Our food-writing team packs up the picnic basket full of family favorites for the road or the backyard.
Jill Sauceman
At Oak Hill School, relocated to Jonesborough, Tennessee in 1996, students spend the day under the tutelage of Jean Smith as they re-create the way things were in 1892, including having beef jerky for lunch.
In keeping with the time of year to get outside and play, here are some time-tested recipes from our kitchen that make excellent snacks for a road trip or picnic.
Homemade Beef Jerky
Jill: In the late 1990s, I worked as the Museum Education Specialist for the Jonesborough-Washington County History Museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee. One of my responsibilities was to develop a curriculum guide for area students who would spend a day experiencing what life was like in a one-room school. The museum had rescued the century-old Oak Hill School building that was located in another area of Washington County. It had been scheduled for demolition. The building was moved to a site located close to the museum and was restored by the museum.
We opened the doors to 4th-grade students in 1999. While developing the curriculum guide, I chose to make everything as authentic as possible for a school day in 1892. This included the lessons taught, games played, songs sung, and meals carried in lunch buckets. The teachers were given pre-visit activities to prepare them for the day. For their school lunches, students were to bring something that would have been eaten in 1892. Among the food items I chose for them were cornbread with butter; biscuits with jelly, honey, molasses or country ham; boiled eggs; an apple or pear; and homemade beef jerky. This is the recipe I used for beef jerky, explaining to students that meat strips would have been dried in the sun or hung close by a fire to dry.
Flank steak, sirloin steak, and top and bottom round are good options for jerky. Slice the meat across the grain in pieces that are about 1/4-inch thick and 1-inch wide. (Slicing across the grain will help make the meat more tender.) The meat is much easier to slice if it is partially frozen. Your butcher can do this for you, if you like.
There are many seasonings that may be used for marinating. Onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, soy sauce, paprika, basil, ginger, marjoram, curry powder, rosemary, thyme and oregano all work well. Use these according to your own personal taste. Salt should be used in moderation because dried meat is more intense as it loses moisture. Of course, the longer the meat is marinated and the more seasonings that are used, the more flavorful the jerky will be. A little lemon juice will help maintain the red color of the meat. Vinegar cuts out some of the gamey taste of wild meat. Place meat in a ziplock bag, adding the seasonings and spices. Toss the bag several times while marinating to distribute the spices and liquids well. Refrigerate until ready to dehydrate.
Before dehydrating, make sure to remove excess moisture from the marinated meat. This can be done by placing slices of meat on absorbent paper towels and patting them dry. If you’re using an electric dehydrator with stackable trays, place the meat on each tray and stack on top of the heating element. Trays should be rotated during drying for the most effective, even dehydration. Drying time is approximately eight to 10 hours. Store the jerky in an airtight container if you’re going to eat it soon. For longer storage, place it in a vacuum-sealed bag.
Cheese Straws
Fred: My mother, Wanda Sauceman, acquired this recipe when she worked for Greene Valley Developmental Center in Greeneville, Tennessee. She brought cheese straws to family picnics, wedding anniversary celebrations and holiday dinners. They keep well for several days, although these didn’t stay around long enough to test the exact duration of the shelf life.
- ½ pound butter (2 sticks)
- ½ pound New York sharp cheddar cheese or any other sharp cheddar (Do not use pre-shredded)
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 2 cups plain, all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Shred the cheese. Cut butter into cubes, ½ to 1 inch in size. Place cheese and butter into a food processor with the cutting blade and process. Add cayenne pepper, hot sauce and salt, and process again. One cup at a time, add flour and process until smooth and creamy. Place cheese dough in a cookie press or pastry bag with any decorative tip you like. Star tips make a good design. Squirt out in 3-inch strands on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake from 10 to 12 minutes depending on your oven and the pan you use. Darker pans bake more quickly.
“Iron” Sandwiches
Fred: It was the pre-panini era. A time long before George Foreman started making grease-draining grills. When I was growing up, my mother made “iron” sandwiches. They were, in actuality, simple grilled cheese sandwiches, made with the very same iron used on clothes. At our house, “iron” sandwiches began around the time of Permanent Press.
I suppose you could take a highbrow approach, with a French baguette, artisanal cheese and garlic aioli. But Wonder Bread, singles of pasteurized prepared cheese product and Miracle Whip work just fine. In fact, they’re a better fit for the working-class profile of the sandwich.
Here’s how we make them. First, we heat our 40-year-old G.E. iron on the “cotton” setting. Then we coat the insides of the bread with Miracle Whip or mayonnaise and place one piece of cheese between the slices of bread. We spread salted butter on the top side of the sandwich, in five places, like the pattern on a die.
Then roll out 12 inches of aluminum foil to make a square. Fold the ends over the sandwich just until they meet, and then roll up the other ends to make handles so you won’t burn your fingers. Place the hot iron on top of the sandwich. Listen and smell. My mother advised us to keep the iron on pretty high. On the “cotton” setting, two minutes per side and the bread is browned, the cheese properly melted.
Is the memory better than the sandwich? Well, when I tested the recipe for one of my books, I hadn’t eaten an “iron” sandwich in probably 40 years. I ate three.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways of Appalachia and the South from their home base in Johnson City, Tennessee. They are at work on a cookbook, to be published by Mercer University Press in Macon, Georgia.
The story above first appeared in our May/June 2021 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!