Song Pairing: Listen to the Mockingbird

George Lewis Band – Jazz at Preservation Hall

First Impressions . . . 

The first time I met Stephanie Magilow, she was sampling product at Central Market and wearing a food-server’s hairnet. The second time I met her there, she was wearing a hair net. The third time I met her, I didn’t recognize her without her hair net, but I recognized the small jars lined up like buttons on a blouse on an upstairs table at Royal Blue Grocery. She’d brought samples from her new food company, Mockingbird Gourmet.

The co-creator of Jammit Jam is spreading her wings into a new line of comestibles made with fruit and other ingredients sourced from farms within a 50-mile radius of Dallas and in some cases, even closer – like the herb garden in her Highland Park backyard. The inspiration for the name of this endeavor came from the street on which her grandma lived: Mockingbird Lane, just around the corner from her home. Though she will continue to produce and sell Jammit Jams, she will expand the Mockingbird Gourmet product line to include gems such as limited edition preserves, jams, caramel sauces and, eventually, pastry.

Local sourcing plus fixed seasonality means each batch of jams will be limited editions, with only 60-80 six-ounces jars per run available for sale. Stephanie’s relationships with local famers and Market Provisions at the Dallas Farmer’s Market grants her access to straight-from-the-plant produce which she immediately adds to her recipes. Since North Texas is resplendent with fresh blueberries, figs, strawberries, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, pecans and more, Magilow has great bounty with which to showcase her affinity for combining flavors and developing recipes. If you’ve tasted her jams, you know she can pair surprising flavors to bring out the best of each.

Mockingbird Gourmet debuted in May at the St. Michael’s Farmer’s Market where she sold her Fig Jam, Strawberry Jalapeño Limeade Jam, Moroccan Tomato Jam and her caramel sauces, which are sublime. The Bourbon Vanilla Bean Sea Salt Caramel is made with raw cane sugar and Madagascar vanilla beans which have been soaked in Dallas’ own Herman Marshall Texas Bourbon Whiskey for a year. She also males a vegan and paleo version of the sauce sweetened with maple syrup (obviously not from Texas) and includes coconut oil and almond butter.

Mockingbird Gourmet can be found at the St. Michael’s Farmer’s Market all summer, Market Provisions at the downtown Farmer’s Market and Scardello’s on Oak Lawn. 

Pairing notes: Since I met with Stephanie, the song “Listen to the Mockingbird” has been tapping around my brain. I’m partial to the version from the George Lewis Band recorded at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. My roots run deep in Louisiana; why I love food and music so much, I suppose. I grew up listening to jazz and eating my grandmother’s fig jams and kumquat preserves, made right from the trees in her garden. Stephanie’s jams are made much the same way, with an almost maternal love for the fresh fruit ingredients and farmers who grow them.

This article first appeared in the Park Cities People May 2019 print edition.