What is food?

People write about it, celebrity chefs dish about it, and today’s TV schedule is full of cooking shows.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines food as “any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth.”

That definition may satisfy “food is fuel” people. But food is more than that, according to writer Michael Pollan. In his book, “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” he says, “The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.”

Coweta County’s Berta family – Susie, Rick, and sons Scott and Nick – would agree with Pollan. When talking with any of them about food and cooking, it’s clear how much they enjoy the connections they make with food.

For the Bertas, preparing food is something the whole family enjoys together. Susie was the original inspiration for the family cooking together. She grew up with a mom who was a great cook and parents who entertained a lot.

“My husband and I love to have large holiday groups,” she says. “Rick didn’t grow up cooking, but he learned as a Boy Scout and has always been extremely willing to jump in and help out.”

Their sons grew up in the kitchen and at the table.

“They enjoyed the preparations and the camaraderie around food,” says their mom.

Younger son Nick recalls his mother teaching him how to make gnocchi and her beef roast. “Regardless of why,” he says, “the result was that food and entertaining were woven into the fabric of the family. It is still the events that have stuck with me the most. The community created amongst friends was the purpose. Food was a vehicle.”

Nick now works as executive chef at the Country Club of The American Club in Hong Kong. In a phone conversation, he relates his experience growing up: “Neither parent was above any chore nor are they too fragile to dare. The kitchen was no exception.”

While Nick always knew he wanted to be an executive chef, Scott didn’t go professional though he often cooks for others and has built a reputation as an expert chef and grillmaster. He says he always helped out with the family cooking, but didn’t realize at the time that he was developing an appreciation of food and cooking.

Scott often cooks for friends and charity events in his community and beyond. In 2020, he and his girlfriend Valerie Noland rallied the family to prepare barbecue for the entire Newnan Fire Department as his contribution to frontline workers.

For the Bertas and many other families, good memories are often tied to food.

Psychologists have even studied food memories and found that “memories involving food are vivid – and they sometimes feel more evocative than other types of memories.”

For example, everytime Rick cooks salmon, he thinks about a trip to Alaska in 2009 with his sons and some friends. He says that salmon evokes recollections of the time they spent fishing together, the fish they caught and how amazed everyone was at Nick’s skill with a fillet knife. He conjures all those memories – all from a piece of salmon on the grill.

Rick acknowledges that Susie is right about his early culinary skills. For him, he says, “Cooking was an evolutionary thing.”

Nowadays, he’s in charge of making Little Ricotta Cookies, one of the family’s specialties during the Christmas season.

Scott has established his own Little Ricotta Cheese Cookie tradition stemming from holidays in the kitchen with his dad. “I’ve been making cookies with him as long as I could whisk a whisk,” he said, “and now I give them to my friends.”

The Berta family shows how to enjoy – and share – the many dimensions of food, which they believe have social, cultural and symbolic qualities, in addition to being fundamental to our survival.

“The thing I like the most about barbecue is that the time and effort it takes shows time and love to prepare,” Scott says. “There’s so much intent and forethought involved. As I prepare it, I think who’s going to enjoy it.”

Melissa Clark, food writer at the New York Times, agrees: “I talk about food as connection: You cook because you want to eat, but also because you want to share it with people.”

For the Berta family, preparing food together is just as much a connection as gathering at the table to eat. Doing both together is, well, delicious.

Cornish Hens

The Cornish hens are falling-off-a-log easy to make: Clean hen’s cavities of all packaged gizzards, and don’t forget to look in both ends. Place on a rack in baking pan. Slather butter all over each hen. Salt liberally. Pepper, too. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Baste halfway through baking, if you like. Ta da!

Green Bean Salad

Place beans, onion and tomatoes in a 2-quart bowl.

Make vinaigrette (standard ratio is 3:1 oil to vinegar) by putting vinegar in small bowl, and slowly add olive oil, whisking continuously. Experiment with the tartness by tasting. Don’t be afraid to adjust with more vinegar or oil. There are lots of vinaigrette recipes with mustard and garlic and other things, but this one is super clean and simple.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over bean mixture. Toss carefully, cover, and refrigerate several hours until cold. Carefully toss a time or two while chilling to thoroughly distribute the dressing, and again just before serving

Brisket by Scott

1. Trim the brisket. Salt and pepper can’t penetrate into the meat through all that fat. I recommend watching a couple videos on YouTube about trimming a brisket. It’s what I did.

2. I save all the trimmings in 8-ounce bags to add into my chuck when I grind my own ground beef. That’s just another bonus of brisket.

3. Rub a very light coating of yellow mustard on the brisket to help the salt and pepper stick to all the meat and sides.

4. Apply an even coat of 50/50 mix of coarse kosher salt and ground pepper, not ground from a hand grinder; the bits of pepper are too big. Just buy good ground pepper.

5. Throw the prepared brisket on the smoker at 225 to 250 degrees and let it cook for 6 to 8 hours. Use the same spritzing formula for the butts (50/50 mix of Creature Comforts Tropicalia and apple juice) to occasionally spritz the brisket every other hour.

6. I typically don’t even look at the brisket for the first 6 hours.

7. At the 6 to 8 hour mark, pull the brisket from the smoker and wrap in pink butcher paper. Wrap it tight and fold it in over itself 3 to 4 times. Again, YouTube will explain this much better, but wrapping it tight is the trick. This will be the last time you lay eyes on your baby until it’s time to eat.

8. Put the brisket back on the smoker and continue cooking at constant temperature for another 3 to 4 hours.

9. You should begin temp checking at this point. You want to establish one point of entry on the side of the brisket and only temp from this same spot anytime you check it. If you temp check all over, you’ll create holes for juices to leak and dry it out.

10. The stall is a real thing when the brisket starts reaching temps in the high 160s or 170s. It will seem like the meat won’t rise anymore and is stuck; hence the “stall.” You should anticipate this stall and ramp your temperature to the upper 200s to push it past the stall and then bring the temp back down to 225-250 to settle it back in for the rest of the cook.

11. I cook my brisket to 200 to 210 degrees, but there are times when 195 is as far as it needs to go or it will cook to mush. Pick it up (still wrapped in the paper) with a towel and feel it where the point and flat meet. It will have a feel to it that it is tender enough. Unfortunately, this “feel” is only developed over time with practice. Then, when you cut into them, you see what that feeling translates into. It’s also a personal preference.

12. Rest. You have worked diligently for possibly 24 hours and all you want to know is if your work paid off. Patience is the truest virtue with a brisket. You have to let it rest for a good hour before opening it up and cutting into it. It’s worth the wait.

13. Slice and enjoy. If you have leftovers, keep them wrapped in fresh butcher paper and then wrap in foil. The paper seems to keep it from drying out in the fridge. As I slice it for meals, I cut out the large chunks of fat in the point and keep in a zip-tight bag in the fridge. When I completely finish the brisket, I take all the fat and cook it down and strain it for beef tallow, an amazing clean, smoky beef fat that can be used in other recipes.

Perfectly prepared and carved brisket invites hungry diners

Meal Tip

One time while smoking beef ribs, I decided to throw on some potatoes for the last 1.5 hours of the cook to see what happened. I covered them in olive oil, sprinkled coarse salt on them and my favorite way to eat potatoes was born. I have done this with Russet and sweet potatoes, and it’s amazing.

More on the Brisket Myth

The brisket myth is easy to break. It just takes time, a standard procedure and patience – lots of patience. With the development of pelletized/automated smokers, it’s never been easier: it’s the definition of “set it and forget it.” But I like to stay connected to the process and only cook with real wood (or stick burning or analog, as it’s called). I have made this process easier on myself with an upgrade to a Cloud-based temperature unit from Fireboard. There are many on the market, but it basically connects to a WiFi signal and then you monitor the different probes through an app and set alarms if the temperature in the smoker goes too high or too low or when the meat reaches a desired temperature. I don’t spend hours walking out to check on it. That’s as close as I will allow myself to be automated. Brisket is a meat that gives back just as much as is put into it.

Scott’s Tuscan Chicken

Coarse kosher salt, about 1/8 cup
1 poultry herb mix package with rosemary, sage and thyme or
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 sprig thyme, finely chopped
3 to 4 leaves of sage, finely chopped
1 whole chicken
Olive oil

Mix salt with rosemary, sage and thyme in bowl and allow to meld while prepping the chicken.

Use a knife or shears to cut the backbone out of chicken. Clean out any remaining chicken insides in sink with running water. Pat chicken dry. Rip off any excess fat at the rear of the chicken. Spread a thin coat of olive oil on the skin of the chicken. Evenly sprinkle herb/salt mix over the chicken. (“’Even its armpits,’ as I tell my boys when they want to help. That makes it funny and more engaging for them,” says Scott.)

Lay flat on smoker on indirect heat. Inside of chicken will be facing down. Smoke at 350-375 degrees for about 1 hour and 45 minutes until inside reaches 170 degrees.

Enjoy! Use leftovers to make smoked chicken salad.

Pork Love Rub and Butt Bath for Smoked Butts

Pork Love Rub

¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup garlic powder
6 tablespoons salt
6 tablespoons black pepper
6 tablespoons regular paprika
5 tablespoons smoked paprika
5 tablespoons turbinado sugar
5 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3 teaspoons celery seed
3 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cayenne
1 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon cumin

Mix all of these together to make the rub. This makes just over 3 cups, which is enough for 1 to 2 butts. I also use this for ribs, but I remove the cayenne because it makes ribs too spicy. I have substituted coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar for a lighter sweetness.

Butt Bath

2 quarts water
8 ounces pickling salt (instead of kosher, so you don’t have to cook to dissolve the salt)
8 ounces molasses (or one bottle if it only comes in 12-ounce size)
¼ cup smoked paprika (or a spoonful of the rub above)

Mix brine. I use hot water to help dissolve everything and then add ice cubes to cool it faster.

Once cooled, either pour it into a cooler with lots of ice and throw the butt(s) in. If only 1 or 2 butts, I will put them in 2.5-gallon freezer bags and fill with brine and put in the fridge so I don’t have to clean a cooler, too. I typically brine the butts for 24 hours before they go on the smoker.

Maybe an hour before the butts go on, I pull them out and rub them down with the rub.

Throw them on the smoker at 225 to 250 degrees and let them cook until they come to 195 to 200 degrees. This can be anywhere from 8 to 12 hours, depending on the weight of the butt.

Occasionally, I will spritz the butts once an hour or every other hour with a 50/50 mix of Creature Comforts Tropicalia and apple juice.

Little Ricotta Cheese Cookies

1 pound butter, cut in pieces, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (15-ounce) carton ricotta cheese
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound powdered sugar
milk

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla and ricotta. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture a bit at a time, mixing after each addition.

Drop dough in tablespoon-size drops on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Ovens differ, so watch the first batch closely for the best baking time.

Remove cookies to cooling rack. (Tip: Keep sheet temps consistent when starting to bake each batch. Have at least 4 cookie sheets available. Let the 2 hot sheets just pulled out of the oven cool while you use the other 2 cool ones to cook the next batch. Repeat.)

To make icing, mix powdered sugar with about 5 tablespoons milk. You may need to adjust thickness by trial and error.

When cookies are completely cool, ice cookie tops. Drip icing on with spoon, or load up a squeeze bottle and apply icing that way.

Store cookies in refrigerator, separated in layers by waxed paper or parchment. Remove and serve in single layers so they don’t stick together when warming up. These cookies will freeze beautifully. Layer them in containers between sheets of parchment or waxed paper. Wrap containers in cling wrap for extra protection in freezer.

Photo credit: Gooseberry Patch

Rick’s Smoked Salmon Dip

1 (4-ounce) package vegetable spread cream cheese
¼ or ½ pound smoked salmon
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons chopped red onion
Couple splashes of hot sauce
Shake or two of Montreal steak seasoning, to taste.

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl. With a fork, shred salmon while mixing with other ingredients until all is mixed and combined well. Refrigerate.

Serve with Wheat Thins or a neutral cracker.

“After multiple trips salmon fishing in Alaska, Rick was able to bring home huge coolers of fileted wild salmon for our freezer. Rick and his fellow fishermen always took their day’s catch to a seafood processing plant in Alaska and indicated what portion they wanted processed as fresh filets or smoked filets. If a fisherman had a puny catch, or no fish at all, he could always buy fish at the processing plant. Rick always swore his fish were legit caught by him and he’s sticking to it. He got this recipe from a fishing buddy and then tweaked it to his own liking. It is spectacular.” – Susie Berta

Condensed Milk Ice Cream

1 part condensed milk
1 part milk
1 part heavy cream

Combine equal parts of the three ingredients. Churn.

“If we’re going to stand on ceremony, this is my favorite recipe. It’s good. It has three ingredients, four if you want to get fancy and put vanilla in it. It’s practically bulletproof. Monks aspire to this level of simplicity.” – Nick Berta