July 9, 2003

Southern Foods: Is they is or is they ain’t?

(As my reference list of foods considered Southern, I used the foods mentioned by various forum participants on the topic of Southern food on www.e-Gullet.com)

Who’s a Yankee?

Moving to the South after spending the first 27 years of my life in the Midwest, I had a few shocks coming. The first was hearing someone else called a Yankee, and learning that “he’s a Yankee, you know” meant “well, what can you expect from someone so stupid?” The second was learning that the Civil War, rather than a chapter in a history book you read in 7th grade, is a topic of frequent conversation.

The third was hearing claims that foods I’d eaten all my life were considered to be Southern. Wait a minute! How did meat loaf and macaroni and cheese and green beans get to be Southern? I pondered this question for the over thirty years I spent in the South, until I finally decided to make up a definition of my own.

How did meat loaf get to be Southern?

Over the years, I discovered that many Southerners—especially those with the strongest opinions—have never lived or traveled to other states and have no idea what people eat in Pocatello or Providence or Phoenix. Unless food and cooking are their passion, of course. And here’s my bias: growing up on a farm in rural Illinois, my culinary background is extremely close to that of many Southerners. Someone raised in New York would be much more likely to agree that catfish, muskmelon and hominy are Southern foods.

A Southerner may define Southern food as “what I grew up on” or “what I eat everyday.” Or one that was “first eaten in the South” even though it has been eaten across the country for a hundred years, like fried chicken. Or “a food eaten all over the country, but with greater frequency in the South,” like cornbread and biscuits. He may also include foods which have a main ingredient “indigenous to the South,” or “manufactured in the South.” They’re all right about one thing: in the South, you eat more of these foods more often

Having lived in three Southern states over a period of thirty-odd years, I consider myself qualified to make up my own definition. As a point of reference I settled upon two requirements for a food being Southern in today’s global world: “a food or dish which is popular all over the South, but is rarely, if ever, eaten anywhere else,” and “not a food or dish that has been routinely eaten in another part of the country for at least fifty years.” I set out to make the ultimate list of today’s Southern foods.

Are regional foods Southern foods?

The South as a whole is a region, but I’m speaking of smaller regions like a state or a community. By my definition, foods qualify only if they are served in the majority of the Southern States. For example, Benedictine, a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich spread, and a Hot Brown, a turkey-bacon-cheese sauce sandwich, don’t qualify. They’re regional, even local, originating respectively from a caterer (Miss Jennie Benedict) and a hotel (the Brown Hotel) in Louisville, Kentucky. Burgoo and Brunswick stew may qualify as Southern, depending upon how widespread their popularity outside of their home states of Kentucky and Virginia.

Cajun and Creole cooking are Louisiana cooking, as they are not common to other states. There go shrimp po-boys, boudin, gumbo, chicory coffee, etoufees, grillades and grits and a host of others. Also Florida key lime pie, Charleston perloo, Savannah red Rice, Texas bowl of red and Maryland she-crab soup.

Count out Moravian sugar cookies, too—they’re part of a subset of religious foods such as Shaker Lemon Pie and Pennsylvania Dutch rivel soup. And ethnic foods. The upper Midwest is flooded with Norwegian and Swedish dishes, but they are not considered “Northern cooking.”

Also not strictly Southern are foods manufactured in the South with wide distribution outside of the South. Look what happened to Kentucky Fried Chicken, Jack Daniels, and Vidalia onions: these products are now available almost everywhere. In fact, due primarily to chain restaurants, the Southern claim to many foods seems to be declining daily. Thanks to the internet, however, you can order many Southern made foods like GooGoos, a candy bar made in Nashville, whose name stands for the initials of the Grand Ole Opry. Check out DixieDining.com for sources of many other Southern favorites.

How about those foods you grew up on?

Here is a partial list of foods which other people mentioned as being Southern, which I grew up on in Illinois. Northern Illinois. Yankee land. I want to put an exclamation point after each and every one, they’re so not Southern.

Meatloaf
Macaroni and cheese
Green beans cooked with bacon or ham
Peaches and blackberries, in or out of cobblers and pies
Chicken and dumplings (but not the rolled out, soggy kind)
Mississippi catfish fried in cornmeal and lard
(Catfish Southern? Good Lord, that river starts in Minnesota)
Sorghum molasses, mixed with butter and spread on biscuits
Fried apples and apple butter
Tomato sandwiches (they have gardens in the Nawth, too)
Watermelon and muskmelon (with salt)
Rice pudding
Home churned ice cream
Hominy
Cornbread (and my grandfather mushed his up in milk, too)
Macaroni with canned tomatoes
Peanuts in your Pepsi or whatever soft drink (but not me)
Divinity
Pork, especially pork chops

Maybe They Is, and Maybe They Ain’t

Foods are constantly making the transition from Southern to just plain American. Recent ones include cheese straws, corn pudding, spoonbread and biscuits and sawmill or sausage gravy. Some foods are not exclusively Southern, but the preparation and serving may be. For example:

And about that stuffing/dressing question: stuffing is supposed to be Northern and dressing Southern. I grew up on dressing in the North. A better distinction might be stuffing is in the bird and dressing is in the pan, although our Thanksgiving turkey was always “stuffed” with “dressing.”

What were they thinking?

Several foods were mentioned—by more than one person, I might add—as being Southern that never were and never will be, even though they are eaten in the South. These are:

Succotash. It’s a word meaning boiled corn, taken from the Narragansett Indians in Rhode Island. Why do people think it’s Southern? One guess is because the native Africans probably embraced it as being similar to vegetable combinations in their homeland. (More on this topic on July 23.)

Rhubarb. According to rhubarbinfo.com, rhubarb is a cool season crop, which grows best from Maine south to Illinois and west to Washington state. Definitely on the Mason side of Dixie.

Chow chow and cole slaw are certainly German, especially Pennsylvania Dutch. Possibly associated with Southern food because it’s the ubiquitous side to all that barbeque.

Strawberry shortcake—as in “anything with biscuits must be Southern.”

Red Velvet Cake. Originated at the Waldorf -Astoria Hotel in the 1940’s. ???

Rutabagas or Swedes. Raised in the Northern states and Canada, a cool weather crop.

Southern Foods, my short list:

Two days ago, Pimiento (usually spelled pimento) Cheese was at the top of my list of authentic, exclusively Southern foods. Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and found “Cheddar Pimento Spread” in a Giant Supermarket in eastern Pennsylvania! Read quickly, or the list may be outdated before you finish.

Grits for breakfast, fried or with butter
Sweet potato pie
Cornbread stuffing
Boiled peanuts
Fried corn
Country ham with red-eye gravy
Ham biscuits
Mashed potatoes when they’re called “creamed potatoes”
Pulled pork barbeque
Fried okra
Fried squash, cabbage, etc.
Fried green tomatoes
Fried pies
Black-eyed peas, crowder peas, etc.
Pinto bean
Hoppin' John
Butterbeans (I suspect these are baby lima beans; I can’t find them in a seed catalog.)
Crawfish
Sweet iced tea (especially presweetened without asking your preference)
Hush puppies
Collard greens (turnip, mustard, poke, etc.) and pot likker
Jam cake with caramel icing
Banana pudding

So that’s it. A lot of Southern foods are simply country foods or foods once dictated by scarcity and poverty. Once I eliminated these, foods common in the North, and local/small regional foods, this is about all that was left. But for all I know, there may be enclaves of banana pudding lovers in Omaha, or fried corn converts in Seattle.

Over the years, I’ve adapted Southern favorites to make them my own. I love banana pudding, and Benedictine and grits in all their buttery, cheesy splendor. My ham biscuits feature prosciutto instead of country ham, and are more likely to be served with a sweet and hot mustard sauce on rolls than biscuits. Perhaps my favorite is a variation on fried green tomatoes that I give you here. All in all, my recipe repertoire is richer for having lived in the South.

Ruth’s Fried Not-so-Green Tomatoes

Green tomatoes tend to be astringent and in the South are most often fried in cornmeal and served with a tangy dip. I like a sweeter version and always have this for lunch at least once each summer in tomato season. Another way I serve them is to layer in a casserole and serve for brunch.

Freshly cooked bacon and the rendered bacon fat
A large green tomato which shows tinges of pink
Salt, pepper and flour
Brown sugar
Light cream or half and half

Slice a thin slice off the top and bottom of the tomato and remove the core. Slice into half inch slices. Salt and pepper each slice and dredge in flour. Fry in enough hot bacon fat to cover the skillet.

Turn tomatoes over and sprinkle with brown sugar. Brown, flip again and sprinkle with more sugar. Each side of the tomato will be cooked twice and the brown sugar should caramelize.

Remove tomatoes from pan and leave (or add) about 1 tablespoon bacon fat. Add a teaspoon or two of flour and cook and stir a minute or so. Stir in half a cup of cream and bring to a boil. Season, pour gravy over tomatoes and serve with the bacon.

Note: use fairly high heat and watch closely. The tomatoes will turn to mush if the browning process takes too long.

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