Cookbook Club

Preserving Appalachia by Pickling

By: The Local Palate

In the Southern mountains, food preservation was long necessary for survival. A North Carolina chef pays homage to the tradition with spring plates that showcase the pickling tradition.

The landscape of the mountain South, with its short, fickle growing season and geographic isolation, has always demanded a particular compliance of its inhabitants. As set in their ways as that stubborn relative everyone seems to have, the Appalachian Mountains are ancient. (They may not be as old as time, but after some 480 million years you stop celebrating birthdays.) This is no Alabama Black Belt or Mississippi Delta, each of which has rich and fertile soils to thank for its fecund agriculture. Appalachia is home to steep terrain, rocky ground, and stark winters. Mountain folk have long turned to food preservation—drying, curing, fermenting, and pickling—as a way to persevere through it all.

And, like so much of Southern food, what arose of necessity would come to define the cuisine of the region.

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Date Published: 03.20.18
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