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Southern-Fried Florida

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By GARY R. MORMINO

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 12, 2008

Updated: 10/13/2008 10:44 am

If I were anointed Florida's Minister of Culture, I would order glorious monuments to the exalted chicken. Florida may be hopelessly fragmented, but almost everyone - rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban - loves perfectly cooked fried chicken.

A statue of a chicken joint - piece or place - might well be the perfect metaphor for a disjointed state. The chicken, like most Floridians, came here from someplace else. Once here, it thrived, whether pecking for grubs in Fort Lonesome, scratching for fiddler crabs on Pass-a-Grille or chasing cracked corn strewn from an apron. Czech immigrants in Masaryktown, African-Americans in Bealsville and schoolmarms in Sulphur Springs all raised chickens.

The meat has been a staple in America for 500 years. Christopher Columbus brought the first flocks to the New World on his second voyage in 1493. Countless varieties arrived in the cargoes of British and Dutch sailing ships and spread across America along the red-clay trails following Conestoga wagons. No frontier homestead lacked a barnyard of pecking White Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds and Black Minorcan roosters.

Every cuisine has adapted chicken into delicacies: Spanish arroz con pollo; Hungarian chicken paprikash; Chinese General Tso's chicken; Indian chicken tandoori; and Jewish chicken soup. But the American South is famous for its fried chicken. In 1957, Tampa Tribune food editor Hester Hale declared, "Fried chicken is without a doubt Southern delicacy No. 1."

Scholars believe that settlers from southern England carried their fondness for frying foods to 17th century Virginia. The so-called "Dorset fashion" of deep-fried foods became popular throughout the South. Many cooks - African slaves, Scotch-Irish frontier wives and lusty cavaliers - flavored the southern cook pot.

When asked by a Richmond belle about his fondest dreams, Gen. Robert E. Lee famously replied that he only wanted a "Virginia farm with no end of cream and butter and fried chicken."

For generations, lard (rendered pork fat) was the essential frying oil that transformed the lowly chicken into a heavenly dish. In 1911, Procter & Gamble introduced Crisco, a vegetable shortening. Crisco proved especially providential for Jewish cooks because it was kosher. A New York rabbi proclaimed that the "Hebrew race has been waiting 4,000 years" for Crisco! Regardless of religion, race, or ethnicity, every Southern cook treasured a favorite cast-iron frying pan that was passed from mother to daughter.

How Much Is That Chicken In The Window?

Today, chicken is the poor man's food, the cheapest source of protein in the meat case. It was not always so. In 1882, the Sunland Tribune complained, "Chickens have gone up so high preachers and editors can't afford to eat them. Forty cents a piece for yellow-legged spring chickens ... !"

That's because, for many, the fried chicken no longer came from the barnyard out back. As Floridians left the farm to settle in cities, enterprising merchants supplied their cravings for fresh chicken. To meet the demand, scores of poultry markets sprang up to serve the public.

In Tampa, Blue Moon Poultry stood at 3019 N. Florida Ave. The Berry Bros. Live Poultry establishment opened on the corner of Tyler St. and Florida Ave. In St. Petersburg, Clark Bros. advertised "live poultry."

A fried chicken dinner prepared for the minister was special, mostly because of the cost. Today's consumers would be shocked at the cost of yesteryear's fat hen.

More Expensive Than Steak

In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, Berry Bros. advertised broilers for a quarter each, and hens cost a pricey 16 cents a pound. Clark Bros. featured capons at 30 cents a pound and two guinea hens - "while they last" - for a dollar. Compare that to the cost of T-bone steak, 15 cents a pound, that year at City Market in downtown Tampa. Pork loin chops sold for 12 cents a pound, and veal chops cost 10 cents a pound.

In those days, the free-range chickens - and so were they all - were costlier because they took a long time from the incubator to frying pan. Moreover, the butchering of chickens was labor intensive and unpleasant. Berry Bros. Live Poultry Market meant what the copy read: Customers selected a live chicken and returned an hour later to pick up the "fresh-dressed fowl."

Beginning in the 1950s, chicken production went corporate. Companies such as Perdue and Tyson modernized the process, cutting costs and the time between the first peep and last cackle. In the rush to produce an efficient and inexpensive product, chemists also largely eliminated the flavor of the barnyard staple.

Gary R. Mormino directs the Florida Studies Program at USF St. Petersburg . gmormino@stpt.usf.edu.

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