Lisa Messinger's
Cookbook Corner

Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking: Recipes and Ruminations from Charleston and the Carolina Coastal Plain

by John Martin Taylor (Houghton Mifflin)

Who is Hoppin' John? And where is the Lowcountry? Undoubtedly, anyone who might be thinking of purchasing this book, a 1992 release that's available for the first time in paperback, would ponder those questions long before they got to wondering how good his sweet potato pie or crawfish gumbo are.

Well, there's only one Hoppin' John—and that's because he trademarked the name. But even if he hadn't filed that paperwork in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, most who know his work probably would agree that there could only be one Hoppin' John, even though he named himself after the famous black-eyed pea and rice dish that's eaten on New Year's Day for good luck.

As a kid, John Martin Taylor (a.k.a Hoppin' John) was casting shrimp nets off his native Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. A strong love of the regional food of the Lowcountry (in this case, Charleston and the Carolina coastal plain) developed. After founding Hoppin' John's, one of the country's top culinary bookstores, and writing four cookbooks of his own, Hoppin' John, who lives in Charleston, was widely acknowledged to have virtually solely ignited the culinary resurgence of the entire region.

As a result, he even has his own line of packaged food products of some of those traditional foods. But, fortunately, he wants to teach us to make our own, too. And if you want an outstanding teacher, you've come to the right book. You'll learn the authentic way to make everything the area has to offer like seafood boil for shrimp, crab and shellfish (a seasoning blend), she-crab soup, okra soup, fish croquettes, Lowcountry barbecued ribs with roast garlic, duck and sausage gumbo, fried wild turkey, fried bean cakes, sweet potato hushpuppies and Huguenot torte, a fruit and nut cake that is a well-known Charleston dessert.

As Hoppin' John does so splendidly throughout the book, in the introduction to the recipe for Huguenot Torte, he shows his talent as an expert researcher and entertaining writer, setting the record straight in a way that will properly define the cuisine from that point forward.

"Charleston's most famous dessert is its misbegotten 'Huguenot torte,' an apple and nut cake that first appeared in print in (the old cookbook) Charleston Receipts, " he writes in just a small part of that introduction. "I finally tracked down the author, Evelyn Florance, who confirmed my suspicions that the cake was not local. She told me that it was adapted from a recipe for Ozark pudding from the Mississippi River delta (where pecans are indigenous). Mrs. Florance used to make the dessert for the Huguenot Tavern in the 1940s in the heart of old Charleston, one of the last public dining places where you could eat Lowcountry food. The recipe is neither a torte nor Huguenot. Leavened with five (!) teaspoons of baking powder, it is a 20th-century conceit with no French antecedent."

In addition to recipes for such well-known favorites as the Huguenot torte and an outstanding 40-page introduction that includes both the history of the cuisine and how to stock your pantry to create it, be prepared for truly down-and-dirty authentic fare. It is certainly part of the charm of the book and the finishing touch that makes it the most complete, widely published treatise on this cuisine.

Hoppin' John's attention to that kind of detail will have you reading about how to make souse or hog's head cheese using a hog's head and pig's feet; roast black river coon with a seven-pound skinned and dressed raccoon; squirrel burgoo (rich stew) with four cleaned and quartered squirrels (you can substitute squab or quail in this one); fried frog legs; and smoked nuisance gator tail, a cayenne-seasoned treat made from alligators that have been tagged as certified nuisances by wildlife officials and which Hoppin' John notes is a popular appetizer in area restaurants. Hoppin' John is certainly no nuisance. Here are a couple of his delicious recipes.

RECIPES
—Seafood Boil for Shrimp, Crab and Crawfish
—Huguenot Torte

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