Arts & Entertainment

Cooking Up History: Martha Adams' Muscadine Pork Sauce

Norcross Patch whipped up some historic Norcross recipes. This pork marinade is also divine as an ice cream topping.

It was 1929, and World War I was over, when Reps Miller moved his family into a house built with timbers he cut himself on an 80 acre spread along a high point of the Eastern Continental Divide marked by a red muddy road just north of Norcross proper. 

His daughter Martha, who had been born during the war in a barracks of the Camp Gordon rifle range, then located on property now known as Sheffield Forest, married Col. John Adams in 1945.  When the couple visited her parents on leave throughout his 31 years of service, John would plant little cuttings of southern grapes across Miller Farm, slowly cultivating his vineyard.

Muscadine and Scuperdine vines flourished on the south side of what is now Reps Miller Road. After retiring from service in 1971 the colonel spent many days snipping and pruning the massive vines. During harvest time Martha welcomed folks onto the farm to pick the juicy grapes, selling them by the basket.

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Martha and John seeded and skinned the plump grapes boiling them with massive amount of sugar to make jellies and preserves but others in town smashed the red or green grapes into wine. As a child, Martha recalled in her book “Norcross,” published in 1999, that she once kept her family awake at night with an annoying cough. Her Daddy settled the tickle with a teaspoon of sugar dripping with the medicinal grape brew. 

Martha Adams' Muscadine Pork Sauce 

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This sweet and spicy pork sauce is also excellent when drizzled on top of ice cream. 

5 lbs very ripe muscadines (we used California red table grapes, see notes a end of recipe for modifications) 

3 Tbsp vinegar (we used apple cider vinegar) 

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp ground cloves

5 to 6 cups sugar

Wash the grapes. Separate the hulls from the pulp. (The riper the grape, the easier this will be.) Grind the hulls in a food processor and put the pulps in a sieve to separate the seeds. Combine the hulls and pulp with the other ingredients in a large suauce pan. Bring to a boil. Simmer until the mixture gets to a nice, syrupy thickness. 

Note: We used 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of California seedless red table grapes and also halved the other ingredients. The seedless grapes cut out one step--and the recipe turned out delightful. 


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