A few summers ago, my daughter-in-law Spring, wife of my youngest son Bobby, asked me how to make Fried Squash. That dish had been served at one of the functions of her church, Ten Mile Baptist Church, a little white wooden-frame building way out in the country near Normangee, Texas, that her family has attended since the early nineteen hundreds.
I often make Fried Squash when fresh yellow summer squash is in season. I call the dish "Summer Squash Coins" because of the round shape of the golden-fried slices. To eat fried squash, I slather on the catsup-- no salt-- but tons of black pepper, just as I do with Fried Okra or Onion Rings. (For those with a salt-restricted diet, the catsup has more than enough salt for good taste.)
The way Fried Squash, Fried Okra, or Fried Onion Rings --actually anything deep-fried-- are made is quite simple and about the same. Probably folks have been cooking this way for centuries, as all are quick and easy dishes. But it is fried food, and for many of us today, that is a no-no. But if you want a food that brings back an old-fashioned taste, deep-frying vegetables is the thing. Almost any food can be and has been deep-fried by somebody, somewhere.
It's easy to make this squash dish. First, get out your iron skillet. I use my biggest skillet --the really heavy one stamped, "Wagner Ware--Twelve Inch Skillet--Made in the USA"--the one I don't use all that much any more, that takes two hands to hold it, and was my main skillet when I was cooking for my family of five at Hilltop Lakes back in the '70's and '80's. I bought it new in 1976, when Bobby was about a year old, and it is now a collectible, being it is "Wagner Ware."
A word of caution about Cast Iron cookware: Wagner Ware and Lodge are both good brands. Unless the iron cookware says "Made in the USA", don't buy it, as it is inferior iron and won't heat as well as American-made. Never buy an iron skillet with a wood handle either. Cast Iron cookware will be here for centuries, but the wood handle won't. Long ago, when a house would burn down, the only thing not burned up would be the cast iron cookware and the cast iron dog-irons used to hold logs in the fireplace.
Back to the cooking: Next you fill the iron skillet with vegetable oil, about two inches or so deep. I like Wesson Oil, as I like corn oil best, but any vegetable oil will do. Due to corn being used to make the fuel Ethanol, the cost of anything with corn in it--whether horse feed, chicken feed, or cereal for the kids--is much higher than it used to be. Another factor in the price of any kind of goods is the outrageous cost of the petroleum products used to get it to the store---by truck, train, or whatever.
My grandmothers, Ann Jones Ellison and Sally Lee Allen Head, and my mother, Marie Ellison Head, all cooked with homemade lard (pig fat), and then used Crisco when vegetable shortening came out. We sometimes used Mrs. Tucker's Shortening, too, but Mama like Crisco best. Crisco was also used by Mama and long-time family friend and childhood playmate of my daddy-- Cotton Kling, a very kind man that I loved dearly-- to make snow-white homemade lye soap in a big black cast iron kettle over a corncob fire.
Pig lard was rendered from your own pig you had raised and butchered at home, which country folk did in America as late as the 1950's, and especially in World war II when meat was rationed, and you couldn't buy it if you were even able to find it for sale somewhere.
In those days, there wasn't a grocery store on every corner like there is today. I personally think the availability and ease of obtaining food--lots of food, more than we really need--is a leading cause of the obesity epidemic in America. We no longer have to catch it, kill it, dress it, and then cook it--we just go buy it! Way too easy to overeat with all that food right at hand, with no effort on our part.
I am sure there were no "good fats"-- trans or otherwise-- in pig lard, but you used it because it was what you had or could afford to cook with. A lot of people loved the taste of foods cooked in lard or baked with lard, and you could buy it at the store if you didn't kill a hog. Even in today's modern stores, I have seen lard on the shelf, bought usually to make homemade tortillas.
I remember the wonderful taste of homemade lard biscuits spread with lots of homemade butter and homemade wild grape or red plum jelly. Truly a feast to a hungry little kid--- a simple treat, but, oh, so good!
Back to the cooking: (I keep getting sidetracked with memories of how it used to be done!)
For deep-frying, you want to use an iron skillet, as it heats more evenly than any other kind. I cook ONLY with iron skillets and stainless steel. None of that nasty chemical non-stick Teflon stuff that peels -off -as- the- food -cooks -and -gives -you- cancer- because- you- have -eaten -Teflon -all -your -life for me!
Course, you don't know what pan the food in a restaurant is cooked in, so we all probably eat a lot more of that Teflon chemical than is good for us. The fumes of Teflon coating when heated will kill a bird, so I can't help but wonder what happens when you eat it! That's one reason I'd rather cook my meals at home, though I do love to eat at Luby's or a good steakhouse. I don't like to cook in aluminum pans either.
Now for how to make "Fried Squash Coins":
Once you have washed the summer squash, slice it thinly in coin shapes into a deep mixing bowl. It should be a bit wet, so add a little milk or water, just enough to moisten each slice. Then add a mixture of half flour--I use self-rising, but regular flour will do-- and half cornmeal to the squash, using a fork to turn the slices and evenly coat each one. Add more milk or more flour-cornmeal mix if needed, until each slice is coated. You don't want a batter to form, so don't use much milk or water.
NOTE: I don't usually measure anything --I just add what looks right. This is easy if you have been cooking for a long time, like me. Also, I don't use any cornmeal--only flour--I like Self-Rising Flour best--- if making Onion Rings, chicken-fried steak, or fried chicken. The secret of a crispy crust on the steak or chicken again is the hot oil.
I have been told many times that I make the best chicken-fried steak and the best fried chicken, and I believe the crispy crust is what it makes it so delicious. Many of my daddy's childhood friends told me the best chicken-fried steak they ever ate was cooked by my grandmother, Sally Lee Allen Head, back in the '20's and '30's, in an iron skillet full of hot lard, on a woodburning cast iron cookstove!
On the stove, your oil in the iron skillet should now be hot. You want the oil pretty hot but not smoking, so the flour coating on whatever you are cooking--chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, fried squash--whatever-- will form a crust the minute it is dropped in. My grandmother Mama Head would sprinkle a few drops of water into the hot lard.
I swear I also remember her spitting into the lard, if her hands were full, to see if it were hot enough yet! I assume the hot oil would kill any germs, but I don't recommend that practice today. If it sizzles but is not smoking, the oil will be hot enough. HOT OIL is the secret to a crispy crust!
Once the squash is in the hot oil and not overcrowded-- so each slice will brown-- you MUST stay right beside it, as the thin slices will cook very quickly. Turn once, cook to desired crispness, remove from skillet with a slotted spoon, and drain on lots of paper towels. Serve immediately as the crispiness is lost quickly. This dish takes a little more effort than we modern Americans are used to, but is well worth it.
For many years--just as most Americans did-- the Head family had a huge garden and grew all their own fresh vegetables...tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, squash, okra, carrots, radishes, lettuce, corn, Green Beans, Blackeyed Peas, Crowder Peas, Idaho potatoes, little round red new potatoes, and even watermelons and cantaloupes. Back then, no one had to worry about Salmonella or E-Coli contaminating their vegetables. Unlike today, Mama Head didn't need the Federal Drug Administration to tell her anything, as she knew exactly where those vegetables came from and knew they were safe to eat.
Though I was very young, I have memories of Mama Head cooking and baking on her big, black cookstove made of cast iron. There was always a stack of cut wood on the back porch or in the back hallway, ready to be fed into the cookstove. Beside it-- and beside the smaller cast iron pot-bellied stove used for winter heat-- there was a wooden box filled with small pieces of wooden boxes that had held produce such as apples, oranges, or grapefruit.
I liked to look at the pictures --usually a horse head or a pretty lady--on the paper labels on the produce boxes. When broken up into small pieces, the soft, thin wood of those produce boxes made perfect kindling, necessary for starting a fire or controlling the temperature of the stove's heat. To my very young mind, it was just amazing that you could put plain old wood--kindling and little tree logs --into that big old cookstove, and it came out food!
Hope you enjoy your Fried Squash!
