The Old-Fashioned Secret of Holiday Treats?

[fuzzis]

The Old-Fashioned Secret of Holiday Treats? (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/dining/13cane.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin)

HERE in sugar cane country, cooks don’t always reach for the sugar bowl to add a little sweetness to a dish. Janice Bourgeois Macomber, who insists that even people she has just met call her Aunt Boo, adds a spoonful of amber-colored cane syrup to cut the acid in her court bouillion, a tomato sauce that she uses to simmer redfish. And for a quick dessert, she sloshes syrup over thickly buttered white bread, then folds it over to make what kids here call a “diaper sandwich.”

“I always have two things in my icebox,” she said. “Beer and cane syrup.”

Cane syrup, a caramelized, concentrated version of pure cane juice, is one of the basic flavors of southern Louisiana, where about half the sugar cane in the United States is grown (Florida, Texas and Hawaii make up the rest).

Around here, cane syrup is drizzled on hot buttered biscuits and over crisped mountains of boudin rouge, a cayenne-reddened blood sausage. Its deep, buttery taste is best savored in the Acadian classic gâteau de sirop, a simple, old-fashioned cake flavored with nothing but cane syrup.....

I'd never even heard of cane syrup until I moved here.

fuzzis

[Conveyor Belt]

I guess it's our secret, then...

Funny the things you take for granted...

[MSQueen]

i remember as a child eating sorghum syrup over homemade biscuits. usually though, we would put a spoonful of fresh-churned butter in the middle of our plate and then pour the syrup over it and stir it up really good and then either "sop" it up with our biscuit or spoon it on the biscuit.!!

also remember mixing cane syrup and freshly-made cream from the cows instead of the butter. AWESOME!! i just about start drooling just thinking about it even today!!

only thing is, now we all know how BAD all of this is for us, PLUS i'm a diabetic, and talk about blood sugars shooting "out of control"!!! ALSO, cane syrup is TOO sweet for my teeth now that i'm in my more "Mature" years. :)

ahhh, to be able to go back for a day and eat and live the way of my younger years!

[LipsofanAngel]

One of my fondest memories as a child... my grandfather grew sugar cane, so we spent many many evenings sitting on the back porch. He'd cut it open and the grandchildren would each get a portion to suck all the sweetness out of. I miss those days. Thanks for the post.

[Maggie-Doodle]

Cane syrup is delicious! I am like QM and shouldn't eat it but sometimes I still do...it is just something from my childhood. Come fall, I have to have boiled peanuts, greens, home-made veggie soup, baked sweet potatoes and home-made chili! It is not fall until I do.

As a child, my dad and uncle used to make cane syrup up in Enterprise where my granny lived. I loved going down to the back of the property, running through all the freshly fallen leaves...it would smell soooo good when they cooked the syrup. I especially enjoyed riding the mule or horse they had turning the press to get the juice out of the cane...(at least I think that was what he was doing) they had him harnessed and he just went in circles. My dad would cut a piece of the cane, peel it for me and I would chomp on it for hours. Aaaah what a life...Thanks fuzzi for taking me back to one of the best times in my life!

[Astra]

I didn't know it was so popular here - I remember tasting it at a state fair when I was a kid and thought it tasted like candy. Might have to get some and try the butter and biscuit thing.

[58ford]

My grandmother used to serve us what she called "biscuits & goo" (cane syrup whipped with butter) for breakfast.

Fuzzis,
How did you survive childhood without cane syrup?

[fuzzis]

Fuzzis,
How did you survive childhood without cane syrup?

I'm trying to remember (I don't remember much of my childhood)...but nothing's coming to me.

fuzzis

[amanda]

ohhh, I'm hungry now. I've done the cane syrup and butter receipe for my kids, although I don't do the homemade biscuits route very often - I just pop a can. :) My grandmother would warm the cane syrup over the stove, pour it in a little bown, and then add butter when she put it on the table. We would sit there and just dip our biscuits in and gorge ourselves. Ahhh...the good old days when it wouldn't go right to the hips! I don't know if I want to smile or cry.

[justme]

i would put pure cane molasses on my very thickly buttered cornbread after dinner as a child. YUMMY I need to go huntin down some molasases!

[MSQueen]

I didn't know it was so popular here - I remember tasting it at a state fair when I was a kid and thought it tasted like candy. Might have to get some and try the butter and biscuit thing.

Astra, it is REALLY great!! beats pancakes ANYDAY!!! yummmmmm.....

:smt023

p.s. if u don't have cane syrup, it is STILL good w/regular pancake syrup, although cane syrup is BEST!

[58ford]

Nobody's mentioned cane syrup's role in the Pecan Pie.

[Hermione]

Hawk, when my mother went to the frozen biscuits, that was the end of an era. They really are good. Canned biscuits used to be good for making fried pies, but the ones now are too flaky for that even. (Voice of experience: do not attempt to make dumplings using frozen biscuits.)

[Maggie-Doodle]

If yall want frozen biscuits or dumplings that are like home-made buy the Mrs. B's products. My mom made the best of both biscuits and dumplings and tried to teach me but I never got the hang of it...I would end up with dough from my nose to my toes...I will open a bag of biscuits and take out what I want then put the rest of the bag that is left over (bag & all) into a gal. ziplock and seal it up....when I want more, I do the same thing..THEY ARE DELICIOUS and look and taste as good as my moms...only the love is left out! The dumplings are good too...I cooked a big pot on Sunday as a matter of fact. Yall need to try them, I think you will be pleased...MUCH, MUCH better than the canned biscuits.

[Hermione]

M-D, for years I tried to make dumplings like Mama's and Grandmother's, with Bisquik. They would never stay together and I ended up with dumpling soup and a few little dumpling nuggets. The recipe is on the Bisquik box and I followed it faithfully, no luck. Mama sorta neglected to mention that you have to put an egg in the batter to make them stay together! Bisquik doesn't tell you that either. I'm with you, the frozen biscuits are the greatest, I'll try the dumplings you mentioned.

[58ford]

The trick to good dumplings is:
(pregnant pause)
After you mix the dough, back off & let it sit, so it has a chance for a good gluten to develop. Thats what makes a good dumpling.

[Maggie-Doodle]

You are right Hermoine, it HELPS when you have ALL of the recipe! :) My mom never used bisquick...just flour and all the stuff that it took to go in it to make it rise...I would just always end up with a sticky, stringy mess! Mrs. B's is so good and so much simplier!