Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country," I visit Edisto Island in South Carolina to learn how to make Hoppin' John from the islands matriarch.

Then Bryan makes our version of Hoppin' John, and Ashley bakes Alabama orange rolls.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

-For decades, I have been fascinated by the culinary traditions of South Carolina's Lowcountry.

These coastal plains and the nearby Sea Islands are home to the Gullah Geechees, descendants of West Africans who were enslaved for their rice farming skills, among other things.

The geographic isolation of the region allowed the Gullahs to protect their culture and foodways from outside influence.

So, when I got the chance to cook with one of the Gullahs' great matriarchs, I knew I had to make the journey to Edisto Island.

So Bryan Roof and I jumped in the car and headed over the bridge.

Miss Emily Meggett is Edisto's undisputed culinary queen.

She's called this island home for her entire life.

-You have to move here to live in a little heaven.

And I'm telling you, I haven't seen one person yet come across that bridge, and say, "I'm not coming back."

And everybody here love everybody.

-Everybody.

For Miss Emily, cooking is more than just a passion.

It's a way to feed family and friends, to take care of folks in the community who are down on their luck and in need of a warm meal.

She often drives around her neighborhood, dropping off her specialties to islanders she calls her little people.

-Take care of the sick and children and little people.

-I joined Miss Emily at the stove, where she already had some of her most beloved Lowcountry dishes bubbling away.

What are you going to teach me?

-I'm going to cook these peas for the Hoppin' John.

-Cabbage, two kinds of chicken -- baked and fried -- and of course, the classic peas and rice combination.

Hoppin' John -- a New Year's Day tradition served for good luck.

Or just anytime you like, according to Miss Emily.

You serve Hoppin' John all year or only on New Year?

-No.

Anytime.

-Anytime.

In most southern kitchens, the dish is prepared with black-eyed peas.

But here in Edisto, it's made with Sea Island red peas.

-You know what?

Put this -- Put this over there.

-It quickly became clear that this would be a hands-on lesson.

Shall I cut the other one?

-Yeah, cut that.

-Yes, cut it?

-Yes, cut it.

Now, look behind this stove right there.

See the oil?

-Yes.

And my hard work was rewarded with pearls of cooking wisdom, a repertoire of tricks and techniques built over a lifetime in the kitchen.

-Alright, look for the bone now.

That's the bone.

-Like how to split a ham hock close to the bone so it imparts more porky flavor to the beans Like that?

-Mm-hmm.

-You have to be, uh, strong.

-Mm-hmm.

-But I can feel the knife is running right alongside the bone.

-Feel for the bone.

You just go right beside that bone.

-Or how to drain off the red peas that float to the surface.

The dead peas, as Miss Emily calls them.

-You see those peas floating in the water?

-Yes.

What does the fact that they're floating mean?

-They're dead.

[ Chuckles ] -But many of her tips are more subtle, requiring intuition and experience, like how she knows the right amount of liquid to add.

You can just tell by the heaviness of the rice on the spoon as you stir.

-Feel that?

You got to feel the heaviness of it.

-I feel the heaviness of the rice now coming towards me.

At 89 years old, Miss Emily published her first cookbook.

Extracting the many recipes from her mind and transcribing them to the book took years, but the result was a success.

The book shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

It's an outcome that a younger Miss Emily would have found improbable.

-And I cook from my brain, my heart, and my hands.

It's the feel of it.

-Well, now I understand how your heart is on the pages here.

But sitting down at her kitchen table to tuck into the meal we just prepared together, it's clear that the real thing that matters to Miss Emily is this -- turning strangers into family and showing them love through food.

-When you come through that gate and you come up those steps, you got to come in like family.

-Thank you for letting us into your home today.

-Sure.

Anytime.

-Okay.

Tomorrow.

[ Both laugh ] Learning kitchen wisdom while cooking side by side with an excellent cook is an age-old tradition.

And, Bryan, you and I learned so many incredible lessons from Miss Emily.

-It was definitely one of the highlights of my young cooking career.

You know, and the first thing that really kind of was news to me was that Hoppin' John, which I've seen all my life living in the South, is not traditionally made with black-eyed peas, at least not Edisto Island's.

It's made with the Sea Island red peas instead.

-That's right.

And, you know, that's because these black-eyed peas resemble the red peas that were brought over on the slave ships during the slave trade, and descendants are still making the red peas with them today.

-Yeah, and they have such a different flavor.

Like, these are so much more earthy.

I mean, more like soil.

And these are a little bit more nutty.

So, what we're going to do first is we're going to rinse our peas.

So, let's head to the sink.

Okay, so, we're just going to fill the bowl up with cold water.

Rather than draining it right away, we're going to give it a second to let the peas settle.

This is something Miss Meggett showed us that I thought was really interesting.

We want to wait and see what comes floating to the top.

So, these are what she calls dead peas.

So, these are peas and, you know, little pieces of dirt or twig we don't want to put in the final dish.

So, once they're all done, we're just going to give them a drain.

We can drop these into our pot.

This is four quarts of water.

And now the next thing - the ham hock.

Like, we've both seen ham hock.

So, she actually used a fresh ham hock, which I'd never worked with before.

-I never had, either.

-What she did, she ran the blade of the knife along the bone.

-Well, you do have to find that bone.

I remember that I struggled a little bit.

-I like to use a bone knife, because sometimes you got to wiggle around because, you know, ham hock has a lot of little bits of cartilage, and the bones are a little bit inconsistent in the hock.

So, we're going to drop this into our peas, and we're going to add a tablespoon of table salt.

And we're going to turn this on high.

And once it comes to a boil, we'll put the lid on.

We'll go down to medium low and let it go until the peas are tender.

And that takes anywhere between 50 and 60 minutes.

And the reason why we're going to use a lid is so we trap all the water in the steam and the evaporation, because we're going to use a portion of that liquid to cook our rice.

Our peas have been cooking for just under an hour.

So, now we need to take out our ham hock and let that sit and cool.

So, we're also going to reserve about 2 1/4 cups of our cooking liquid here to cook our rice in.

This is liquid gold.

Alright, so, let's drain our peas.

So, as you noticed here we're saving all this liquid.

There's a ton of flavor in this.

But you can make soups, all kinds of things with this.

So, I don't want to throw that away.

Now we are going to turn our attention to some salt pork.

This was a key ingredient in Miss Meggett's Hoppin' John.

She took the salt pork, and she rinsed it thoroughly.

These pieces often come with a lot of salt crusted on the outside, and you want to remove as much of that as possible.

And then we're going to cut it into 3-4 inch pieces.

Once you rinse this, it's super important that you dry it well with paper towels.

Alright, so we're going to throw 1/4 cup of lard into our saucepan and put it over medium heat.

So, we're going to throw a lid on this, And we're going to cook this until it's nice and rendered out, and that takes about 10 or 12 minutes.

So, we'll give it a stir on occasion.

-Okay.

-Our ham hock is cooled down a little bit.

And so now we could chop it up.

And I got to be honest, this is -- of the many things I love about this dish, adding ham hock meat back into it is probably my favorite.

Now we're looking to cut this into about 1/2-inch pieces.

You know, about 3/4 cup all day.

So, that's about 3/4 cup right there.

Our salt pork has been sizzling away here.

You can hear it sputtering, right?

-For sure.

-It's been cooking away for about 12 minutes over medium heat.

It's all nice and crispy.

That looks gorgeous and smells wonderful, too, right?

-So good.

-So, now we're going to add a cup of chopped onion.

-Love that.

-Three scallions we've cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

We'll cook that until it gets softened.

Takes about three minutes or so.

At this point, we're going to add our rice, add 1 1/2 cups of Carolina gold rice.

And we're just going to let that rice toast for about two minutes.

Alright, so, this is the one spot where we really diverge from Miss Meggett's cooking method.

You know, we're using the pilaf method here, which helps coat the grains of rice with a little bit of fat so they don't kind of clump together as they cook.

Now we're going to add the seasoning to our rice.

So, we have a teaspoon of salt right here, table salt.

A little bit of black pepper.

This is 3/4 teaspoon.

3/4 teaspoon of granulated garlic and a 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder.

There you go.

Just stir that all together.

We're going to drop 2 1/4 cups of our pea-cooking liquid that's been fortified with all that ham hock flavor.

We'll add our ham hock pieces to it.

And now we're going to add our Sea Island red peas.

Stir this together.

So, you know, this is where a lot of people get into trouble when they combine rice and peas in the pot together.

Because the peas contain starch, they tend to scorch on the bottom.

So, this is why we relied on the pilaf method, you know, to coat the rice with that fat to make sure it stayed separate.

And we had plenty of fat in the dish to make sure nothing scorches on the bottom.

Now that this is coming to a simmer, we're going to cover it with a sheet of foil.

And what this does is it traps all that steam in there.

So, it makes it a much more efficient cooking method.

Put the lid on top.

So, now we're going to drop this down to low heat.

And we're going to let it go for 20 minutes.

And the most important thing anybody could ever know about cooking rice is you don't remove the lid to check it, at least not for the first 20 minutes.

The rice has cooked for 20 minutes over low heat, and then we shut the heat off, left it on the burner, and let it sit without opening the pot, removing the lid for another ten minutes.

And that last ten minutes is as important as the first 20.

You know, this is where the rice continues to steam gently and kind of coast into being just perfectly tender.

Alright, so, we could do our unveiling.

-Can't wait.

Oh, how beautiful.

-Alright.

So, now we have to fluff the rice.

This -- everything that day, this is probably my favorite piece of kitchen wisdom that she didn't even speak about it.

She just did it.

-She just did it.

-She used a carving fork to fluff the rice.

And it took me a minute, and I thought she was just using it out of convenience to flip other things.

But if you look at the carving fork, two tines, there's plenty of room for the rice to pass through.

If you look at a regular fork, there's more tines on it, obviously, and you tend to mash the rice up a little bit, even though the intention is to fluff.

So if you move around here, see how gently it kind of fluffs the rice, knocks it around a little bit, and we can just transfer it to our serving dish here.

You see how those grains just kind of stay separate.

-So nice.

-The bottom of the pot is not scorched.

Nothing's burned.

It's really just perfectly cooked rice.

Smell the garlic.

Black pepper coming through.

What do you think?

Ready to try?

-I'm ready for a taste.

-Gosh, that just smells so good.

-Okay.

-Alright.

-Oh, my goodness.

Mmm.

-You know, just like it makes me smile.

It's so good.

-It's so good.

It's so light.

-Mm-hmm.

-That porky flavor, totally subtle, just adds a nuance of flavor.

-Everything is about balance in the dish.

-Absolutely.

-I think you get that balance of pork.

Even though it looked like we were adding a lot of pork, what you get is the peas coming forward.

You get some of that garlic powder, that black pepper.

Everything is playing nicely together.

-And I have to tell you, we lost Miss Meggett shortly after we visited with her.

-And we were so fortunate to spend that time with her.

-And we are also fortunate that we're able to continue to have this dish.

Thank you so much, Bryan.

-You're very welcome.

-For a classic Hoppin' John, the Edisto Island Way, create a broth using red peas and ham hocks.

Cook Carolina Gold rice using a pilaf method.

And finally, fluff it all together with a carving fork.

From "Cook's Country," a tribute to Miss Emily Meggett.

Hoppin, John.

Bryan, I'm ready.

-Ready for some pork?

-I'm looking for a big piece of ham.

-Alright, I already ate all of mine.

-You ate all yours?

-I couldn't wait.

-Orange rolls are really similar to cinnamon rolls in that they're made with a yeasted sweet dough, they're wrapped around a filling covered with glaze, but orange rolls taste like orange instead of cinnamon.

Now they're popular at different places throughout the South, especially in Alabama, where they're served alongside the main course, almost like a dinner roll.

And Ashley's here to tell us more.

-So, the recipe I'm going to show you today is based off of and inspired by the Alabama orange rolls we had in Cullman, Alabama, at a restaurant called All Steak.

-I love the name of that.

All steak.

-All Steak.

-And orange rolls.

-Yeah.

[ Laughs ] But first, before we go anywhere near an orange, let's make our dough.

-Okay.

-I have 3 cups, which is also 15 ounces of all-purpose flour here.

And then I've got 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and I've got 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Simple dough so far.

So, I'm just going to give this a whisk by hand.

Now, I've got some orange juice, which is going to give us obviously that really gorgeous citrusy flavor.

But I did microwave this to 110 degrees.

It's a little warm.

-Oh, yeah.

-And the reason I did that is because it's going to help to activate the yeast.

So, it's going to jumpstart our dough.

And that is 1/2 cup.

And I've got some heavy cream.

I've got 1/4 cup of heavy cream and some butter that I went ahead and softened ahead of time.

There's 6 tablespoons that I cut into six pieces.

And then finally, one whole egg plus an egg yolk.

Alright, so, I'm going to mix this for about two minutes on medium.

So, I'm going to let this go until the dough is just combined.

Now I'm going to increase the speed to medium high and let the dough go for about eight more minutes until it's elastic and smooth.

So, as you can see the dough is elastic and it's smooth and it's nice and warm, too.

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah.

Alright, so, I'm just going to flour the counter here because the dough is going to be really soft at this point, and that's totally normal.

It's okay.

But I'm going to knead this just for about 30 seconds, just until it's a little bit smoother.

Just get it nice and taut.

Brush off any of that excess flour.

Now here I have a greased bowl, a good-sized bowl.

And then I also have some plastic wrap.

And usually what I do, any kind of yeasted dough because I'm forgetful Jones, I like to use a Sharpie and just run my Sharpie over the dough, just so I know if it's really doubled in size.

And then I always write down the time.

-I love it.

I do the same thing.

I write down the time it goes in and what time it should be ready to go.

-Exactly.

Alright.

So, this is going to go into a warm area, and it's going to rise until it's doubled in size, about an hour and a half to two hours.

Alright, let's check this out.

It did double in size again.

It was about an hour and a half that we waited while this was in a nice warm spot.

Alright, so before we go any further with the dough, I want to make our sugar mixture.

I've got 1/2 cup of granulated sugar here.

And then I've got 2 teaspoons of orange zest.

Now you notice there aren't any white bits in there.

That's the bitter part, the pith.

You don't want to go anywhere near that when you're zesting an orange or any citrus for that matter.

So, I'm going to add again 2 teaspoons into the sugar and just give it a good whisk.

Alright, I'll put that aside for now I'm just going to add a bit of flour to our counter.

I need to form this into a 16-by-8 rectangle.

I want the long side of the rectangle to be parallel to the counter.

-Okay.

-And then every once in a while, I just go in there just to release it.

Double check my work one more time.

-It went from a blob to perfection in, like, that.

I love it.

-Alright, so I've got some softened butter here.

Uh, 2 more tablespoons.

And what I'm going to do is just using the small offset, I'm just going to -- -Oh.

-...move the butter along here because the butter is going to be the glue that holds our sugar-orange-zest mixture onto the dough.

Now the hands-on part of the recipe.

I'm going to sprinkle this mixture just over top the butter.

Smells so good.

-It really does.

-So, now we need to roll this into a log.

And what you're going to do is roll away from you.

But you want to roll pretty firmly.

And that's going to prevent any air pockets from forming.

Alright, and then I'm going to finish with the seam side down.

But I want to go in there just to pinch it, just to ensure that it doesn't come undone when baking.

Now we're going to cut this into rolls.

So, each piece is going to be two inches thick.

And we're going to have eight pieces total -Okay.

-So, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to go right down the line with a serrated knife.

Just using a serrated knife just makes ease of cutting that dough so it doesn't rip or tear.

And now I've got this nine-inch dark cake pan.

So, we did prefer using a dark cake pan here.

But if you don't have a dark cake pan at home, just extend the cooking time to 45 to 50 minutes.

-Okay.

-Now I did go ahead and grease it.

I lined it with some parchment and then greased it again.

So, now you want to put one directly into the center, and now the following rolls, you're going to put them around the center.

But you want to have the seam side facing inward.

You run the risk of them unraveling.

-Gotcha.

-Alright, so, now these need to rise again.

So, I'm going to put some plastic wrap over top.

And I'm going to let them hang out in a warm part of the kitchen for 60 to 90 minutes until they've doubled in size.

-Alright.

-Take a look at how beautiful these look.

They've doubled in size, clearly.

-They're gorgeous.

-Yeah.

So, I'm going to bake these in a preheated oven at 325 degrees.

The oven rack is at the middle position, and I'm going to cook these until they register 195 degrees in the interior, which should take 40 to 45 minutes.

-Alright.

-[ Gasps ] -Oh, I can just smell them.

They're so pretty.

-They are.

They perfectly filled in all those empty spots in the pan.

And they have that color, that slight citrusy color.

-And they didn't unravel.

-They didn't.

-Phew!

So, again, we're looking for an internal temperature of 195 degrees.

Awesome.

196.

Perfect.

-Nice.

-Now these need to cool in the pan on the wire rack for 30 minutes.

-Okay.

-Now while those cool, I'm going to make a glaze.

So, I'm going to add 1/4 cup of some heavy cream, some sugar.

I've got 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of orange juice 2 tablespoons more of the softened unsalted butter.

And then finally, 1/8 teaspoon of salt.

Over medium heat, I'm going to bring this to a boil.

So, I'm going to let this cook for about four minutes until some large bubbles begin to appear.

Alright, so, as you can see the mixture is just starting to get slightly thickened.

And then we're just looking for some slow lazy bubbles.

-Mmm.

That's it.

-That's it.

Alright, it's been 30 very long minutes.

And these are nice and cool now.

So, I'm just going to tip this over because I want to remove the parchment from earlier.

-Very smart.

-Thank you.

-Oh, that released a whole new aroma into the air of orange and sugar and butter.

-Totally did.

-Man, those smell good.

-Mm-hmm.

And now I'm just going to glaze all the rolls very generously with this delicious buttercream mixture.

-You're not holding back with this glaze, Ash.

I love it.

-No way.

Not on my watch.

I'm going to go through and make sure we get all that glaze all around.

I'm just going to use this offset spatula just to help me -- -Loosen it up.

-Loosen her up there.

-Oh, yes.

You can smell the orange in the air.

I mean, that is just incredible.

Alright.

-Are you an outer or an inner kind of -- -I'm a yes.

-Yeah?

[ Both laugh ] -Mmm.

That's really good.

-Really good.

Buttery, orangey, not too sweet.

Which sometimes these can be really sweet.

And I love that delicate balance.

-It's really not too sweet.

I guess there really wasn't much sugar in the dough itself.

-Right.

-Mmm.

-I'm going in for the middle, I love the middle.

-The orange flavor is spot on.

You taste orange, but it's not bitter.

It's not sour.

It's just fragrant.

-Mm-hmm.

-And the glaze, it's a really mild, buttery flavor, a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of orange.

But more importantly, it keeps the rolls moist so they don't taste dry on the outside.

Ashley, these are delicious.

Thank you.

-Oh, my pleasure.

-If you want to make these incredible orange rolls, start by making a rich orange flavored dough using cream, butter and orange juice.

Roll the dough up around an orange zest and sugar filling and drizzle with a cooked orange glaze.

From "Cook's Country," a simple and delicious recipe for Alabama orange rolls.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews and select episodes at our website, cookscountry.com/tv.

I seem to have eaten all my rolls.

-Should we get another round?

-Yeah, I think we need another round.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest season's fail-proof recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

cookscountry.com/tv.

"The Complete 'Cook's Country' TV Show Cookbook" includes every recipe, tasting and testing from all 17 TV seasons.

With over 650 recipes, it's our most comprehensive collection of "Cook's Country TV" recipes ever.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop at cookscountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.