The Big Ten is all about big sports played by big guys in a big stadium. I know. I grew up in a Big Ten town.
Not during my formative years, when I learned to crave shrimp dumpling and chewy ravioli and melting enchilada and glistening abalone. But early enough that when we moved to our Big Ten town, we were shocked that it offered no shrimp dumpling or chewy ravioli or melting enchilada or glistening abalone. It had burger. And beer.
Soon we were honing our dumpling-folding and enchilada-melting and abalone-missing skills.
My Big Ten town, tethered to a corner of Iowa, suffered surveillance 360 (degrees)–by corn. Not corn willing to offer tamale duty or polenta assistance or even popcorn preparedness. Corn destined to feed livestock. The cow, on occasion. And that squealing pink kind I naively called pig. In Iowa, that would be hog.
Perhaps at your high school the spring season was marked by glittering gala during which the acne-prone in ball gown coasted from restaurant to hotel in the plush comfort of a limousine. Not mine. Pig Roast featured two Stonehenge-style speakers and one mammoth pig, roasted.
Even the hog capacious enough to serve the senior class can’t down a millionth of Iowa’s corn. Soaking up the surplus is the local preoccupation. Corn is reconfigured into ink and syrup and fuel to satiate the tractors crawling the cornfields.
The Big Ten fan can enjoy hog, fuel and football-simultaneously-at the tailgate. This revered tradition, much like the ramp festival of Appalachia or the pressing of the olives in Umbria-celebrates the natural resources of the region.
The tailgate calls for both communal spirit-as expressed in gold and black facepaint-and do-it-yourself ingenuity. Each nomadic fanclan totes its own grill, tongs, keg, brat and burger. The liberal flipping chicken wing or salmon steak is liable for a citation-literally-from the Iowa Pork Producers Association.
Shortly before kickoff, the tailgate talent, pork-stuffed and beer-bouyed, may be moved to cross the parking-space paint stripe and engage his fellow fan in fellowship. He will pose that question, the biggest of them all: How ’bout them Hawks?
IOWA HOMECOMING
Serves six
3 ears corn
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 slices bacon, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
Salt and pepper
3 pork tenderloins (1 pound each)
1. Boil: Plunge corn into boiling water and cook, 4 minutes. Remove and let cool to room temperature.
2. Brown: Over a medium fire, grill corn light brown, 2-3 minutes. Brush on maple syrup and continue to grill until golden brown, 2-3 minutes more. Cool.
3. Release: With a sharp knife, cut the kernels from the cob.
4. Crisp: In a medium skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, 5 minutes. Add onion and cook until soft, 4-5 minutes more. Add corn and cook another 2 minutes.
5. Season: Remove corn from heat; add sage and season with salt and pepper. Stir and set aside.
6. Grill: Rub the tenderloins with salt and pepper. Grill over a medium fire 14-17 minutes, rolling every 3-4 minutes to ensure even cooking. (Meat will be slightly pink; if you prefer pork more thoroughly cooked, leave it on 4-5 minutes more.)
7. Remove tenderloins from the grill; let stand 5 minutes. Carve into 1/2-inch slices. Spoon some relish over each portion and serve with football.
–Adapted from “The Thrill of the Grill,” by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby
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LeahREskin@aol.com
