[Sca-cooks] various small notes

[Pixel, Queen of Cats]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Jennifer Thompson wrote:

>
> > Then there are
> > >the fried cheese curds...
> > >
> > >Margaret FitzWilliam
>
> Okay, I'm terrifically curious about both fried cheese curds and Tater tot
> hotdish. What on earth? I'm guessing frozen potatoes in a sauce?

I know that tt hotdish involves tater tots (which are, I think, Ore Ida's
brand of minced-then-fried potato nuggets), but other than that, I have so
far avoided deeper inquiry. The online recipes I've consulted seem to
agree on ground chuck, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, and tater
tots as the major components.

Fried cheese curds are just that--batter-dipped and deep-fried. Enough to
make one's arteries slam shut just in contemplation. I can't tolerate much
fried food, so I've only ever eaten one. Ugh. But I also prefer my cheese
curds squeaky fresh from the dairy.

Wisconsin, interestingly enough, prefers yellow cheddar cheese, whereas
New York and Vermont seem to prefer white cheddar. Probably goes along
with the regional preferences for yellow-skinned vs. white-skinned
chickens.

And it's only been very recently that I've been able to find extra-sharp
cheddar around here at all.

> I'm feeling deprived as I don't know *any* of these regional dishes - my
> mother's signature dish is anything that can be served cold from a
> can. (I
> learned to cook at seven out of self defense.)

Don't feel deprived. Really. I grew up completely ignorant of either tater
tot hotdish or deep-fried cheese curds, and I managed to come out of it
pretty well adjusted. Except for that nervous tic, anyway. ;-)

The regional dishes I grew up with are actually Pennsylvanian in
origin--shoofly pie (wet-bottom, of preference), dried corn, and
scrapple. None of which are remotely period foodstuffs, and thus I will
never adhere to a strictly period-foodstuffs diet. ;-)

They're also totally foreign to the Northern Plains, so I am forced to
make my own, and my grandmother's shoofly pie recipe makes 2...

It's awful, I tell you. Really horrid. ;-)

Margaret FitzWilliam