white trash cooking, and netty irene's macaroni & cheese recipe

I was clicking around on some website and this popped up.

I laughed out loud. Not because the title and cover are pretty funny, which they are, but because this proclaims to be a 25th Anniversary Edition. If you have never heard of this book, you are probably surprised that something like this has persevered for 25plus years. But if you happen to own the original printing, as I do, you are pleased as punch.

My copy is much used and well loved. I was newly married when this cookbook was given to me, and it is from these pages that I learned to make succotash (still a favorite), and baked beans, and onion pie. As someone who grew up in Southern California, these dishes were as foreign to me as if they had come from a distant country across the ocean.

Just in case you think I might be off my rocker for loving a book of White Trash Cooking, know that I am not alone. The book was reviewed and loved by Roy Blount Jr., James Hunt Jr., J. William Fulbright, William Least Heat Moon, Helen Hayes, and Harper Lee. Yes, you read that right, Harper Lee wrote, "I have never seen a sociological document of such beauty - the photographs alone are shattering. I shall treasure it always...Now that it's harder than ever to identify the genuine article on sight - with two generations of prosperity white trash looks like gentry - we've long needed something other that the ballot box to remind us of their presence: WHITE TRASH COOKING is a beautiful testament to a stubborn people of proud and poignant heritage."

Ms. Lee is right, the photos are amazing. It is nice to think that there are parts of this great country that Starbucks has not touched.

 

This is a recipe for Netty Irene's Macaroni & Cheese. I have made mac & cheese with all manner of fancy cheeses and pastas and seasonings, with whole cream, half cream, and Irish butter, but I have never covered it with bacon. Totally making this, exactly as written, on Saturday.

 

Netty Irene's Macaroni & Cheese

 

4 cups cooked elbow macaroni

1 cup grated or chunked yellow cheese

3 eggs

1 cup Carnation evaporated milk (no substitute, please)

10 bacon strips

salt and pepper

 

Blend the eggs and milk together and pour into macaroni already in a flat pyrex baking dish. Put in the cheese and poke it around until thoroughly mixed. Salt to taste. Then put enough black pepper to coat it all real good. Place on bacon slices and cook in a 350-degree oven until it gets a good crust on top and has hardened a little. About 30-40 minutes. Don't cook it too long, you want it runny in between the elbows.

"This recipe is from Miss Myrtle Talmadge's Home-Ec class and I made it for the Senior Prom Dinner. It was so good I been makin' it ever since," Netty told me.

 

 

 

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