Funeral food is a tradition that will not die
Perre Coleman Magness’ latest cookbook came to be in sort of a funny way, particularly for a book about feeding the bereaved.
“The publisher asked me if I would be interested in doing a book on funeral food because it is a ‘trending topic,’ ” she says. “I said that I could do one on Southern food, but not one for Lutherans in Minnesota or Italians from Brooklyn.”
While she mulled it over, she called her mother, also a writer and also named Perre Magness.
“The first thing I did was call my mother, as you do, and when I told her what was going on, she said, ‘Oh, you need my obituary file,’ ” she says.
The elder Magness was part of a wedding committee at her church for many years and kept a file of funny or unusual wedding stories clipped from local newspapers and from papers around the country by friends. When The New York Times started writing about over-the-top weddings, she stopped collecting the stories and picked up another hobby.
“Who knows, maybe it had something to do with my age, but anyway, I started collecting unusual obituaries,” she says. That in 2002 she wrote a book about Elmwood, one of the South’s most
historic cemeteries, is nothing but coincidence, she says.
When the younger Magness thumbed through the file, she was hooked.
“When I started reading it, I knew that I could write the book and make it entertaining,” she says.
It’s peppered with excerpts from obituaries found in her mother’s file and with stories people told her as she wrote “The Southern Sympathy Cookbook” (Countryman Press; $23, released Jan. 16).
“When I told people the topic, everyone had a story,” she says.
For instance, a woman from the church volunteered to bring paper goods to the visitation, as she had a surplus of items. Magness writes:
“What she brought included a big bag of folded paper napkins, printed with the cheerful logo of a regional fast-food chain named Jack-in-the-Box. The deceased, unfortunately, was also named Jack.”
But it’s a cookbook, after all, and Magness offers almost 80 recipes that are standards for the Southern funeral. Fried chicken, she says, is No. 1.
“That’s the big thing across the South,” she says. “It bridged ages, race, everything. When I’d ask people about funeral food, they’d say fried chicken and then might follow up with ‘You know, my grandmother always made suchand-such.’ “
One of those standards is the congealed salad.
“I knew right off that I couldn’t do a Southern funeral cookbook without Jell-O salad,” Magness says, but she did it with a memory and the twist that her recipes don’t include Jell-O — they all start with gelatin.
“When my grandmother died, one of the home health-care workers brought a bright purple salad, whipped cream, the whole works. We didn’t touch it, but then my mother and my aunt told us we had to. They said, ‘Everyone has to have a bite because that nice lady made it,’ and I have to say, it was delicious.”
She professes neither love nor hate for the jiggly salad, but stands by it with a tight defense.
“Every community cookbook you see includes maybe dozens of recipes for congealed salads, and they have for years,” she says. “It’s impossible that generations of women have been making something that no one likes.”
There’s tomato aspic, of course. Macaroni salad and three-bean salad, chicken salad, casseroles, a homemade chicken spaghetti that’s the grown-up, unprocessed version of Rotel spaghetti, plenty of cakes and sweets (there’s a Jack and Coke cake, a riff on the Southern Coca-Cola cake) and a few breakfast items, something Magness, 47, says is often overlooked.
“I don’t have a particular thing I take to funerals, but often try to take something for breakfast. I’ve learned from situations in my own family that people sometimes forget about that. You’ll have plenty of casseroles but no muffins.”
And there’s a pimento cheese recipe, though she’s already written the book on that. From the headnote on the recipe:
“I asked a food writer friend of mine what her family considered funeral food, and she responded, ‘Well, for my big ol’ clan of Whiskeypalians, it’s got to be something with a little snort in it.’ So in her honor, I liquored up pimento cheese.” The result is bourbon pimento cheese.
Magness’ first book, “Pimento Cheese: The Cookbook,” was published in 2014, and her third, “Southern Snacks,” will be released this fall. She’s the author of the food blog therunawayspoon.com, which she started nine years ago when she had an event-planning business.
“I’d started writing a column for At Home Memphis (magazine) and realized that was the most fun I was having,” she says. “So I decided to start the blog, and everything else has come from that.”
For her own funeral, she hopes friends and family will bring pimento cheese. And fried chicken. But mostly, that they’ll have there what they need.
“Funeral food, at its heart, is the ultimate comfort food,” she says. “I think that’s why it’s a trending topic.”
Jennifer Biggs writes for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Celery Seed Chicken
3 boneless, skinless
chicken breasts 4 tablespoons (1⁄2 stick)
unsalted butter
1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour 1 1⁄2 cups whole milk
3⁄4 cup buttermilk
1⁄4 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon white wine
vinegar
1 tablespoon celery seed Salt and ground black
pepper, to taste
1 cup crushed buttery crackers (about 20 crackers; I like Ritz) Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the chicken in a baking dish, and cover with foil. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. When cool enough to handle, dice the chicken into small pieces.
Melt the butter over medium heat in a deep skillet large enough to hold the chicken. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Add the milk, whisking constantly, then the buttermilk, and bring to a low bubble. Cook, whisking, until thickened. The sauce may appear a little curdled, but that’s just fine. Stir in the chicken, the sour cream and the vinegar until combined, then stir in the celery seed. Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.
Scrape the mixture into a greased, 2-quart baking dish, and smooth the top. Spread the cracker crumbs in an even layer over the casserole. At this point, the dish can be cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to a day before baking.
When ready to cook, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake until hot through and bubbling around the edges, about 30 minutes. Serves 6.
Sweet Tea Bread
1 family-size tea bag 2 sprigs mint, plus 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 3⁄4 cup granulated sugar Zest of one medium
lemon
2 large eggs
1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour 1⁄2 teaspoon baking
powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
3⁄4 cup confectioners
sugar
Put the tea bag and 2 sprigs of mint in a measuring cup. Add 1 cup boiling water. Steep for 30 minutes, then remove the tea bag and mint. Cool to room temperature.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with baking spray.
Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon zest and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh mint. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Measure out 1⁄2 cup of the tea, reserving the rest for the glaze. Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the butter in the bowl in three additions, alternating with the tea and scraping down the sides of the bowl. When everything is well combined, beat on high for 5 seconds, then scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.
Sift the confectioners sugar into a small bowl. Whisk in the remaining tea slowly, until you have a pourable glaze about the consistency of heavy cream. Drizzle the glaze over the cake with a spoon, spreading to cover the top with a few attractive drips down the sides. Let the glaze set for about an hour. The loaf will keep in an airtight container for a day. Makes 1 loaf.
Bourbon Pimento Cheese
4 green onions, roughly
chopped
2 tablespoons roughly
chopped chives 4 ounces cream cheese,
softened
1 tablespoon prepared
yellow mustard 1 tablespoon
Worcestershire sauce 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black
pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon sweet
paprika
3 tablespoons bourbon 8 ounces sharp orange
cheddar
8 ounces sharp white
cheddar
8 ounces Havarti 1 (7-ounce) jar diced
pimentos
1 cup mayonnaise (preferably Duke’s) Drop the green onions and chives in the bowl of a
food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse a couple of times to chop things up. Add the cream cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and paprika, and pulse a couple of times. Add the bourbon, and blend until smooth, scraping down the side of the bowl once, until you have a smooth paste. Switch to the grating blade, and grate the cheeses.
Scrape everything into a large bowl, making sure you scrape out all the bourbon-y paste. Stir the mix a couple of times to combine, then add the pimentos and their juice and the mayonnaise. Stir to completely combine everything, making sure the cheeses are not clumped together and the seasoning paste is well distributed. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to allow the flavors to meld. This will keep covered in the fridge for 5 days. Makes about 3 cups.
Buttermilk Pie Bars
For the crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour 1⁄2 cup confectioners
sugar
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
For the filling:
3 large eggs
1 1⁄2 cups whole buttermilk 1 cup granulated sugar 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 2 teaspoons vanilla
extract
1 1⁄2 teaspoons cornstarch 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
For the crust: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9- by 13-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper.
Place 2 cups of the flour, the confectioners sugar, the butter and the salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and blend until combined but crumbly. Scatter the crumbs in the bottom of the prepared pan, and press evenly into a uniform crust. Bake for 20 minutes until firm and golden in places.
For the filling: Clean out the mixer bowl and beater, then crack in the eggs, add the buttermilk and sugar, and beat until combined. Add the melted butter, vanilla, cornstarch and nutmeg, and beat until smooth and thoroughly combined. Pour the filling over the crust, and spread to completely cover the crust. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden around the edges and firm.
Cool completely. The entire block, before slicing, can be wrapped and refrigerated for a day. Slice into squares for serving. Makes 15 bars.
All recipes: “The Southern Sympathy Cookbook,” Perre Coleman Magness