Shining: Ole Smoky Moonshine Family Cookbook

By Jessi Baker

The family behind Ole Smoky moonshine shares their favorite recipes, from moonshine chili to traditional Southern breads, creative cocktails, and more.

When a change in Tennessee law finally made it legal to sell moonshine, Jessi and Joe Baker drew on their family’s rich history to start Ole Smokey Distillery. Ole Smoky moonshine is made with love for the Appalachian Mountains—and the home-style Southern food that goes with it.

In Shining, Jessi Baker shares the history of Tennessee moonshining, as well as some of her family’s favorite recipes. While some recipes feature moonshine in creative ways, like Moonshine Eggnog or the Moonshine Bloody Mary, not all the recipes are boozy. Jessi shares classic Southern favorites like Skillet Cornbread and Wild Blackberry Cobbler, as well as salads, soups, steaks, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781524854980

Book preview

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This book is dedicated to two of my favorite people: my grandmother, the first person I knew to make her own bone broth, taught me that kindness matters, manners are extremely important, and hard work defines your character; and my husband, Joe, without whom this book wouldn’t have happened, and whose friendship back in

our tender high school years shaped my life.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

History of Moonshining in Appalachia

Chapter 2

My Family and Ole Smoky Moonshine

Chapter 3

Cocktails

Chapter 4

Dips

Chapter 5

Southern Breads

Chapter 6

Salads

Chapter 7

Soups and Stews

Chapter 8

Mains

Chapter 9

Sides

Chapter 10

Brunch

Chapter 11

Desserts

Metric Conversions and Equivalents

Credits

Index

Acknowledgments

I’m very thankful for the opportunity to write this book. I love food and I love cooking, and to be able to combine those interests with our moonshine business is a blessing.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my husband for being the ultimate taste tester and for providing endless encouragement and critiques. To my kiddos, you’re my everything, and I love inventing recipes that make your stomachs full and your hearts happy. To everyone in the Ole Smoky family, thanks for your diligence and hard work continuing the growth and development of such a special product and brand. And to Cory and Tony, thanks for your partnership in creating this business. To my brother, Chuck, thank you for keeping it all together.

Finally, to those women, some sisters by blood and others just loyal friends, who lifted me up and encouraged me to believe in myself and my food, I love you: Bev and Jill, who helped me chop and test recipes; Sarah and Maggie, for being interested and giving me good feedback from the very beginning; Kristen, for formatting and everything in between; Abi, for being the ultimate, detail-oriented, last-minute editor; and Tiff and Stormie, for being the best second hands there could ever be.

Lastly, music is food for the soul. I hope you enjoy the excerpts from songs, either about Tennessee or about moonshining, headlining each chapter.

You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here

He only come to town about twice a year

He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line

Everybody knew that he made moonshine

Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad

He headed up the holler with everything he had

’Fore my time but I’ve been told

He never come back from Copperhead Road

Copperhead Road by Steve Earle

The

roots of moonshine can be traced back to our Scots-Irish ancestors who first settled here in the Smoky Mountains during the latter half of the 1700s. The craft of distilling spirits evolved from generations of making whiskey in Ireland and Scotland, so it made sense for those traditions to continue when the settlers migrated here to the mountains of Appalachia.

The rugged ways of mountain life forced these pioneers to become a tough and fiercely independent group of people. Over the years, the federal government established numerous taxes and laws regulating the manufacturing of spirits. These changes in laws created an environment for those in the shadows of the mountains to skirt enforcement and maintain a competitive advantage through the illicit trade of moonshine.

After losing revenue to the underground network of liquor trade, the Revenue Bureau of the Treasury Department transformed their collectors into a policing authority. This enforcement of revenue collection marked the beginning of the cat-and-mouse wars of the moonshiners and revenuers.

The temperance movement led to Prohibition in 1920. Prohibition banned the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol. The demand for moonshine skyrocketed—especially in the big cities where organized crime drove strong demand for a dependable supply of liquor.

The moonshiners needed to keep up with demand, so they adjusted their recipes and formulas accordingly. The distillers would do whatever it took to keep their supply chain flowing, but they faced many challenges. The mountains are full of stories of young men who ran liquor. The tough business of making spirits in the backwoods of the mountains led to numerous clashes between moonshiners and government agents.

Throughout much of our nation’s early history, the people of the mountains chose to avoid the conflicts that embroiled our nation. Outsiders were not trusted, and the clannish ways of the mountain people insulated them from much of the outside world.

As government developed laws to regulate or restrict the making of spirits, our ancestors took exception to these outsiders getting involved in their affairs. Mountain folk have always had a healthy mistrust of government. This way of life is memorialized in one of Tennessee’s state songs: Once two strangers climbed Ole Rocky Top looking for a moonshine still. Strangers ain’t come down from Rocky Top. Reckon they never will.

When prohibition was repealed in 1933, the market for moonshine grew thin, but even through the 1950s, moonshining continued in the mountains and hills of Appalachia. Over the years, thousands of stills were destroyed by federal agents. Moonshine continued to be a problem for federal authorities into the 1960s and ’70s, but very few illegal alcohol cases are heard in the courts today.

Today, the tried-and-true traditions of those early mountain settlers live on in Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine. Making moonshine is a craft in which we take a lot of pride. Staying true to our roots, we incorporate the recipes and traditions that have been passed down through generations of families in the Virginias, Carolinas, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee. Our ancestors were growing corn and making whiskey here before Tennessee was a state, and after years of having to hide from the law, we’re proud to finally be able to legally share the best spirits in the mountains.

Smoky Mountain memories

About my home in Tennessee

Yesterday keeps calling me,

Calling me home

Mountains rising in my soul

Higher than the dreams I’ve known

Misty eyed, they cling to me, my Smoky Mountain memories

Smoky Mountain Memories performed by Larry Sparks