Summer 2009
Dye Scott-Rhodan
Keeping Gullah Culture on the Front Burner
For chef Dye Scott-Rhodan, the 2006 opening of Dye’s Gullah Fixin’s, her Hilton Head eatery, was the fulfillment of not one but two dreams. The first was to open a restaurant. “When I was small, my daddy and I would sit under the old oak tree in our yard and I’d tell him how much I wanted to open a restaurant,” she recalls. “Just before he died, he made me promise that I’d stop talking about it and do it.”
The second was to take an active role in keeping Gullah culture alive. An outland Gullah from Ridgeland, Dye feels fortunate to have been raised in a household where Gullah legends, traditions and customs were shared from one generation to the next. She’s passionate about maintaining that connection to the past. “The younger generation needs to understand why their grandmother says things differently than they do,” she explains. “It’s part of our history. It can’t fall through the cracks and be forgotten.
Chef Dye Scott-Rhodan is working on a cookbook in which she’ll share some of the recipes she grew up with and continues to use in the restaurant. Since none of the recipes ever had been written down, creating the cookbook was a true labor of love for Dye. “My sister had to stand next to me while I cooked,” she explains. “When I put something in the bowl, she’d measure it and write it down. It took forever. But now we have a record.
The following recipes of Chef Scott-Rhodan are presented Gullah-style.
Country Corn Pone
3 cups fresh cut corn
2 tablespoons suga
2 cup milk
1/4 cup melt butter
2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon salt
Dash pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal (yellow)
1 cup cheddar chez (option)
Dump all in a bowl and mix, and dump in a baking dish big enough ta hold. Bake until done about 30 minutes.
Fresh Specker Butter Beans
4 ham hock (smoke)
2 quarts fresh specker butter beans
1/2 onion (chop up)
1 teaspoon salt
11/2 tablespoons suga
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Get up ta boiling for 1 hour or til tender. Gotta add water, wen good clouded water add specker butter beans, put cover over um, cover wit water, bring ta boil for 30 minutes or put ya foot 200 times. Put in suga, pepper, and boil for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Catfish Okra Sweet Tater Stew
2 pounds cut-up catfish seasoned (salt & pepper)
1/2 onion sliced small
1/2 bell pepper sliced small
12 whole fresh okra tips off
1 medium sweet tater peeled & sliced in strips
1 medium fresh tomato diced
1/2 teaspoon flaked pepper
1 tablespoon brown suga
1 stick butter melted
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 cup water
Mix all together in bowl. Place in baking dish, cover and cook for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Check to make sure taters are tender. Serve on top of grits or rice. Or enjoy by itself!
Old Fashion Johnny Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 big block butter
1½ tablespoons suga
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
Dump all in a bowl except milk. Chop all the stuff together. Add milk. Keep mashing together until you can roll. Cut in little balls and roll. Drop in 4 or 6 balls at a time in 3 cups hot grease. Let balls float. Take out.
Old Country Pound Cake (Suga Cane)
1 cup milk
3 cup all purpose flour, sifted
3 cup suga
1½ cup room temperature butter
1½ teaspoon vanilla
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup suga cane syrup
Cream suga an butter for 1 minute. Put eggs one at a time, beat after each one. Put flour a little at a time in between. Put in milk and the rest. Beat 3 minutes in a regular sized bundt pan. Bake for 45 minutes.
