acceptable, and dictionary.com even lists “ochra” as an alternate spelling...but...I will acquiesce (accede, concur, capitulate) that “okra” seems to be the most common spelling.

I wish you hadn’t brought up that chicken fried steak and white pepper sauce, though. I got me a hankerin’ for some right now.

[uglybiker]

I was outside Charleston not long ago and I ordered a glass of sweet tea at a seafood place. They told me they didn’t have sweet tea, and I was utterly stunned.

Sacrilege!

[Resolute Conservative]

If I eat burgers or sandwich its lunch, if served on a plate its dinner.

[Texas Mulerider]

You should, when you get a chance, try the sweet tea at a franchise named McAlister’s. It’s to die for.....

McAlister's Deli is famous for its sweet tea. But I suppose that's what one should expect from a company based in Oxford, Mississippi, home of William Faulkner.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Thank you for some of the best chuckles and tender memories (as well as some great recipes). If that cooking gene I missed turns out to be a late bloomer, I’ve got some great ideas from all of you. Ah, Summer...hammocks, good books, fishin’ holes, sail boats...

[Texas Mulerider]

Breakfast, dinner and supper.

Exactly right.

[Centurion2000]

And this is news? wow ... must be a slow day.

[McLynnan]

I’ve never had a chicken fried steak that resembled shoe leather. In this part of the country good restaurants make it or break it on the reputation of their chicken fried steaks. I still say you had a bad one.

[McLynnan]

That sounds like a great lunch. Chicken & dumplings is good comfort food.

[SnarlinCubBear]

Ah was raised on sweee iced tea - yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm