I guess I don’t have to point out to anyone who lives on the East Coast that this is the coldest winter on record; a winter that comes after the hottest summer on record. (Memo to Ken Cuccinelli: It’s global warming STUPID.) When I’m confined to our Humble Little Cottage for any length of time like we have the past month, I tend to cook….a lot.

For several years now, I’ve been researching the food of Appalachia. Traditional mountain cooking has never really been codified nor is it available in restaurants because it is a cuisine that relies heavily on wild game: deer, rabbit, wild turkey and other game birds as well fresh fish like trout, perch, and catfish from the rivers, streams, and lakes. Health Departments tend to take a dim view of ingredients that have not been raised according to Federal guidelines and officially inspected. I doubt hot biscuits and squirrel gravy has ever appeared on a commercial menu. Fresh vegetables come from family gardens and are canned for the winter months. Foraging for nuts, berries, wild greens, and mushrooms also help fill the larder.

If I had to point to one meal that says mountain cooking more than any other, it would be pinto beans and cornbread. Nothing hits the spot on a frigid winter day like dried pintos slow cooked with onions and smoked pork to a delicious creaminess accompanied by a plate of hot cornbread and butter. Traditionalists would wash it down with fresh buttermilk or sweet tea. Real old-timers might even have sassafras tea or coffee made from wild chicory.

Unfortunately, this style of cooking is rapidly disappearing and will probably be gone in twenty years or so. With each passing generation, more people lack the knowledge and skills necessary to process and cook wild food and have turned to fast or processed food for their diet. Pinto beans come out of a can, and cornbread from a mix. You have to know someone who knows someone to obtain venison sausage. Unlike other areas in this country where regional foods are making a comeback and are being preserved, here in Appalachia, that’s not happening.

Sadly, once this style of cooking is gone, it will be gone for good.