Chitterlings

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Chitterlings in broth

Chitterlings (written after the debate also Chitlins or Chittlins, rare euphemistically Kentucky Oysters ( oysters Kentucky Art)) is a dish of soul food in the United States . It consists of boiled and / or fried pig intestines and is considered as a defining judgment of this kitchen, because innards out in the kitchen of the United States otherwise rejection.

preparation

The pork small intestine is carefully cleaned and boiled, then often fried or deep-fried with or without breading . Although the chitterlings are sold partially cleaned, cleaning is an important part of the preparation and requires a considerable amount of time and effort, as it is often necessary to remove impurities by hand for several hours, with multiple watering. The weight of the actual dish to be consumed is reduced to half of what is bought. Care must be taken when cleaning, as otherwise there is a risk of infection with Escherichia coli , Yersinia enterocolitica or salmonella . In particular, local yersiniosis outbreaks due to contaminated chitterlings occur again and again .

Even after cleaning, chitterlings are notorious for the smell that the dish gives off during preparation, similar to rumen , so that in the past they were often cooked outdoors and today many people still leave the house during preparation when chitterlings are on the menu . The smell is also one of the main reasons why chitterlings are not even on the table in most households. In the meantime, cleaned, ready-to-cook chitterlings are also offered as frozen goods in some supermarkets in the USA.

history

While chitterlings are still a typical dish of soul food, their popularity as an everyday dish has decreased significantly in recent decades. Before the Civil War were slaves in the southern states often the coveted least parts of pork after slaughter, in particular Hog Haws (feet) and Hog Maw (stomach) were formative for the kitchen. In the absence of alternatives, the offal became such an important part of the meat kitchen, and it helped that it was still common in West Africa to use all the edible parts of an animal. Since slaughtering usually only took place in December and the innards are one of the most perishable parts of the pig, chitterlings established themselves as a typical winter food.

Promotion of a soul food restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, for its regular chitterling offer ("every Saturday")

They experienced a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s, when the black power movement began to spread to other parts of society and soul food became en vogue as a result . During this time, the public perception of this kitchen focused on the Chitterlings - their association with dirt and excretions allowed whites to find their prejudices about "dirty blacks" confirmed, just as it allowed the protagonists of Afro-American emancipation to express themselves about white ideas of To make fun of "purity". Chitterlings were even at this time when soul food even with the white elite was considered acceptable when differentiating factor , since very few whites could overcome their revulsion against the court.

The cultural significance that the court acquired for the self-image of the former slaves is also evident in the fact that in the 20th century the clubs that were open to blues and jazz musicians were known as the Chitlin 'Circuit . One of the participants, the blues musician Mel Brown , then named his greatest hits album Eighteen Pounds of Unclean Chitlins and Other Greasy Blues Specialties . There were several exclusive chitterling eater clubs in the southern states such as the Royal Order of Chitlin Eaters of Nashville, Tenn. or the Happy Chitlin Eaters of Raleigh, N.C. The Chitlin 'Strut has been held in Salley, South Carolina since 1996, attracting up to 70,000 visitors. Today, chitterlings are mostly eaten as part of a larger New Year's meal, with Christmas and Thanksgiving being popular occasions for serving them as well. The mild taste and the very delicate consistency are appreciated.

Other meanings

In English of the 18th century, the term Chitterling well for calf intestine used (Calf's chitterlings) . The use in this sense is evidenced by the cookbooks The Lady's Companion: Or, An Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex from 1743 and by 1747, first published Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse .

literature

  • Doris Witt: "Eating Chitterling is like Going Slumming". Soul Food and Its Discontents . In: Doris Witt: Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of US Identity . Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-511062-5 , pp. 79-101.

Web links

Commons : Chitterlings  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Karen M. McDearman, Frances Abbott: Chitterlings. In: John T. Edge (Ed.): The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol. 7: Foodways. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2007, ISBN 978-0-8078-5840-0 , pp. 143 f .; Kathy Starr: The Soul of Southern Cooking. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 1989, ISBN 0-87805-415-4 , p. 11; William Wilson: Wilson's Practical Meat Inspection. Blackwell, Ames, IA 2005, ISBN 1-4051-2493-8 , p. 226.
  2. ↑ Leo ML Nollet, Terri Boylston: Handbook of Meat, Poultry and Seafood Quality. Blackwell, Ames, IA 2007, ISBN 0-8138-2446-X , p. 396.
  3. ↑ a b c Whatscookingamerica.net: History of Chitterlings / Chitlins .
  4. ↑ a b LaMont Jones: Loved and reviled, chitterlings are the ultimate in soul food. In: Pittsburg Post-Gazette. April 2, 2006.
  5. ^ A b c Karen M. McDearman, Frances Abbott: Chitterlings. In: John T. Edge (Ed.): The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol. 7: Foodways. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2007, ISBN 978-0-8078-5840-0 , pp. 143 f.
  6. ^ Sherrie A. Inness: Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2001, ISBN 0-8122-1735-7 , p. 233.
  7. ^ Eugene Newton Anderson: Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture. New York University Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-8147-0496-4 , p. 137.
  8. ^ The lady's companion: or, An infallible guide to the fair sex. 4th edition. Read, London 1743, p. 310 (Calf's Chitterlings) and p. 324 (Hog's Chitterlings).
  9. ^ Hannah Glasse: The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. New edition. Strahan et al., London 1784, p. 62 et al