Florida cuisine.

So people have been asking me my version of what is Florida cuisine. The answer is simple, anything you want it to be. There is such a great variety of cultures, and people here in Florida that any style of cooking is acceptable and there is such an abundance and availability to get just about any type of food fresh, that you might say any food can be considered a Florida special as long as it can be made quick and easy.

The peninsula here is surrounded by both ocean and gulf water providing a variety of sea food, fish, shell fish, crustaceans such as shrimp, lobster and crab, and everyone has heard about conch mostly in the keys, but you could also easily find craw fish or other creatures from the gulf. You could by exotic things that aren't served any where else such as gator tail. Also we have some of the best known fresh water fishing in the states even though people don't usually come to Florida for a great large mouth bass dinner. It would be easily provided. A variety of vegetables will grow here in the fertile farmlands of central Florida, you just need to go to a farmers market to find that out, not to mention all the different kind of fruit. We are best known for the key lime, but all sorts of tropical fruit as well as some more northern fruits can be grown.

Cracker cow as it makes it's way through the dense brush with ease

Another cracker cow notice the horns are turned backward.

We are also known for our beef. The early settlers here in Florida had a special cow that could make its way through the saw palms and lush vegetation and swampish land that is found here. The cow boys sometimes could not get to the cows because of the dense forest and trained them to listen to the crack of a whip. Therefor the cowboys became known as cracker and the cows as cracker cows. My grandfather told me that when he was young he used to have to drive the cattle across the St. Johns river, but that was before it was dredged out for shipping. I'm not sure there is a store or a place to buy cracker cow meat but there should be I'm sure the unique Florida cattle range would add to the taste of it and I for one would like to see the difference.

Deer at the beach in the keys you can get a good size comparison with the picnic table in the back ground.

But this tougher terrain doesn't just affect the cattle it also has an affect on the animals found in the wild such as the deer. Our deer here in
Florida is significantly smaller than deer in other parts of the states. And although I haven't tried it, the taste is reported to be sweeter. And lends itself well to sausage.

Florida wild turkey

Also our wild turkeys are also smaller. But every year right before Thanks Giving there are tons of people up in Ocala national forest and surrounding areas hunting for turkey so it must taste better.

Feral pig in the woods.

Also I here the wild hog population is smaller too but with longer legs. We have what are known as feral hogs. They were actually brought here by Ponce de Leon and may be the birth place of all hog populations in north America since hogs are not native to Florida or the United States. Someday I would like to taste one of these too.

True Florida grapes. Mmm...

I did mention the caribbean and rum and it is well known that Florida was the main port for rum runners and there are plenty of rum dishes in families here in Florida, but what you may not know is that Florida is the origin of wine making in the US.
We have more wild grape vines growing, everywhere you look, to prove it than anywhere in California. The muscadine was widely grown and used for wine. French Protestants fleeing religious persecution began growing and making Muscadine wine near present day Jacksonville. The wines of Florida are generally sweeter which is probably why most of my family prefers sweet wine to dry. I've heard the university is working on creating a drier grape for the wine snobs of the rest of the world. A treat for anyone is to visit any of the laid back wineries found scattered about Florida. Most are small mom and pop operations and with out all the snobbery of other wine areas, so you can approach them with that same Florida laid back fun as anything else.

These guys are saining it's a practice that is illegal now. As are many fishing practaces of the past.

When my mom was young she remembers bananas stalks hanging from the back porch and sucking sugar from fresh stalks of sugar cane, going to the beach and having a clam bake right on the sand with clams they would dig right on the beach. Course they would eat more than just clams. What ever they could find or catch, scallops, shrimps, crab, lobster and all manor of fried fish. They would simply take a net walk out into the ocean and come back what ever was good that was in the net made a great dinner and the rest went free.

Not my family house but you can see a good example of the dog trot right through the center of the house.

Simple, fresh and easy are the recipes used most in Florida. Because why would anyone want to be stuck in the hot kitchen cooking when you could be out on the beach. Even the houses that were built way back when attested to this fact. Usually the kitchen was in a separate building so the main house wouldn't heat up. Sometimes the buildings were connected by a porch called a dog trot. That's where the dogs would usually stay at night and it provided them with shade as well. We lived in a house, for a short time, like that and it was nice not having the smells of food in the main living area all the time also it cut down on bugs because the food, that they like to eat, was kept in an the other building along with the trash.

Notice the different cowboy hat that is worn in Florida. It's is a little floppier.This is a dipiction of a Florida cracker cowboy notice the whip in his right hand. They were also good to kill snakes with out having to get off the horse. Notice also how Florida pioneers/cowboys were so much cooler than the ones out west that they had to were sunglasses.

I think food is a great way to explore the heritage that is so rich and nearly forgotten that is uniquely Florida. I hope you will enjoy this new section on recipes. Most will be my own creations but you will see how easy takes center stage in all the cooking here in Florida.