"Prepare to venture with my mother, Hazel, and me through time, via food, folklore, country medicine and traditions of a segment of African American culture from a time in the rural South."
So ends Mary Magee Gullatte's introduction to Grits and Redeye Gravy: Classic Country Cookin'--A Taste of Culture, Folklore and Cures, a book that she and her mother, Hazel Oatis Magee, wrote and compiled based on the culture and traditions of their hometown of Collins, Miss., near Hattiesburg. Gullatte, department director for Medical Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Nursing in Emory Hospital, self-published the book, which has been available at the Emory Bookstore for $10 since last November.
The names of the book's recipes conjure up rich images. Fresh Water Fried Turtle, Fish Head Soup, Barbecue Goat, Big Mama's Molasses Bread, Blackbird Stew, Fried Raccoon, Rabbit 'n Dumplings, 'Possum Baked with Sweet Potatoes, Smothered Squirrel, Big Mama's Okra Gumbo and Coca-Cola Cake are just a few of the dishes listed.
Grits and Redeye Gravy, however, is much more than just a cookbook. The section on main dishes features explanations of how to build a smokehouse, preparing meat for smoking, hunting for wild game, and how to catch fish and other freshwater fare. The final section of the book, titled "Did Ya Know? Culture, Folklore and Cures," includes information on home remedies, old wives tales, the meanings of common words and phrases, weather and planting, church revivals, bereavement and the meaning of dreams.
"The book is laced with different things related to culture and history," Gullatte said. "It has some home remedies from back in the old days, when you couldn't afford to go to the doctor, or just didn't go because someone in the neighborhood knew how to cure what ailed you."
The idea to write the book emerged about four years ago when Gullatte's family began holding family reunions in Collins. Gullatte and her mother both mentioned the need to put the recipes and other material down on paper to pass down to the family's younger generations.
"At the family reunion, we began talking about the fact that that kind of cooking is pretty much being lost because hardly anybody cooks that way anymore," Gullatte said. "There's no need to go out and kill squirrels and rabbits and blackbirds and bring them in for food for the table, because everybody goes to the grocery store to get their food now."
Most of Gullatte's family members who grew up with those rural Southern traditions, including her great-grandmother, grandmother and several great aunts, have died, and that was another motivation for getting the material into print. "So much of African American history and culture is passed down through the oral tradition," Gullatte explained. "If no one is writing it down and no one is passing it along orally because they don't know it or experience it, then it's going to be lost. That was the impetus for the idea to compile all the old recipes, home remedies and things."
The fact that a seasoned nurse has compiled a book with home remedies and high fat seems contradictory at first glance. But Gullatte sees no conflict between her heritage and her strong commitment to modern medicine.
"My nine siblings and myself are products of home remedies," she said. "Whether it worked because our white blood cells were in good shape already, I don't know. Occasionally, I will try those kinds of things before I go to the doctor when I feel congested, such as hot tea and lemon tea, instead of running to the doctor to get an antibiotic every time. It's not good to take antibiotics constantly for every little thing that comes up. But I never delay seeking medical attention when I think there's a need for it."
As for the recipes, Gullatte said many of them are surprisingly healthy. "The traditional way of cooking anything Southern is either frying it or putting gravy on it, which is high in fat for sure," she said. "But much of the wild game in these recipes has a very low fat content compared to the meat you buy in the grocery store. We grew our own chickens, and they didn't have all the fat that store-bought chicken has now because of the growth hormones they feed them to get them to market faster. We fed our chickens corn [and other natural foods], so they didn't have anything but good, solid lean to them."
Gullatte also pointed out that the book offers several baking and broiling recipes as an alternative to frying.
The health issue aside, Gullatte's mother, Hazel Oatis Magee, was delighted to see her family's efforts result in the preservation of their traditions for posterity. Several of Magee's children contributed recipes, and one of her daughters sketched a number of the book's drawings.
"Lots of young people don't have any idea of what life was like back in my day when I was coming up," Magee said. "It's so interesting to see where we were then and where we are now. I am so proud of this book and I am especially proud of the work that my daughter put into it."
--Dan Treadaway