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- [Announcer] The following episode of Charlotte Cooks is brought to you by Central Piedmont Community College, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to this edition of Charlotte Cooks.

I'm Chef Pamela Roberts and I'm so glad you're here with us today, because we are going to continue exploring southern foodways.

And today, we're going to have a little bit of a history lesson about the rivalry between Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, about Brunswick Stew.

All three states all claim ownership of it.

And all three states say our recipe is the best.

But we have with us today, Chef Yvette Kerns from Petite Cook, Charlotte.

She is a personal chef here in Charlotte and she has grown up with Brunwick Stew.

Hi Yvette.

- Hi, how are you?

- I'm great.

- Good.

- I'm so glad you're here with us today.

- Thanks for having me.

- So tell us a little bit about a history, something about Brunswick Stew that we don't know.

- Yeah, so Brunswick Stew actually originated back July 2nd, 1898.

So we have just rung in the 125th birthday of Brunswick Stew.

- Well, this better be really good stew.

- Yeah, and so the history behind Brunswick Stew, how in its real form, the plantation workers as well as the plantation owners, they would gather the leftover vegetables, the people gathered together as a community and built a campfire and caught squirrel.

So it wasn't chicken or pork, it was squirrel.

And you know, just the bounty of whatever they have leftover, they made use of it.

- And people brought things that they had.

- They did.

- Everybody contributed something.

- Absolutely.

And that was pretty much how Brunswick Stew started, yes.

- [Pamela] And that's why you find a lot of different recipes that have different ingredients in it, because there's not necessarily any one set recipe for Brunswick Stew.

- There really isn't.

And you can really create it and make it your own.

Some people just use pulled chicken, some people will use pulled pork, some people will use both.

And today I'm fusing both of them together to make one that has both meats in it.

- [Pamela] Well, show us how it goes together.

- Sure, sure, so first you wanna, you know, have your pot, you wanna make sure you've got ample space in here so that it doesn't boil over, and you just wanna take a tad bit of your butter.

- Just whole butter?

- Whole butter.

So real simply, you're gonna just put a little butter in there.

So then we're gonna add our onions, and that is one diced onion.

You can use yellow Vidalia, really whatever you want, but.

- I always go for Vidalia because they're a little sweet.

- And so you're gonna just sweat out the onions just a bit there.

And really, it's so easy because it's gonna stew for quite some time.

And then you wanna add your meat.

So I have the pulled chicken.

- [Pamela] These were already cooked.

- Yeah, you know, if you really wanna do a shortcut version, you could buy a rotisserie chicken and de-bone it.

If you wanna bake some in the oven, wrap it real well in tinfoil, season it lightly, and then just shred it when it comes out.

Really, you know.

- So it doesn't need to be a smoked chicken.

- It doesn't, I prefer that.

And I do, and I use like a rub.

But you know, also too, some people that I know in my family, they'll go to their favorite barbecue restaurant and they'll purchase - The barbecue.

- Pulled chicken, and they'll purchase the pulled barbecue.

We're gonna just pop the chicken in there.

And Pam, can I give this to you?

- Absolutely.

- And so it's about, you wanna do about a pound of chicken and a pound of pork.

- [Pamela] Brunswick Stew has a lot of meat in it.

- It's a lot of meat.

You know, I guess they did a lot of squirrels way back in 1898.

And then just kind of sweat that out just for a tad bit.

You don't really need to cook it too long like that because it's just gonna-- - It's already cooked.

- It's already cooked.

- We're trying to warm it up at this point, right?

- It's so easy.

And then you want to take your frozen vegetables.

- Okay, so you can use frozen.

They don't have to be fresh.

- You can use frozen.

- And I prefer the frozen.

Some people use, can my grandmother used to use the can.

- Yeah, I like frozen better.

- You know, you can if you're in a quick hurry or whatever, or if your kids really like the canned vegetables, but.

So I like to add the corn and okra.

- Okra, you have to have it.

- [Yvette] Gotta have okra.

- If it's southern, and it's a stew.

You have to have okra.

- And all these are about 10 to 12 ounce bags of frozen vegetables.

You know, you can kind of eyeball, if it's a little over 10 ounces, it's totally fine so.

And then you're just gonna give that a big mix again, and.

- It smells lovely, Yvette.

- Right?

- [Pamela] It smells fantastic.

- [Yvette] And the next thing you wanna do is dice up three potatoes.

- Three whole big, these are the baking potatoes?

- Three hole big russet potatoes.

And dice them real tiny.

'Cause you know no one liked the real hard potato when you are biting into anything.

So we're just gonna pop that in there.

And then we're just gonna continue by adding our 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.

Now Pam, some-- - Would it.= be just tomato juice if that's what you have?

- Yeah tomato juice, you know.

- Vegetable juice.

- Vegetable juice, tomato sauce.

I mean, you could probably get away if all you had in your pantry was like a mild seasoned spaghetti sauce.

- Could use a diced tomato in there?

- You could use diced tomatoes, sure you can.

So once you get those tomatoes all blended in there, and we're going to go ahead and add, this is my secret ingredient.

You can purchase any type of a sweet spicy pickle.

This is a half a cup of a sweet spicy pickle juice.

There's a lot of different brands out there.

Just take a look at the store.

And this is-- - Yeah, you want it to be spicy and sweet.

- Spicy and sweet.

So this'll add a little kick and a little sweet to your stew.

- And you guys, if you aren't saving your pickle juice at home, when that bottle is empty, you are missing out.

Pickle juice can do so many things.

We should have a show on pickle juice.

- You should.

- A pickle juice show.

- Definitely.

So you get the pickle juice all mixed up in there as well.

Then ketchup.

- Ketchup, okay.

- So yeah, regular ketchup here and we're gonna put that in there.

Again, it adds to the tomato flare.

- Yes, absolutely.

- Of the one that I do.

- Absolutely.

- And Pam, like I said, not everyone likes a tomato-based Brunswick Stew.

And depending on where you go and get it, any type of restaurant, it may or may not really be red at all.

I don't know if you've ever seen them, we're almost like a tanish color.

- I've seen those.

I've also seen it made with barbecue sauce instead of tomato.

- You can do that.

And that's another quick shortcut if you wanted.

Now speaking of barbecue sauce, we know that barbecue sauce is smoky, right?

- Yep.

- And so another awesome ingredient that I use in this is liquid smoke.

- Liquid smoke?

- Liquid smoke.

- Yeah.

So if you don't have your pork and your chicken that's already smoked, you can add that smoked flavor.

- Absolutely.

- Using liquid syrup.

- And that's why I added this in here today, just to give a little bit extra smoky flavor.

- Nice.

- And then you just mix that up.

And then I like to use coconut aminos.

- Okay, if you didn't have coconut aminos, what could you substitute?

- A little soy sauce.

- Little soy sauce.

- Yeah, similar to soy sauce.

I prefer coconut aminos 'cause it just has a little bit of a sweet undertone to it.

- Yes it does.

Where a soy sauce does not.

- It's pure salt.

- Yep.

So we're gonna add that in there.

And then we're going to stir around one more time.

And the last secret ingredient that I like to use is Worcestershire sauce.

- You got a lot of flavors packed in here, Yvette.

- A lot of flavors.

But you know, when it's all done, they all blend and mesh so well together.

- Yes, that's the magic of it.

- Absolutely, it's gonna be delicious.

So that is pretty much your Brunswick stew.

And then the real key thing is time.

- I was just gonna say the whole secret to stewing is to let it simmer for a long time.

- Let it simmer, don't lift the lid.

Don't lift the lid after five minutes.

Let it really simmer.

- Let it simmer.

- And you know, go ahead and put it on a low after it starts to bubble a little bit.

One thing you do wanna put on the top right here is the rest of the butter.

- [Pamela] So that keeps the air out of it.

- It does.

- And just lets it sit there and melt.

- Yep.

And then we're gonna add some crushed red pepper.

We're gonna add brown sugar.

- [Pamela] This is gonna give it a little touch of sweetness.

- A little touch of sweetness.

And you know, considering it's a big pot of stew, that looked like kind of a lot, but it'll be fine.

And then pepper, salt.

- And then I think this is your garlic powder.

- And that's your garlic powder.

A little bit of garlic powder.

Some people don't use garlic powder in their Brunswick Stew, But I kind of like a little garlic.

- And I like garlic and I like garlic powder.

I think they're both very nice additions.

- Yep.

So what you wanna do is just leave the rest of that stick of butter on top.

And it's just gonna kind of melt and mesh into there as it's stewing.

So we're gonna leave that right there.

You see it's bubbling already?

And so that's it, Pam.

And we're gonna put-- - So we're just gonna put a lid on it.

- Put a lid on it and let it go and let it do its magic on its own.

- [Pamela] Next we're gonna make some cornbread.

- We are gonna make some cornbread.

- For cornbread, we need a cast iron skillet.

Now you don't need a cast iron skillet, but the best cornbread is made in a cast iron skillet.

- [Yvette] It is.

- In fact, if you only have a cast iron skillet just to make cornbread in, the world will smile upon you.

Okay.

But nonetheless, we're gonna start with a cast iron skillet.

And Yvette, tell us the ingredients that we're gonna use for our southern cornbread.

And while you're mixing this together, tell us the difference between northern and southern cornbread.

- [Yvette] Sure, sure.

- [Pamela] 'Cause there's a big difference.

- There is a really big difference.

So the first big difference is in southern cornbread, you use a hundred percent cornmeal.

You don't use any flour.

- Okay.

- So that's the biggest difference.

well, one of the biggest differences.

In northern cornbread, you're gonna use a blend of the cornmeal and flour.

So northern cornbread is gonna be a little more cakey because of the flour.

- Exactly, it is more like cake than it is.

- It really is.

- Than you consider cornbread.

- Yeah, and then you're just gonna add your salt, and.

- So all your dry ingredients.

- All your dry ingredients, baking powder, baking soda, - Baking powder, and baking soda.

- Yes, and then-- That's what's gonna give it a rise.

- Give it a little bit of a rise.

And then we in the south use a little sugar.

'cause we're already sweet enough, honey.

- And we got our sweet tea on the table too.

- So we're already sweet enough.

We don't need much sugar in ours, but so yeah, just like a tablespoon or so of sugar, that's it.

In the north, they use a lot of sugar.

- A lot of sugar.

- Yeah, and I typically don't make northern cornbread.

But they do, it is definitely more like cake.

- Yeah, it is very sweet.

- It is very sweet, it's very sweet.

- And one of the reasons we use sugar in our cornmeal is because it helps counteract any kind of bitterness that might be in that cornmeal.

It makes it nice and mild.

- So we're gonna just blend our dry ingredients together, just for a minute or so, just to make they're all incorporated.

- Everything's incorporated, mixed up.

- Yeah, you got that.

And then really simple, I just do everything in one bowl.

I use a whisk, I don't get out the blender or the mixer, anything like that.

And you just start adding your wet ingredients.

So you've got two eggs and you have canola oil.

And I do a secret ingredient of creamed corn.

- [Pamela] I love corn in my cornbread.

- Yes, I do too.

And you know, some people will even add like diced jalapenos.

- Uh-huh, yeah, they do, cheddar cheese and stuff like that.

- Absolutely, so you can really customize, you know, your, if you stick to like the framework of this particular recipe, you can change it up and you know, add those type of things in there that you like.

So anyway, and then of course the biggest difference besides the cornmeal and the sugar is we use buttermilk in southern cornbread only.

But in the north, they only use milk.

They do not use buttermilk.

- And the nice thing about using buttermilk is it has an acid component in there.

And it also helps activate some of that baking powder that we have in there.

If you've ever seen that double acting baking powder, double acting means that it's gonna start a leavening process, which means a rising process, two times.

Once when it hits the liquid and the second time, when it hits the heat in the oven.

And so you don't wanna let this sit around after you mix the wet ingredients in it.

You can leave the dry ingredients mixed up all day long.

And you can combine all your wet ingredients, but don't put them together until you're ready to put it in the pan and put it in the oven because of that double acting baking soda.

- [Yvette] The science behind cornbread, just the.

- The science behind cooking is amazing.

You know, people think, I don't need to know science, I don't need to know math.

But cooking is nothing more than science and a big math problem with science and heat applied.

- You got that.

- You know.

- [Yvette] So the final component is gonna be butter.

- More butter, melted butter.

- Melted butter.

And we're gonna pop that in there and then just mix that around.

- So this is not clarified butter.

This is a whole butter, just melted.

- Yeah, you just use a whole unsalted butter.

- Big difference between the two.

Clarified butter's just the oil.

Whole butter's got those milk solids in it, and that flavor in there also.

- Yeah, and you know, if you don't have unsalted butter at home, if you had salted, it's not gonna alter it too much, but no.

So then once you get this all blended up and really use, I would say a moderate amount of elbow grease with a good whisk.

This is actually an excellent whisk, thank you.

- Oh, you're welcome.

- And then we're just going to pour this into our warming up past iron skillet.

- Now, does this pan need to be super hot?

- It doesn't, no.

- 'Cause sometimes you see recipes that say, put your pan in the oven, melt butter at 350 degrees for 15 minutes before you put it.

And that's gonna make a really hot pan.

- It will, so-- - Like fry your dough before you get cooking.

- Absolutely, yeah, and I don't really like that.

So what I do with this recipe, I go ahead and cut the oven up to 425.

And it bakes beautifully in 20 minutes.

- [Pamela] Oh nice, very nice.

- So no need to have to preheat your pan at that point.

- Very nice.

- So we are just going to get that batter all in there.

And just making sure you scrape every bit of that batter out of there that you can.

- [Pamela] Because you're gonna need all of it.

- You are gonna need all of it.

There's something cathartic about scooping batter out.

- Yeah, it really, it's kind of neat.

I like batters.

I like batter, and I like working with dough too.

I just think they're very nice textures.

- So really, that's it, Pam.

And we we're gonna pop it in the oven at 425.

- So we're gonna put it in the oven.

We got, 425.

- For 20 minutes.

- Now, while that's cooking, we have one more thing to put together, don't we?

- [Yvette] We really do.

- [Pamela] What are we gonna put together?

- Desperation Pie.

- Desperation Pie, what are we desperate for?

- It's buttermilk.

- Oh, Buttermilk Pie.

- Buttermilk Pie.

And way back in the day, you know, during World War II.

- [Pamela] It's what we had.

- What we had.

We had buttermilk, we had eggs, and we had sugar at home.

So today I'm using, it's Miss Daisy's Buttermilk Pie recipe.

It was a family recipe.

- [Pamela] And so how do you put it together?

- So really easy.

I'm gonna do most of the dry ingredients first.

So you're gonna do your sugar, just plain white sugar.

You're gonna do three tablespoons of flour.

Yeah, you're gonna do salt, and just blend that together.

That's really it, no baking powder, no baking soda or any of that.

- No, you don't need it 'cause it doesn't need to rise, does it?

- Right, no, we get that all mixed together.

And then we want to add the eggs, the egg yolks.

- Just yolks.

- Just the yolk.

The yolk first three beautiful egg yolks there.

We want to incorporate that in.

All right, Pam, and then we're going to cut in the butter.

Now mine is really softened, so you wanna make sure it's super soft and you're just gonna add that in there.

You know how sometimes when you make pie dough, it gets pebbly a little bit?

It'll be like that, but then once we hit it with the buttermilk, it'll all start-- - It's gonna seize up.

- Yep it'll all start coming together for you.

So Pam, I want you to see, it's all kind of started to come together now, right?

- Now it looks like a dough.

- Now it does.

And so now we're gonna go ahead and add the secret sauce.

- Buttermilk, the buttermilk.

- [Yvette] The secret sauce, the buttermilk.

- [Pamela] Now, does this buttermilk have the bits of butter in it?

- You know, this one does have a little flecks of butter in it.

You know how there's some that have generous flecks of butter?

You're just gonna get a richer-- - A richer taste.

- Yeah, I do, I really do.

- So, it doesn't really matter.

So whatever buttermilk you have on.

- Yeah, just whatever, you know, you find.

Of course, I wonder, way back in the 1800s, do you think theirs had big flecks of butter in it?

- Depends on how they made their butter.

Of course they would be churning it.

And when you churn butter, you don't get flecks of butter.

- Right, so maybe there's was smooth, right, yeah.

See how it's incorporating together now really nice?

- [Pamela] It's beautiful, yes.

- [Yvette] Another nice little twist to a Buttermilk Pie is lemon zest.

- Oh yeah.

Because buttermilk has a little lemony flavor to it, anyway.

- It does, so this is gonna kind of enhance it a little bit more.

And lemon juice.

The last thing we wanna do is we wanna fold in while whipping-- - Egg whites.

These are whipped egg whites.

We're gonna add this a third and a third and a third, right?

- Yes, uh-huh.

- So the reason we do that is so we don't get them totally deflated.

There you go.

You're gonna whip them up to a soft peak, is that what it is?

Soft peak.

And then we're going to fold these in, and they don't have to be completely smooth, but you wanna incorporate it, and you don't wanna incorporate it all at once because you don't want 'em to completely deflate on you.

So now we're gonna get the last of these whipped egg whites in here.

Just soft peak egg whites.

- Soft peak.

And it's like the most important step of this whole recipe.

- This is gonna give you a whole lot of leavening.

- Yeah.

Egg whites are so good for that, aren't they?

- [Pamela] They really are, that's what makes a souffle special.

- And then we are gonna simply pour it into the pie crust.

Now, if you have a special pie crust recipe that you use, certainly use it.

But there are a lot of really good pie crusts that are pre-made in the freezer section.

Get one that's a little thicker.

There'll be some that are a little thin, this one's thicker and holds well for the Buttermilk Pie.

And there you go.

And then all we have to do is we're going to bake it at 400.

For 10 minutes.

- That's it.

- Then we're gonna cut it down to 350 for 40 minutes.

- [Pamela] For 40 minutes, So it is gonna take a while.

- Yeah, And so you're gonna really have to watch it, that first 10 minutes, it's really critical For it to go for just 10 minutes on the high and then turn it down to 350 for 40 minutes.

- But you leave your oven closed, right?

- Leave your oven closed, yes.

And that's it, all right.

So we're just gonna cut right into this, Pam.

And so.

- Ooh, look at that.

- Yummy, yummy.

- Ooh look at that.

- Looks like a cheesecake.

- It really does, doesn't it?

- It looks beautiful, yeah.

- I'm just gonna lay that right there.

And then I usually make fresh whipped cream.

Simply it's just powdered sugar, some heavy whipping cream, and vanilla.

- And vanilla.

- And vanilla.

And we're just gonna top.

- Do a nice little blot down there.

Beautiful, so Buttermilk Pie.

All right, next, we gotta deal with that cornbread, don't we?

- We really do.

- Oh, let's deal with that cornbread.

So you put the butter on there, so we have nice little butter on the top of the cornbread.

- Yeah, just threw some there.

- It looks beautiful.

Look how it pulled away from the sides.

Nice golden brown edge on it, look at that.

Isn't that pretty?

It looks great.

Southern cornbread.

- Southern cornbread to go with our Brunswick Stew.

- There we go.

- Yes.

- So you know, you can find Brunswick Stew at most barbecue places.

You can also find it in other restaurants around that are serving like southern cuisine and things.

It doesn't have to be a barbecue restaurant, but you will always find it served with cornbread.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

- Mmm, mmm, mmm.

- [Pamela] You can make a meal outta Brunswick Stew.

- [Yvette] All there it goes our cornbread.

- Cornbread.

- Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.

- Yummy, yummy.

And now look at that.

Oh, that is really pretty.

- [Yvette] Crumble that into the Brunswick stew.

- Ooh.

- Oh yes, yes.

- Look at that.

(laughs) - And it's truly a stew.

- It is a stew.

- It's not stoop, it's not stoop, it is stew.

- Stew, it really is.

- It really is, nice and thick.

- Oh yum.

- What a way to celebrate the 125th birthday of the inception of Brunswick Stew, right?

- Let's bowl that up, put some in that bowl.

Yummy.

Look at that.

It really is a nice thick stew.

And this won't stick to your ribs, not at all.

This will leave you hungry, so you might wanna have two or three bowls, right?

- Yes, and you know what you can do, I know we like it at home, if you want it to leave a little space on the side and put your wedge of cornbread on there, you can.

- Ooh.

so it soaks up.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, that sounds great.

- Yes, so.

- That sounds really great.

Alrighty then.

- The quintessential Southern meal, right?

- Absolutely, it is.

- Yes.

- Let me have that.

And I'm going to show everybody at home what we made today.

The aroma is fantastic.

Brunswick Stew.

I think North Carolina won this one today, don't you?

- I think so, definitely.

- There you go, North Carolina, Brunswick Stew.

Virginia, Georgia, eat your hearts out.

And we are going to combine that with southern cornbread that has just a touch of sugar in there, made with cornmeal and not flour.

And then from Kentucky, we have got the beautiful Buttermilk Pie, The Desperation Pie.

- The Desperation Pie.

- And there we go, there's our Southern meal.

Y'all can make this.

It is not a big deal for y'all to pick this up at home and do it.

So what I want you guys to do when you make this at home, send me pictures and then I'll share 'em with Miss Yvette here.

- [Yvette] Oh, I love that.

- Ad we will be going, look at this fantastic food.

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Send me an email at pamela.roberts@cpcc.edu.

You can watch this show and past episodes on PBS Charlotte Passport, or subscribe to our YouTube channel, and we'd be more than happy to have you celebrate the South with Brunswick Stew, cornbread, and Buttermilk Pie.

Coming up on the next Charlotte Cooks, we have three essential dishes that you need to know if you're gonna be living in the South, to show up at a potluck and hold your own as being considered Southern.

We're gonna be working on some casseroles.

We're gonna make three super simple casseroles that you all need to have in your recipe box.

So tune in for the Charlotte Cooks that's coming up next and grab those casserole recipes.

Well, Yvette, thank you so much for being on the show.

- Well, thank you for having me.

- This was educational, this was a lot of fun.

And it's really nice to hear about the differences between why this is considered this dish and that dish.

So I really appreciated that.

- [Announcer] y Well, thanks for having me, yes.

- Absolutely.

- Always a great time.

- [Pamela] We'll get you back on another time.

- [Yvette] Thanks.

- And thank you for watching this episode of Charlotte Cooks, and we look forward to seeing you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.