Project Proposal
Scotland Tradition: the Quaker rendition of Chicken Casserole
The chicken starts to simmer in the pan as my mother lines the bottom of a pan with crushed club crackers. Butter is melted and drizzled onto the crackers. My mom calls for me to help cook like I do every year around Christmas. Christmas Eve is when my whole family gathers together to chat and eat. We all go to my grandmother’s house even though she has the smallest house out of us all. Once the chicken is fully cooked, it’s shredded and then added onto the crackers in the pan. It’s like when everyone shows up at my grandma’s. Little by little people arrive and join one of the many different conversations. I grab the cream of chicken soup and milk so it can be mixed together. My mother gets the medium-sized blue bowl, the one that has been used countless times for meals and desserts. I stir them together as my sister comes in the kitchen to make sure her outfit is ok. We all try to look our best even though it’s a casual event. This look is for my grandma. We don’t get to see her much but she loves to see how much we’ve changed over the years. She’s a sweet, little lady that taught my mom everything she knows. I’m slowly learning all her secrets as I cook more with my mother as well. I remember the smell of the chicken casserole lingering in the air as she cooked one of her significant meals. More club crackers are placed on top of the chicken after the mixture has been poured on. Then it goes into the oven for thirty minutes.
My family doesn’t really have one dish that we consider our signature meal but chicken casserole has been made several times and for many different occasions. One thing about our family meals is that they are not very complicated. Simple and easy has been the go to for as long as I remember. This could be from the Scottish influence from within our family history. Based on my research, Scottish cuisines were simple meals that included some kind of meat. Irish influence started mixing with the Scottish meals after Ireland took part of their land. It makes so much sense because Chicken is always the go-to meat for us other than beef. My third great-grandmother came over to America with the Scots-Irish settlers to Philadelphia. They then went to DeKalb, Georgia where we have stayed for many years now. My research about my great grandmother made we want to learn more about what made them want to move.
I love the memories of my grandma cooking. She always made little snacks for my sister and I. There was always shortbread cookies too. I didn’t like them too much but with milk it always made them better and it made my grandma happy to see us eat them. My grandma was our chief or our “Tita” like in Like Water for Chocolate. I believe it was handed down to my mother when she no longer could cook because of the arthritis. My mother still can’t cook like my grandmother could though. She knew too many secrets from her mother that just didn’t get told. Measuring cups and spoons were never used. Grandma always said “a pinch of this, a pinch of that.” This made her recipes hard to duplicate precisely. I’ve always wondered where she got her recipes from if she never had any on hand so I will dig deeper into the recipes in our history. It would be so interesting to research her mother and find out where her cooking style came from. From my research, I found out that her side of the family is influenced by more than one culture. I wondered how much influence is still in our recipes today. As far as I knew, my family has always lived in Georgia.
Scottish immigrants came over in the 1700s for many different reasons. Scots-Irish, which is where my family are from, escaped to America to get away from “poverty and persecution from the [local] towns.” America was considered safe compared to their country. After the American War of Independence, America started trying to stop immigrants from coming over. Laws were made to ship them back or make them legal. Ellis Island was one of the centers where some people knew about to go to be legalized. My third-great grandmother had already been in the America since 1818 so was considered an “Old Immigrant” and was allowed to stay. Philadelphia was the first place my family went to because that’s where other Scots went. They wanted to stay together to continue their traditions. This changed as more Scotland immigrants traveled and spread out over America. My family stayed on the east side going straight to Georgia, some even in Alabama.
The best smell is when the chicken casserole comes out of the oven. It’s just a mouth-watering aroma that fills the kitchen. This gets even better when it’s combined with the love of your family around you. Nothing beats the moment you take out the casserole and everyone starts pouring in the kitchen knowing dinner will be served soon. My family loves spending time with each other and has always been close. With the little research done so far, I would like to learn more about why my family traveled to Georgia. What exactly made them choose Georgia out of the many different states? I also want to know a little more about what it was like in Scotland before moving and what traditions or habits did they bring that still resemble the Scotland culture. I plan to interview my mother for some personal memories she remembers of my grandmother. No one really knows my great grandmother that well so hopefully I get to learn more about her so I can pass it down with my family.
