This episode first aired on Dec. 5, 2019
Before Instant Pots and Amazon wishlists, there were community hog killings and coffee with bacon grease. Those were the holiday traditions of rural Floridians in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
This holiday season, we’re revisiting a Zest Podcast conversation from 2019. Host Dalia Colón spent some time at Cracker Country, the living history museum at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, to learn how the state's early settlers feasted for the holidays.
Christmas ham was often the centerpiece of the table, with neighbors gathering for an annual hog killing once the weather cooled down. The event was both social and practical, with one hog supplying enough meat for several families.
“We have a smokehouse here on the property that dates back to about 1900, where they would have packed strips of meat and roasts of meat in salt,” said Cindy Horton, director of museum operations for the Florida State Fairgrounds. “Salt and smoke, of course, are curing mechanisms that retard the growth of mold and bacteria, which was extremely important in an age before air conditioning and refrigeration.”
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The Cracker Country grounds also feature a kitchen garden typical of one that early Floridians would’ve tended. Alongside the ham, goose, and turkey, early settlers would have enjoyed sweet potatoes, white potatoes, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and other veggies.
Dessert meant jam cake, orange pie and eventually apple pie, thanks to the invention of insulated railroad cars.
“By this time period, food wasn't necessarily only just what you would find close to your home. You certainly would be able to get what might have been exotic, just a few years before from other parts of the country,” Horton said.
And to wash it all down, they had wine. Another popular beverage was hot coffee laced with bacon grease — not unlike today’s Bulletproof Coffee.
“Apparently it was a little bit of a delicacy,” Horton said, “believe it or not.”
Jam Cake
2 pounds dry sugar
½ pound butter
½ pound lard
8 eggs
1 3/4 pints milk
3 pounds flour
2 ounces of baking powder
Jam or jelly of choice
Optional garnish: caramel, orange or lemon icing; coconut
Cream together sugar, butter and lard. Slowly add eggs, then milk. Mix flour with baking powder, then add to mixture. Bake quick and turn out of tins at once onto sugar dusted paper. Spread bottom layer with jam, set another layer on top, spread jam and repeat until all layers are assembled. Spread jam across the sides and top, or frost with caramel, orange or lemon icing and add coconut.
Courtesy of Cindy Horton, Cracker Country
