cooking the gullah way morning noon and night

MEGGETT: The red rice and the Hoppin' John. She says if anyone's going to try only two recipes in her book, it's two Gullah Geechee staples. Emily's ancestors, like other enslaved people brought to the Carolinas, were expert rice cultivators. MEGGETT: Because we even had our own rice pond when I was growing up. They raised hogs, chickens and other livestock. They grew their own vegetables, beans and fruit. Emily's family kept their own gardens at home. Benne seeds were brought over from West Africa by enslaved people and became an important staple in their hidden gardens. Emily's other recipes are intensely local, too, like her delicious Benne wafers - sweet little cookies made with local sesame seeds. Make your gravy and your seasoning - nothing else. This is a tradition, how I learned how to cook it. But sometimes, I think they jazz it up too much. And people would, you know - you add things to see how that going to taste. This virtuoso in the kitchen doesn't bother with a whisk. TSIOULCAS: She's stirring the pot constantly with her favorite spoon.

MEGGETT: Now, you watch me every step of the way. Emily is focused on making her gravy - salt pork, onion, flour and some seasoning salt. TSIOULCAS: Her cookbook is called 'Gullah Geechee Home Cooking.' Right now Ms. Throw me anywhere, Lord, in that ole field. In their insulated locations throughout the coastal areas of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, they managed to preserve much of their rich culture, language and music.īESSIE JONES AND GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SINGERS: (Singing) Throw me anywhere, Lord, in that ole field. Her community's ancestors were enslaved people from West and Central Africa. MEGGETT: (Laughter) Grits and this salt pork right here. As she chops up some salt pork to get us started, I ask her, what's the first thing she remembers making as a girl? TSIOULCAS: I'm with her in her cozy home kitchen, where she's going to teach me how to make a local classic, shrimp and grits with gravy. Emily Meggett is known far and wide as the matriarch of Edisto.ĮMILY MEGGETT: Go right to that drawer right there. The roads are fringed by massive oak trees draped with Spanish moss. In tribute to her life, we're sharing her story again today.ĪNASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: Edisto Island is a beautiful, quiet community of about 2,000 people nearly an hour's drive south of Charleston. Meggett died on April 21 at age 90 after a brief illness. NPR culture correspondent Anastasia Tsioulcas traveled to Edisto last spring to spend some time in Emily Meggett's kitchen.

Emily Meggett from Edisto, S.C., was a queen of Gullah Geechee cooking, and her cookbook became a bestseller. Last year we celebrated a chef who got a book deal at age 89.

Cooking the gullah way morning noon and night