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Sense of Place: Southern Food and Cuisine

2008_09_17-SouthernCooking.jpgThe culture of southern cooking is all about hospitality and abundance - so pull up a chair, pile your plate high, and dig in!

 
 

It's hard to peg southern cooking down to a specific style, flavor, or even area. There are crossovers with Caribbean, Cuban, and Mexican cuisines through Florida, and with Cajun and Creole cuisines through Louisiana. (Don't fret - we'll be doing a separate post on Cajun and Creole food soon!)

With this round-up of recipes, we've tried to focus on foods that are traditional to the deep south - a few that you'll expect and some that might surprise folks from other regions.

Main Dishes:
Fried Chicken
She-Crab Soup from the Food Network
Chicken Fried Steak from Road Food
Barbecue Baby Back Ribs from Epicurious
Ham and Red-Eye Gravy from the Food Network
Barbecue Chicken with White Sauce from Serious Eats
Southern Fried Catfish from Epicurious

Sides n' Extras:
Hush Puppies
Hoppin' John
Cornbread with Smoked Mozzarella and Sun-dried Tomatoes
Limping Susan from Just Recipes
Southern Spoon Bread from CD Kitchen
Collard Greens from Simply Recipes
Buttermilk Biscuits from Epicurious
Down Home Chitlins from AllRecipes
Boiled Peanuts from What's Cooking America?
Creamed Corn from Simply Recipes
Cheese Grits from the Food Network
Pickled Okra from Epicurious

Desserts:
Kentucky Derby Pie
Pecan Pie from Simply Recipes
Buttermilk Pie from NPR's Kitchen Window
Old Fashioned Banana Pudding from Recipezaar
Strawberry Shortcake from Simply Recipes

Beverages:
Sweet Tea
Mint Julep from the New York Times

What are your favorite southern dishes?

Related:
Sense of Place: Southern Flavors and Ingredients
Sense of Place: A Survey of American Regional Cooking

(Images: Flickr members seanomatopoeia and The Bitten Word licensed under Creative Commons, and Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes)

Comments (10)

red velvet cake!

peach cobbler!

spoonbread!

posted by mschatelaine on 2008-09-17 14:03:20
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Chicken Pot Pie!

Carolina-style Pulled Pork!

posted by Minerva of the Airship on 2008-09-17 14:47:44
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COUNTRY HAM!

posted by Kathryn Hill on 2008-09-17 17:00:57
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Corn muffins (sweeter than cornbread, more cake-like texture, and shaped like the cob--awesome for breakfast)

chicken and dumplings

peach dumplings/cobbler

cattails (and you can use their pollen in, say, pancake batter)

peanut butter pie (or chocolate peanut butter)

...and not just sweet tea, but peach sweet tea.

posted by Kakugori on 2008-09-17 17:15:44
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Wow, I had no idea red velvet cake was southern, and it's one of my favorites. Thanks for edifying me!

And peanut butter pie? I must know more.

posted by EmmaC on 2008-09-17 19:36:40
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cornbread from Crescent Dragonwagon.
fried okra from my mom.
peach pie made with fresh local peaches.
homemade ice cream.
brown beans or black-eyed peas cooked with ham.
strong black stovetop coffee.

posted by fuzzy on 2008-09-17 23:25:53
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Texas Brisket, served on butcher paper with iced tea and cornbread, finished off with a piece of red velvet cake or pecan pie. I guess you could throw in some fried okra too.

posted by navychic99 on 2008-09-18 09:23:17
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Emma, I don't think any two people make peanut butter pie the same way. It is almost always a pudding pie with whipped cream on top. It can have either a graham cracker or standard crust, and the peanut butter element can be in the pudding or the topping. There is a restaurant near us that makes a fairly plain pie, but it has these amazing peanut butter uh..sprinkles all over it.

My version involves graham cracker crust, chocolate pudding, and cool whip or whipped cream mixed with peanut butter.

posted by Kakugori on 2008-09-18 15:04:51
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Pulled Pork
Woodridge's BBQ in TN (smoked fresh ham)
Banana Pudding
Cheese grits
Red Velvet Cake
Jam Cake
Coconut Cake
hush puppies
biscuits
chicken fried steak
Brunwick stew

posted by ah-ha on 2008-09-18 15:39:45
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Fried okra and any kind of cobbler, but especially blackberry. This post made me homesick!

posted by amyewine on 2008-09-19 16:12:13
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