The Gullah Geechee
From Red Beans and Rice to Kayla Stewart's contribution to a Gullah Geechee cookbook.
Another rabbit hole that started with Louis Armstrong and ended at a South Carolina cookbook. My last post I signed with “Red beans and ricely yours” which I completely stole from Louis Armstrong, more of that to come in another post. I have his recipe for the classic Monday-night dinner of Red Beans and Rice in my Sweet Home Cafe: A Celebration of African American Cooking, I googled away to hear one of his last performances in 1971 which was released as an album posthumously named “Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours: Satchmo at the National Press Club” which actually included a booklet of his favourite recipes. I then came across another iteration of Satchmo’s recipe of Red Beans and Rice through the New York Times and read through it and found some differences from the original. The best part was the comment section, people who swore by some ingredients like ketchup and others bringing their grandparents into the fold. It was beautiful, the pride and joy or straight blasphemous outbursts from New Orlean-ians? After all, New Orleans is the birthplace of Louis Armstrong, and that recipe.
The New York Times recipe for Louis Armstrong’s Read Beans and Rice adapted by Kayla Stewart led me to her site, her photography and finally the cookbook that she contributed to called Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island, a cookbook by Emily Meggett and co-written with Kayla Stewart. I have a soft spot for cookbooks and after a bit more snooping on the net I found a lovely place for a preview which is enough to give me the absolute need to buy the book. I had never heard of Gullah or Geechee, so after more research I got some info that I’ll gladly share.
The Gullah Geeche live in the Lowcountry Sea Islands of the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia, historically isolated from the rest of the South. The heavy history of slavery where Charleston and Savannah were main ports for the slave trade. Up to half of the enslaved Africans came through the port of Charleston, the other majority to the port of Savannah. The semi tropical climate of the region transformed it into what was commonly known as the Rice Coast and benefited by the tremendous knowledge and skill of rice growing from slaves which made rice one of the most successful crops to flourish throughout America (i.e Carolina Gold; a variety of African rice popularised in South Carolina.) After the Civil War erupted, the islands were abandoned by the plantation owners and eventually the land was bought by the enslaved who worked on them.
The Gullah embrace their West and Central African roots through language, culture, music, food, fishing, farming and more. The Gullah Geechee language is a unique form of Creole spoken in North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Community led Gullah groups fought for the preservation of their culture and in 2006 received $10 Million over ten years from U.S Congress which passed the “Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act” for the preservation of cultural and historic sites. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is a long strip and Emily Meggett’s home on Edisto Island is right in between Beaufort and Charleston.
Emily Meggett is a cultural icon in her own right. She never used a cookbook nor a recipe and cooks by memory. She was so revered on Edisto Island in South Carolina she didn’t have to pay for a thing and was considered by many the most important Gullah Geechee cook. Her book has 123 recipes and it starts with the history of the Gullah people and how her home on Edisto Island stayed agricultural compared to the cities that slowly turned industrial. Her introduction to the book is romantic and also set with a heavy past but with shares a noble and rich culture still lively today. She starts her recipes with seafood because she said you can’t talk about Gullah Geechee without seafood first. From Crab Cakes to Fried Fish, or her Stuffed Fish with Parsley Rice and Roe that just looks incredible. Like I said, I have a soft spot for cookbooks and even more so if there is history involved, but this one adds another layer with eye-opening recipes.
She seemed like the sort of person everyone needs among their community. A communal matriarch who prayed to god daily to lead her to one needy soul so she could help in some way. She supposedly used to drive with a pot of food in her car, just in case. When her side door at home was open it was a signal that her kitchen was open to strangers or neighbours. She always cooked large portions and majority of the recipes in her cookbook has a minimum of 10 servings, except her fried chicken one which has 30. She learned how to cook from her grandmother and taught her 11 children and grandchildren how to cook by feel and without recipes. Sadly she recently passed away at the age of 90 in 2023. It seems she left a resounding and positive impact on her family, community and the world thanks to her initiative to keep her impact, story and history within her book. May she rest peacefully and I’m grateful to her that my daughter might be able to try one of her recipes one day and we can talk about a beautiful culture, over seafood of course.
Surf and Turfly Yours,
The Greasy Pen.