Betty Major is an incredible cook who makes exceptional sweet potato pie. Not only is Betty wonderful with food, she is a polite, gracious and informative hostess who let our class invade her living room for an hour or so one sunny afternoon on St. Helena's island off the coast of South Carolina.
After our tour guides led a discussion about the state of education on the Islands we received the opportunity to ask Betty a few questions about the role food and cooking play during holidays, family events, and her everyday life. As we found with many of the cooks we talked to in Charleston and the Sea Islands, food is key in bringing families together, and many of their traditions surrounding food apply to Betty's approach to cooking as well.
For instance, Betty cooks without recipes. Her measurements involve "dashes of this and that" and improvising as she goes. This requires time, skill and style, and it definitely improves the final result. Not only does the food taste good, it usually comes in very large quantities. Because she has had so much experience in cooking for large numbers of people during family gatherings, Betty has no problem making a lot of food at one time. Some dishes Betty likes to cook include shrimp, okra, red rice, crab and rice, oysters, peas and rice, "hoppin' john", neckbones, corn, potatoes, and anything seasoned with bacon.
Ingredients Betty likes to use that are particular to one season include tomatoes, cucumbers, fish, okra, squash, and beans in the summer and crab, sweet potatoes and corn in the winter. Betty has the option of buying supplies shipped in from other locations, but she cooks food her family has always made with ingredients that come directly from the Sea Islands. For instance, Betty serves ham or chicken, hoppin' john and sweet potatoes during family get-togethers. For Christmas her favorites include bread pudding, cake, chicken and ham. The Fourth of July calls for Frogmore stew, barbecue, macaroni and cheese, and the cooking is communal, meaning everyone brings something to share. Holidays usually bring music or any other "talents" that would entertain family and friends. One of Betty's friends can play the guitar, tambourine, drums, and trumpet, and he usually brings all four instruments to gatherings.
Music, like food, is just one of the many things Betty's family and friends share during special occasions like holidays, church picnics and family reunions. Betty informed us that sharing among her family, friends, and neighbors is not uncommon in general. When anyone has a particularly large crop or slaughter, the common practice is to give leftovers to neighbors. In the midst of all of this sharing, however, there are many occasions when Betty alone is in charge of all of the cooking. She prefers to do it by herself and works better on her own. She is so successful at cooking by herself, in fact, she sells plates to people to raise money for organizations she wishes to support. She cooks out of her house and sends food to people for around five dollars a plate.
As mentioned above, Betty said she prefers to use fresh food before she buys it at the store, even when she is selling dinners. Because of modern day conveniences and the decrease in homegrown food, however, she sometimes has no choice but to buy some ingredients. Although she usually buys her meat, she can obtain vegetables from her garden or the crops on the island and get fresh sea food from the waterways. This dedication to local food makes her cooking some of the most popular in her community.
