A Dictionary of American Cuisines: South (In Progress)

SOUTH:

A "strange hot land of courtly manners and sudden violence, elegance and anger." - Michael Shaara

States: Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri (partially)

Influences: British, French, German, Native American, West African

Traditional Ingredients: Dairy (milk, cream, buttermilk (milk soured with a mixture of mesophilic lactic-acid bacteria; according to Anne Mendelson, "for most of us, it is the nearest thing to the naturally soured milk that used to be more familiar throughout Europe and North America than unsoured milk (if you come across "sour milk" as an ingredient in an old recipe, this is your best bet.) True buttermilk "harks back to pre-refrigeration days in the South, when unpasteurized milk at ambient temperatures rapidly curdled (clabbered) and was churned to butter in that condition, leaving plenty of nice sour buttermilk for drinking or cooking. Cultured buttermilk began replacing true churned buttermilk at least 80 years ago."), butter, clabber ("a regional, mostly Southern, term for milk curdled by the natural action of ambient bacteria. Before pasteurization became universal, this happened pretty quickly in all parts of the Deep South, especially during the warm months. People either drank clabber while it was no thicker than cultured buttermilk or let it sit until the curd was firm enough to eat as fresh cheese, often sweetened and accompanied with rich cream." - Anne Mendelson)), Fruits (apple, strawberry, persimmon, paw paw, crabapple, peach, watermelon, blackberry, plums), Meats (Pork (mulefoot hog (an endangered heirloom on the recovery)), Chicken, Quail, Venison, Rabbit, Opposom, Raccoon, Squirrel), lake/stream food (catfish, trout), Legumes/nuts (American chestnuts, pinto beans, lima beans, kidney beans, green beans, peanuts, peas, pecans, black walnuts), Seasonings (Sage, Apple Cider Vinegar, Pepper, Hot Sauce (popular brands include Texas Pete and Tabasco), Ham Hocks (used for flavoring in various soups, beans, and greens)), Sweeteners (honey, molassas), Vegetables (Cabbage, carrots, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes (southern queen yam (heirloom)), turnips, onions, crookneck squash, tomatoes, collards, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, poke, vigna beans)

Dishes: Beverages: Coffee, Hot Tea, Lemonade, Mint Julep (the first appearance in print was in 1803 in London when it was described as a "dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by

Virginians of a morning"; It probably originated in the 18th century; traditional beverage of the Kentucky Derby), Moon Shine, Sweet Tea

(Ice Tea), Breads/Pastries/Candies: Bourborn balls, Corn bread (variations include cracklin' cornbread and jalapeno cornbread), Cornbread dressing, Cornmeal mush, Corn pone (Native American in origin but cooked by all in the South; patties of cornmeal, hot water,

and salt which is fried in a greased iron skillet), Corn pudding, Corn Stick, Hush Puppies (supposedly named so because hunters used to throw them to dogs to shut them up; another legend has it that confederate soldiers would throw them to their barking dogs when union soldiers came around and command, "hush puppies!"; balls of cormeal, flour, eggs, salt, baking soda, milk, water, and onion are deep fried....heaven), Lace Cookies, Peanut brittle, Pecan brittle, Rolls, Spoon Bread, Tea Cake, Breakfast: Buttermilk (often with left-over corn bread crumbled up in it), Buttermilk Biscuits, Country Sausage (sage is a popular flavoring for this pork sausage which you'll find as both links and patties (no casing)), Eggs and Brains, Fried grits (left-over grits chilled, cut into squares and fried the next morning), Grits (served with butter and sometimes cheese), Grits Casserole (like a souffle), Cheeses: Clabbered cheese (a fresh cheese made from letting clabbered milk sit a while; often sweetened and accompanied with rich cream; was common not too long ago but has virtually disappeared due to pasteurization of milk), Condiments/pickles: Aspic, Head cheese (souse meat), Pepper jelly, Pickled peaches (actually spiced), Pickled pigs feet, Watermelon Rind Pickles, Entrees: Baked Chicken Salad, Barbeque (usually pork), Beef Bouilli (Boiled Beef), Chicken gizzards (fried), Chit'lins (chitterlings), Country fried steak (pounded flat, breaded, fried, and eaten with gravy), Cracklin's (Fried pork skin as a snack food), Deviled eggs (the best food EVER!), Deviled Ham, Fried chicken, Fried Chicken Livers, Gravy (red-eye, sausage), Ham, Ham Biscuits, Liver (usually pan- fried from chicken or pork), Macaroni and cheese, Pork Ribs, Squirrel Pie (the meat is simmered with onions, celery, black and red pepper, then baked between layers of hard-boiled eggs in a pie shell.), Turkey (deep-fried),

Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Ambrosia (a simple layering of orange sections, freshly shredded coconut, sugar, and sometimes sherry, which is well chilled before serving), Angel Food Cake

Apple pie, Banana Pudding, BlackberryCobbler, Brown Betty (similar to cobbler or bread pudding), Bread pudding, Buttermilk Pie, Chess pie, Coconut Cake, Dewberry Cobbler, Fried Apples, Fried Pies (usually in apple, peach, cherry, and chocolate),

Gingerbread, Lady Baltimore Cake (origins are unclear, many say Charleston; see below for recipe.), Mississippi Mud Pie, Peach Cobbler, Pecan Pie, Pound Cake, Red Velvet Cake,

Rice Pudding, Robert E. Lee Cake (Lee's mother's recipe for a c

ake; traditionally served during Lee/Jackson/King Day), Strawberry Shortcake, Sweet Potato Pie, Sweet Potato Pudding (Mix 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cane syrup or golden syrup, 1/2 cup milk, 2 cups raw grated sweet potatoes, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, and 2/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Put 1/2 stick butter into a flameproof casserole and cook over low heat to melt. Beat 2 eggs into sweet potato mixture. When butter is melted, pour mixture into casserole and stir until it is hot. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes, then stir crust developing on sides and bottom into pudding. Repeat twice more before removing casserole after pudding has baked a total of 40 to 45 minutes. Can serve with a lemon and wine sauce (see recipe in Midwest section under rural midwest and puddings)), Trifle, Turnip Pie (a filling of mashed turnips, brown sugar, a touch of salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves with two eggs

beaten into a little milk and cream), Lake/Stream Food: Fried fish (catfish, trout; usually served with malt or cider vinegar which is often seasoned with hot peppers), Soups/Stews/Bisques: Brunswick stew (Virginia and Georgia especially; Generally, Virginia is considered the birth place of this but Georgia has other things to say about this. 2 recipes below.), Chicken and dumplings, Potlikker Broth (vitamin-rich broth left over after greens and vegetables are boiled; often sipped and dunked with corn bread or corn pone, or sometimes used as a base for another type of soup), Vegetable Dishes: Barbequed Beans, Boiled greens and vegetables, Boiled peanuts, Candied Yams (sweet potato casserole), Coleslaw, Creamed corn, Fried green tomatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Potato Salad

Traditional Eateries: Bars/Inns/Taverns, Barbeque Joints, Cafe's, Soda Fountains (not as common as they used to be, traditionally located in pharmacies)

Social Gatherings Involving Traditional Foods: Lee/Jackson/King day, Church Gatherings, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Years (Greens and Hoppin' John served by many in the south)

Recipes:

General Robert E. Lee Cake:

Butter three 8-inch cake pans. Separate 5 eggs and beat with 1/2 cup sugar till thick and pale yellow; stir in 1 tablespoon grated orange rind, 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons orange juice. In another bowl beat egg whites with cream of tartar and a pinch of salt till they form peaks. Gradually beat in another 1/2 cup sugar, then continue beating till mixture is stiff. Fold this meringue into egg yolk mixture, alternately adding 1 cup flour sifted with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Divide batter and fill buttered pans. Put them on middle rack of a 350 degree F oven and bake for 25 minutes. When they are done, set aside to cool, then invert onto wire racks.

Meanwhile make the filling: Combine 3 egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2.5 tablespoons sweet butter in a saucepan. Cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes, whisking briskly, till mixture thickens. In a bowl mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water and stir this paste vigorously into lemon mixture till it is shiny. Set aside, covered with wax paper, and chill.

Make the frosting: Cream 1 stick sweet butter with 2.5 cups confectioners sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1 egg yolk, 1 tablespoon grated orange rind, 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind, and a pinch of salt, mix well.

Put one cake layer on a plate and spread with half the filling. Top with second layer and spread remaining filling. Place third layer on top and spread top and sides of cake with frosting. Sprinkle coconut evenly over frosting.

Lady Baltimore Cake:

In a large bowl cream 2 sticks of softened sweet butter, add 2 cups of sugar slowly, and beat until fluffy. Sift 3.5 cups of cake flour with 4 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add flour alternately with 1 cup of milk and finally 1/4 teaspoon almond extract to butter-sugar mixture and beat batter till smooth and light. Beat 8 egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar (unless using a copper bowl) till stiff but not dry. Mix well one-quarter of the whites into the batter, then fold in the rest. Butter well three 9-inch cake pans, dust with flour, and shake out excess. Turn equal amounts of batter into the pans and bake in 375 degree F. oven for 25 minutes. let cool on racks.

Make the filling: Chop 1 cup mixed nuts, 1/2 cup yellow and brown raisins, and 8 dried figs together; If you like, steep them in sherry or rums for a while, then drain. Spread equal amounts of filling over tops of two layers, then place one on top of the other.

Make the icing: Mix 3 egg

whites, 1 1/8 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cold water (may substitute 1 tablespoon with rum or brandy), 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt in the top part of a double boiler over boiling water. Beat continuously for 7 minutes, maybe a little more, until the mixture will stand in peaks when beater is lifted and turned up. Remove from the heat. when cool, add 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract (less if liquor is used). Spread generously over top and sides of cake. Decorate rim with pecan halves and a little wheel of pecans in the middle.

Old Brunswick Stew Recipe Poem:

First catch your chickens, clean and cut them.

And in an iron pot you put them;

And water nearly to the top

And in it salt and pepper drop;

Boil slowly. Your tomatoes peel;

Put in a shin or so of veal;

And for a flavor bear in mind,

A chuck of middling with the rind.

Next, some onions you throw in,

The young and tender skin,

And butter beans do not forget;

And what is more important yet,

The corn; but do not be too fast,

This you must cut and add it last;

For better than the flour you'll find it'll do.

To give a thickness to the stew.

Some lemon peel cut very thin

Many now be added and stirred in,

And ere it is taken from the fire

Give it a dash of Worcestershire,

And soon you will hear its praises ring,

This is a dish fit for a king.

Another Brunswick Stew:

Here is the way the ambrosian concoction is prepared. In 2 gallons of boiling water cook 9 pounds of squirrels - or chickens, if squirrels are not in season - until the meat is tender. Throw in 6 pounds of tomatoes, 2 large onions, 2 pounds of cabbage, 5 large potatoes, 1 pound of butter beans, 6 slices of bacon, a pod of red pepper, and salt. Cook for about 6 hours. Then add 8 ears of corn sliced off the cob. Stir constantly for a few minutes and serve. This is the real Brunswick stew. Accept no substitutes. - from a Virginian

Note: traditionally, southern flying squirrels are used (they live in Appalachia), but they are now endangered thanks to logging....not Brunswick stew.

Upper South: Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee Influences: British, French, German, Native American, West African

Native American Tribes: Catawba, Cherokee, Croatan, Powhatan Confederacy, Tuscarora, Tutelo, Saponi, Yuchi, Conoy, Shawnee, Chickasaw, Creek, Koasati, Quapaw

Traditional Ingredients: Fruits (apples (nickajack (heirloom)), pears, damson plums, greengage plums),Vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, cress, cucumbers, jerusalem artichokes), Dishes: Beverages: Blackberry wine (a recipe by General Robert E. Lee's wife;

"fill a large stone jar with ripe fruit and cover it with water. Tie a cloth over the jar and let them stand three or four days to ferment; then mash and press them through a cloth. To every gallon of juice add three pounds of brown sugar. Return the mixture to the jar and cover closely. Skim it every morning for more than a week, until it clears from the second fermentation. When clear, pour it carefully from the sediment into the demijohn. Cork it tightly, set it in a cool place. When two months old it will be fit for use."), Mulled Cider, Plums in Wild Plum Brandy or Bourbon (from the first American cook book, The Virginia Housewife), Breads/Pastries/Candies: Moravian spice cookies, Breakfast: Capitolade (chicken-hash; chopped chicken, mushrooms, shallots, and garlic with a white wine and chicken stock sauce; hold-over from fancy plantation breakfasts), Cream Biscuits, Quire-of-Paper Pancakes (hardly made anymore; crepes made from egg yolks, flour, butter, sugar, and white wine cooked on a hot griddle, then stacked with a sprinkling of maple sugar on each surface and cut into wedges), Condiments: Greengage plum preserves, Pickled Jerusalem Artichokes, Maple-Honey Sauce (Brilliant complement to pancakes and waffles; Dating from colonial days and still popular in Virginia and Kentucky; George Washington's mother frequently made this; combine 1/2 cup honey and 3/4 cup maple syrup in a saucepan and heat slowly. Add 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds and bring to a hard boil. Serve Hot.), Richmond Barbecue Sauce (combine 1 tablespoon dry mustard, 2-3 tablespoons sugar, or maple sugar, 1 teaspoon celery seeds, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Stir into 1 cup tarragon vinegar and boil for about 5 minutes.), Entrees: Boiled Dinner (boiled fresh pork ribs, backbone (chine), or loin with greens, potatoes, and cornmeal dumplings; country cooks of North Carolina), Fricassee of Hare (Virginia; c. 1780), Lamb Fries (Kentucky; lamb testicles that have been peeled, rolled in cracker meal and fried), Pompey's Head (round meat loaf), Richmond Fried Chicken (peeled before fried), Smithfield ham (salt-cured and hung), Lake/Stream Food: Louisville rolled oysters (tiny bivalves from the Mississippi sound dipped in egg and seasoned cornmeal and deep fried), Pies/Cakes/Puddings/Ice Cream: Greengage Ice Cream (Some time after small, green, delicious plums were first cultivated in England, they acquired the surname of Sir William Gage, and colonial plum orchards were started in Virginia before the Revolution; see recipe below), Magnolia Cake (North Carolina; Moravian), Marble Cake (originated in Rockingham County, Virginia from a Mennonite community; it has a swirling contrast of colors in it's interior; molasses was originally used to get the dark color, but now chocolate is often used), Orange Pie (popular since before the revolutionary war), Shoo fly pie (Shenandoah Valley, Virginia; brought to the valley by the Amish), Sonker (a type of cobbler made in North Carolina and is deep dish), Tyler Pudding Pie (very traditional and characteristic of southern plantation food; named for President John Tyler; also enjoyed in other parts of the South; several variations; see below for a recipe), Virginia Fried Peaches (fresh pared peaches, cut in half and simmered in butter with brown sugar melted in their hollows; when they are tender and drooling with thick sugary syrup, they are served with homemade vanilla ice cream.), Soups/Stews: Burgoo (usually served at barbeques or hunting camps; meat (usually chicken or a mixture of game meat), hominy, beans, and mixture of wild and/or domestic vegetables, herbs, and spices), Liver Dumpling Soup (Old Salem, North Carolina), Pepper Pot (veal knuckles and tripe with potatoes, and butter balls), Pigeon Soup,Vegetable Dishes: Sweet Potato Pone

Recipes:

Greengage Ice Cream:

Mix 1 jar (11.5 oz.) greengage preserves, the juice of 2 small lemons, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 3 cups of heavy cream, and 3 cups of milk and pour into a flat freezer container. Freeze for 2 hours. Remove from freezer and beat. Return to freezer and continue freezing. Remove and beat again. Freeze until firm.

Tyler Pudding Pie:

In the top part of a double boiler over simmering water, mix 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 brown sugar together; add 1 stick of butter piece by piece, then 1/2 cup cream, and heat till butter has melted. Beat 3 eggs well, then slowly pour the warm mixture into them, continuing to beat. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and turn into partially baked pie shell. Bake in a 450 degree F oven for 35 minutes, then sprinkle coconut over the top and bake for another 5 minutes more or until coconut is lightly toasted.

Quotes:

1. " Breakfast was about the best part of the day. Spring would bring our first and just about only fish - shad. It would always be served for breakfast, soaked in salt water for an hour or so, rolled in seasoned cornmeal, and fried carefully in home-rendered lard with a slice of smoked shoulder for added flavor. There were cristpy fried white potatoes, fried onions, batter bread, any food left over from supper, blackberry jelly, delicious hot coffee, and cocoa for the children. And perhaps if a neighbor dropped in, dandelion wine was added." - Edna Lewis (from Virginia)

2. "Now and then the plough would turn up roots of sassafras bush which wer would carry into the house and make into a tea for breakfast the next morning. We also enjoyed tea mad from a bush that grew along the streams, used only while in the bud stage, it was known as sweet bud." - Edna Lewis (Virginia)

3. "First spring meals would always be made of many uncultivated plants. We would relish a dish of mixed greens - poke leaves before they unfurled, lamb's-quarters, and wild mustard. We also had salad for a short period made of either Black-Seeded Simpson, or Grand Rapids, loose-leaf lettuce which bolted as soon as the weather became warm." - Edna Lewis (Virginia)

Deep South: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri (partially) Influences: British, French, German, Native American, West African, Spanish, Carribean

Native American Tribes: Catawba, Cherokee, Creek, Yuchi, Cusabo, Edisto, Siouan Bands (Chicora, PeeDee,Waccamaw, Santee), Appalachee, Hitchiti, Oconee, Miccosukee, Timucua, Yamasee, Guale, Calusa, Choctaw, Tequesta, Jeaga, Ais, Alabama, Biloxi, Koasati, Muskogee Creek (Abihka, Coosa, Tallapoosa), Houma, Natchez (Taensa, Avoyal), Tunica, Atakapa (Taensa, Opelousas), Caddo, Chitimacha, Osage

Traditional Ingredients: meats (goose (cotton patch (resembles the European Greyling goose; brought over from western Europe between 1640 and 1700; heirloom), pineywoods cattle (heirloom; traditionally used for meat, hides, draft power, and household dairy products; small, lean, and resilient; within a few decades following the Civil War, the Pineywoods breed had already gone into decline, as carpetbaggers from the North took control of more and more southern lands and introduced "improved" cattle)), nuts/legumes (clay field peas, crowder peas, black-eyed peas, cowpeas, sea island pas, clay field peas, pre-civil war peanut (heirloom), devils claw seeds)

Dishes: Condiments: Ozark Maple-Butter Whip (combine 1/4 cup maple syrup and one stick of butter and whip until fluffy. Serve on waffles, pancakes, or hot corn bread.), Entree: Carpetbag Steak with Maitre D'Hotel Butter (pineywoods strip steaks sliced and stuffed with oysters, seasoned with salt and pepper, broiled, and then drizzled with an herb butter containing butter, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and tabasco sauce), Chicken Fricassee with Cornmeal Dumplings (Ozarks), Fancy Dinner Grits (Georgia, made with garlic, cream, and cheese), Fried Chicken (one Georgia recipe calls for fried chicken to be seasoned with cinnamon and served with spiced peaches), Game Hen Custard, Hog Maw Salad (hog maws are cooked in boiling water for about 4 hours, till tender. The fat is removed and chopped finely and mixed with chopped celery, green pepper, onions, and mayonnaise, and then seasoned with salt and black pepper), Purloo's (AKA pilau's), lake/stream food: Catfish Sandwich (bread rolls are scooped out and toasted, then spread with a mixture of tabasco, mustard, tomato ketchup, and onion slices to make a bed for deep-fried fillets of fresh catfish), Sesame Catfish (for dressed and skinned fish you make a sauce of half-cup melted fat, half-cup benne seeds, four tablespoons lemon juice, a teaspoon of salt and a grind or two of peppercorns. The fish is put in greased hinged wire grills and basted with the sauce), Pickles: Martinoes (devils claw seeds are soaked in salt water for two or three days and then scalded in vinegar, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon), Pies/Cakes/Cookies/Puddings: Ozark Pudding (served to Winston Churchill, along with the famous Missouri country ham, when he made his "Iron Curtain" speech in President Truman's home state; Put 1 beaten egg and 3/4 cup sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until very light. In another bowl sift together 1/3 cup flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Blend this well with egg mixture and fold in 1 peeled, cored, and chopped apple, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Pour into a greased shallow baking dish and bake in a 325 degree F oven for 30 minutes; let cool. Stir 3 to 4 tablespoons rum into 1 cup of cream that has been whipped. Serve garnished with the whipped cream.), Peanut Cake with Blackstrap Molasses (invented by George Washington Carver and includes pre-Civil War peanuts, baking soda, pastry flour, cinnamon or sassafras bark, cloves, nutmeg, mace, blackstrap molasses, sugar, sunflower oil, hot water, an egg, and powdered sugar), Soups/Stews: Catfish Stew, Okra Soup, Tuskegee Soup (takes it's name from Tuskegee Institute, the University at which Dr. Carver taught, and is a bisque which is started with a roux of flour, minced scallions, in butter. Then, peanut butter is stirred in, then chicken stock, then cream, oyster juice, salt, cayenne pepper, sherry, parsley, and oysters), Vegetable Dishes: Fried Okra, Sweet Potato and peanut Croquettes (a cup of finely ground parched peanuts are combined with a cup of mashed sweet potatoes, a tablespoon of flour, and cayenne pepper and salt to taste; the mixture is shaped into croquettes, rolled in bread crumbs, beaten egg, and another coat of bread crumbs, and deep-fried.)

Tidewater: Coastal Maryland, Coastal Virginia, Coastal North Carolina, overlaps with the Southern Mid-Atlantic region in food ways (Maryland, Delaware) Influences: British, French, Native American, West African

Native American Tribes: Nanticoke, Susquehannock, Powhatan (Accohannock, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Chickahominy), Tuscarora, Croatan

Traditional Ingredients: fruits (damson plum, quince, pear), meats (muskrat (sometimes called "marsh rabbit"), partridge), seafood (butterfish, blue crab, bay clams, oysters, eels, blue fish, bay scallops, haddock, shad, shad roe), seasonings (Old Bay, horseradish, molasses, fish peppers (fresh, dried, and in sauces; heirloom), mace)

Dishes: Beverages: Lager Beer, Breads/Pastries: Beaten Biscuits (in plantation parlors, these were often served with sherry or port), Condiments: Picalilli Sauce (fish peppers, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, sugar, mustard seed, black peppercorns, cloves, ginger, tumeric, apple cider vinegar), Entrees: Claret-Braised Lamb or Veal Kidneys (Northern Neck of Maryland and Virginia; traditionally served with buttermilk-rice waffles), Chicken and Oysters (a very common combination in Virginia; One old recipe is "chicken smothered in oysters": melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and stir in 5 tablespoons of flour till smooth. Off the heat, stir in 1 3/4 cup of chicken stock until mixture is free of lumps, then return to heat and let simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup of cream, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 4 or 5 drops of tabasco sauce, and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Poach 1.5 pt. of oysters in oyster liquor for 5 minutes or less, until they have just become plump. Drain and fold into sauce, adding 2 cups of cooked diced chicken. To serve, cut squares of warm corn bread, split, and put bottoms on a serving platter. Cover with half of chicken-oyster mixture, top with remaining corn squares, and pour sauce over. Sprinkle with parsley.), Deviled Ham, Fried Marsh Rabbit (muskrat is marinated overnight, coated with flour and fried, then served up with currant jelly and beaten biscuits), Patridge (a traditional Virginia way of serving this calls for steaming the birds first, stuffing them with fresh oysters and, after broiling, covering them with a butter sauce in which the oyster juice has been amalgamated.), Shrimp and Rice Salad, Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Beef and Kidney Pie (Maryland; stewed beef kidneys have remained a favorite Sunday breakfast since colonial times), Seafood: Crab Cakes, Crab Meat Balls, Crab Norfolk (common in the Chesapeake bay area; lump crab meat is baked with butter, seasoned with salt, black pepper, lemon juice or vinegar, and a dash of tabasco.), Deviled Crab, Soft-Shelled Crabs, Steamed Clams, Steamed Oysters, Stone Crab stewed in white wine laced with vinegar (antebellum North Carolina; seasoned with nutmeg and anchovy, then heated with butter and egg yolks.), Soups/Muddles: Crab Claw Soup (Henrietta Nesbitt, the head-cook for Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was president, ordered this soup made for a special treat. It was "made from an old American recipe that had been a favorite of George Washington." She made it just the way Martha Washington had it made at Mount Vernon; 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour are blended in the top part of a double boiler over simmering water. 2 hard cooked and sieved eggs and 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind are stirred in. 2 cups of cream and 2 cups of milk are stirred in alternating, it's stirred till smooth and slightly thickened. 1.5 lb. crab meat from claws, cut into chunks is added and it is supposed to simmer for 5 minutes. 1 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup of sherry are stirred in. Then it is seasoned to taste with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with parsley.), Fish Muddle (North Carolina), Oyster and Spinach Soup (Virginia), Peanut Soup

Traditional Eateries: Crab Houses, Smokehouses, Oyster Bars

Social Gatherings Involving Traditional Foods: Pig Pickins', Oyster Roasts

Quotes:

Frederick Douglass (describing the plantations of Virginia)

"Fish, flesh and fowl were here in profusion. Chickens of all breeds, ducks of all kinds...Guinea fowls, turkeys, geese, and peafowls...Partridges, quails, pheasants, pigeons...Beef, veal, mutton, and venison...The teeming riches of the Chesapeake Bay, it's rock perch, drums, crocus, trout, oysters, craps, and terrapin, were drawn hither to adorn the glittering table. The dairy too...poured butter, and delicious cream to heighten the attractions of the gorgeous, unending rounds of feasting...The tender asparagus, the crisp celery, and the delicious cauliflower, eggplants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French beans...Radishes, cantaloupes, melons of all kinds; And the fruits of all climes...Here were gathered figs, raisins, almonds and grapes...Wines and brandies...teas...coffee...All conspiring to swell the tide of high life."

Low Country: Coastal South Carolina and Coastal Georgia

Influences: British, French, Native American, West African

Native American Tribes: Catawba, Cusabo, Chicora, PeeDee, Waccamaw, Santee, Creek, Guale, Yamasee, Timucua

Traditional Ingredients: grains (rice, cornmeal), lake/stream food (bass, trout), legumes/nuts (black-eyed peas,benne seeds, clay field peas, crowder peas, sea island peas, cowpeas), meats (pork (Ossabaw Island Hog (heirloom; brought over by the Spaniards over 500 years ago; closest surviving genetic stock to what Iberico hogs were like in Spain when the Spanish explorers first tried to settle the North American coast; they now run feral on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia))), seafood (bass, mullet, oysters, shrimp, crab, clams, blue bream, redbreast, sheepshead), vegetables (okra (choppee(heirloom)), tomatoes, colards, sweet potato)

Dishes: Breads/Pastries/Candies: Benne Seed Wafers, Benne Brittle, Sorghum Syrup Candy (sorghum, brown sugar or honey, butter, and a little freshly grated lemon), Breakfast: Plantation skillet cake (similar to Yorkshire pudding served with apple sauce and brown sugar), Shrimp (boiled or sprinkled with a little salt, rolled in bread crumbs mixed with egg, and deep fried and served with grits), Shrimp Gravy (Beaufort, South Carolina; shrimp sauteed in bacon fat with chopped onion, sprinkled with flour, worcestershire sauce, and water, salted to taste and served with grits), Condiments: Benne (sesame seed) Paste (slaves used to mix this with hominy), Entrees: Country Captain (chicken curry dish), Hoppin' John (rice and black-eyed-peas), Limpin' Susan (okra, rice and black-eyed peas), Purloo (ham, bacon, peppers and okra), Red Rice (bacon chunks (or sausage chunks, or perhaps giblets), tomatoes, and aromatic vegetables like onions and bell peppers), Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Shrimp Pie (In Charleston it is made with bread crumbs, in Savannah, boiled rice; boil shrimps in salted water, soak the bread crumbs in wine, peel shrimps and add to crumbs, seasoning with mace, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne. Turn into a baking dish or pie shell and bake.), Seafood: Low Country Boil, Sea-Food Gumbo, Soups/Stews: Bog, Crab and Okra Stew (blue crab, fatback, onion, tomatoes, okra, salt and pepper; served over rice cooked in chicken stock), Creamed Oyster Soup (old slave soup; combined oysters and benne seeds), Frogmore stew (sausage, corn, crabs, and shrimp; popular in coastal South Carolina), Muddle, Oxtail Stew, Oyster Stew, Pinebark Stew (Albemarle Sound; a type of muddle; "Since seasonings were unavailable during Revolutionary War days, the small tender roots of the pine tree were used for flavoring. Bacon is important, and blue bream, redbreast, bass, trout, or sheepshead would be used.), She-Crab Soup (Charleston and Savannah both lay claim; based on a combination of the meat and roe of the female blue crab; In it's simplest form, it begins with a dozen boiled crabs, the eggs of which have been carefully set aside. a half-cup chopped onion is sauteed in butter, the crab is stirred in, then the roe, a couple of cups of milk, and a quarter as much cream; and while this heats, season it with salt and black pepper and a dash of worcestershire sauce. As a thickener, a little flour is mixed with water and stirred in. About a tablespoon of sherry is added and is simmered over low heat for about 30 minutes.), Veal Stew

Quotes:

1. "Plantation owners on such rivers as South Carolina's Combahee still entertain with oysters by the bushel freshly dredged from local streams. (One bushel for fifteen guests is a rule.) They are washed and scrubbed and shoveled onto iron mesh, or grills, or sheet iron over a hot crackling fire made of brush. A blanket of wet gunnysacking provides steam, and when the oysters pop and are spread out on a great table, the hungry fall to and devour in typically informal American style."

- American Food: What We've Cooked, How We've Cooked It, and the Ways We've Eaten in America Through the Centuries

Appalachia: Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia Influences: British, German, Native American, and a few pockets of Swiss

Note: English, Scots-Irish, and Welsh are the most obvious influences for this area

Native American Tribes: Cherokee, Appalachee, Creek, Yuchi, Catawba, Tutelo, Saponi, Conoy, Shawnee

Traditional Ingredients: dairy (milk, cream, buttermilk, butter, clabber (like yogurt; unfortunately has almost ceased with pasteurized milk)), fruit (apples; apples can be thought of as the main fruit in this region (magnum bonum (heirloom)), pears, blackberries, peaches, persimmons, mayapple, crabapple, muscadine and scuppernog grapes, pawpaw), grains (cornmeal, hominy), legumes/nuts (American chestnuts (not as common anymore due to the chestnut blight), pinto beans, pecans, black walnuts), meats (guinea hog (endangered; a cross between english, essex, west african dwarf, and red guinea pigs), sheep, goat (tennessee fainting goat), carolina/virginia northern flying squirrel (endangered)), seasonings (salt, ham hock, apple cider vinegar), sweeteners(honey, molassas, sorghum (honey drip cane (heirloom))), vegetables (Corn (hickory king used for hominy, grits, and cornmeal), green beans, morel mushrooms, shelly beans, tomatos, chicory, cress, chickentoe, dandelion, poke weed, ramps (an Elizabethan word for wild leeks; many festivals for them in spring), fiddleheads, cabbage, potatoes, onions, squash (crookneck, cushaw (tennessee sweet potato (heirloom)), butternut), sweet potato, carrots, celery, bell peppers, rape greens, beets, broccoli)

Dishes: Beverages: Apple Cider, Bourbon, Chicory Coffee (poor people's coffee), Hot Mulled Cider, Monkey Rum (a distilled spirit made from sorghum syrup; not as common anymore), Muscadine and Scuppernog wine and juice, Root beer (sassafras root fermented with other ingredients to make an alcoholic beverage; what the carbonated soda is based off of), Sassafras Tea, Whiskey, Breads/Pastries/Candies: Cat Head Biscuits, Coconut Bon Bons, Hoe Cake, Molassas Popcorn Balls, Taffy, Breakfast: Livermush (Liver Pudding), Condiments/Gravies/Jams/Jellies/Preserves/Pickles/Relishes/Dried: Apple Butter, Canned Tomatoes, Chicken Cream Gravy, Chocolate Gravy, Chow Chow (a relish), Corn Relish, Cucumber Pickles, Dilly Green Beans, Dried Fruit and Fruit Leather, Hot Sorghum Syrup (mixed with bakings soda and brought to a boil), Kraut(sauerkraut),Molassas Hard Sauce (for puddings), Mincemeat, Muscadine jelly, Peach Butter, Pear Butter, Pear Chips, Pickled Eggs, Spiced Pickled Beets, Squash Pickles, Strawberry Jam, Strawberry Preserves,Tomato Gravy, Tomato Sauce, Entrees: Barbeque (Memphis Style; using mostly pork and occasionally goat in certain locales), Broccoli Casserole, Fancy Cheese Grits Casserole, Pork Chops, Ribs in Biscuit Dough and Ashes, Lake/Stream Food: Fried Trout, Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Apple Cake, Boiled Custard Pudding, Boiled Soft Custard (traditional during Christmas; like egg-nog), Country Sausage Stuffing (can be used for turkey), Cushaw Pie, Dried Apple Pie, Grape Pie, Molassas Crumb Pie, Molassas Pudding, Mincemeat pie, Pawpaw Custard, Persimmon Pudding, Plantation Pudding, Scripture Cake, Stack cake (frugal wedding cake; each guest brings a layer), Soups/Stews: Bacon Potato Soup, Cabbage Gumbo (Tennessee; leaves out poultry and seafood in favor of tangy country ham, pork sausage, and milk.), Chicken and Corn Soup (Newton, North Carolina; veal is simmered along with chicken and rice is added as a thickener), Ham Bone and Dumplings (broth made with ham bone and dumplings), Irish Stew (potatoes, onions, carrots, lamb or beef), Soppers and Gravy, Soup Beans (a traditional staple in mountain homes; pinto beans are usually used), Squash and Potato Soup, Wild Game Stew, Winter Vegetable Soup, Vegetable Dishes/savory puddings: Bean Patties (mad with leftover soup beans), Cushaw Casserole, Custard Corn Pudding, Fried Cabbage, Fried Dry Land Fish with Spring Onions (morels and spring onions coated with cornmeal and fried in lard), Fried Poke Stalks, Fried Potatoes, Fried Ramps, Fried Squash, Green Beans and Potatoes, Green Beans with Bacon, Hominy, Poke Sallet (a spring dish), Potatoes and Gravy, Potato Casserole, Ramps (a celebration of spring; often served with ham and sausage, home-fried potatoes, white and brown beans, and corn bread; sometimes served under a cheese sauce.), Shuck Beans (dried green beans typically cooked in water with salt pork), Stuffed Bell Peppers, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Succotash, Sweet Potatoes and Apples, Wilted/Kilt lettuce (lettuce and green onions with bacon pieces and hot bacon grease poured over it)

Quotes:

A Kentucky Hill country repast:

"Venison steak, bass fried in corn meal, mast-fattened bacon cured with hickory wood fire, snap beans cooked with green corn, pone bread from the skillet on the hearth."

Bayou Country (includes Cajun, Creole, anglo and deep south soul food): Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida pan handle, and the Eastern parts of Texas Influences: French, Spanish, West African, Native American, British, Carribean

Native American Tribes: Atakapa (Taensa, Opelousas), Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez (Anoyel, Taensa), Tunica

Traditional Ingredients: dairy (butter, cream, milk, buttermilk), fruit (figs, grapes, plums), grains (cornmeal, rice), legumes/nuts (peanuts, pecans (centennial (heirloom), clay field peas, sea island peas, crowder peas, cowpeas, black-eyed peas), meats (blackbird, chicken, turkey, turtle, pork, gator, opossum, venison, squirrel, raccoon, gulf coast native sheep (a heinz mixture breed of churro, merino-rambouillet, southdown, hampshire, cheviot, and dorset horn; provided most of the wool sent to textile mills in the deep south prior to WWII)), seafood (crab, crawdads, fish, shrimp, oysters, pompano, grouper, redfish), seasonings (salt, black pepper, pork fat, file (dried sassafras used as a thickener), garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne, chili powder, cumin), vegetables (Corn, okra, tomatoes, onions, celery, carrots, green bell peppers, chickpeas)

Dishes: Beverages: Cafe Brulot (coffee, orange liqeur, cinnamon stick, sugar, cloves, and lemon peel), Chicory Coffee, Rum, Sazerac cocktail (combination of Cognac, rye whiskey, absinthe, Herbsaint and Peychaud's Bitters), Southern Comfort, Sugarcane Juice,Breads/Pastries/Candies: Beignets, Pralines, Breakfast: Pain Perdu, Condiments: Tobasco Sauce (the scalding of tobasco peppers, finely chopped, along with minced garlic, pressed through a sieve and spiced vinegar added), Entrees: Adouille Sausage, Boudin (type of blood sausage), Jambalaya (a melange of seafood and meat and is a hybrid between a gumbo and a paella), Jambalaya au Congri, Po'boy, Red beans and rice, Shallot Pie (egg yolks are mixed with salt, cayenne, flour, black pepper, and sour cream. This mixture is cooked in a double boiler over simmering water for 20 minutes till thick; It is let to cool. Meanwhile, scallions are sauteed for a couple of minutes, then minced ham is added and cooked for a minute or two. Finally this mixture is mixed with the custard mixture and baked in a pastry shell.), Stuffed Goose in Orange Wine Sauce (a cotton patch goose is seasoned with salt and pepper, stuffed with a mixture of chopped goose liver, bread crumbs, apples, celery, muscadine raisins, salt, butter, shallots, green pepper, cloves, and hot water or scuppernong wine, roasted, and then basted with a sauce made from goose grease, butter, Louisiana orange wine or cointreau or reisling, tobasco sauce, and orange zest for the final half hour of cooking), Lake/Stream Food: Trout Meuniere, Turtle Soup, Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Bananas foster, Orange Cream (a frothy concoction made from orange juice, sugar, eggs, rich milk, and the accent of lemon), Seafood: Béchamel-based sauce containing shrimp, Crab Salad (Mobile, Alabama), Crawfish Pie, Fried Mullet with Roe, La Mediatrice (oyster loaf), Mullet Salad (AKA Biloxi bacon in some locales. Drop a cleaned and scaled fish into boiling water to which a sliced lemon, salt, bay leaf, thyme, and cayenne pepper have already been added. When fish is tender, cool, remove skin, and pick the meat from the bones. Chill and serve on lettuce with mayonnaise or oil and vinegar dressing.), Oysters Bienville (boned crab and frog meat cooked with mushrooms; there is a cream sauce accented with sherry and applejack, plus a dash of cayenne pepper), Oysters Rockefeller (oysters, capers, parsley, and Parmesan cheese in a rich milk, flour and butter-based sauce), Pompano en Papillote (The pompano is cleaned and the head and bones used to make stock along with carrot, celery, onion, water and white wine. The stock is strained and poured over the fish which is then seasoned with salt, black pepper, and wine. To make the sauce, shallots or scallions are cooked in butter, tabasco, shrimps, crab meat, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf are added. In a separate pan, butter is melted, flour added, and then stock and wine. Combine with the shrimp and crab-meat mixture; The fillets are placed on parchment paper hearts, topped with the sauce and baked.), Shrimp Creole, Soups/Stews: Crab Soup (8 to 10 crabs are boiled, the meat is picked out and the shells are simmered to make a broth. A roux is made from onions, garlic, flour, chopped tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaf. The broth and crab meat are poured into the roux and it simmers for about an hour. It's seasoned with salt and pepper, cayenne, and two beaten egg yolks.), Crawfish Etouffe (roux, onions, celery, green pepper, and garlic cooked in yellow crawfish fat, along with tomatoes and crawfish tails tossed in at the end), Creole Stew with lamb (gulf coast native lamb shoulder, lima beans, shortening, shallots, salt and pepper, tabasco sauce, celery, tomatoes, flour, and water), Sea Marsh Stew (a stew containing onion, shrimp, crawfish, water, heavy cream, worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, sherry pepper sauce, fennel seed, peas, and papika; served with toasted rounds), Shallot Porridge (AKA scallion vichyssoise (the former is the older name); sliced scallions, tarragon, and celery leaves are simmered in chicken stock, seasoned with salt and white pepper. While the soup cools, egg yolks are beaten with cream, the soup is strained and slowly combined with the egg/cream mixture. It is then chilled and served with chives.), Shrimp and Crab Gumbo, Vegetable Dishes: Gumbo Zhebes/Gumbo des Herbes (eaten during Lent and may include mustard, beet, or turnip tops, spinach, collards, lettuce, and cabbage)

Notable Restaurants: Antoines (New Orleans, Louisiana; oldest family run restaurant in the United States; est. in 1840; damaged by Hurricane Katrina)

Florida Influences: British, French, Spanish, German, Native American, West African, Carribean

Native American Tribes: Apalachee, Calusa, Choctaw, Creek, Miccosuki, Tequesta, Jeaga, Ais, Timucua Traditional Ingredients: dairy (milk, cream, butter, buttermilk, sour cream), fruits (orange, Grapefruit, Avocado, mango, papaya, kumquat, jackfruit, passion fruit, dragon fruit, coconut, key limes, guavas, persimmons, lemons, olives), meats (gator, pork, land turtle, hard-shell inland turtle, soft-shell turtle, venison, beef), seafood (stone crab, shrimp, mahi mahi, mullet, shad, snapper, tuna, pompano, swordfish, clam, lobster, conch, large-mouth bass, sea turtle, goliath grouper (weighing in at 800 pounds; over-harvested)), seasonings (bird peppers, cayenne pepper, cumin, datile chile pepper (mostly in St. Augustine; heirloom), garlic, oregano, palm oil), vegetables (black beans, pigeon pea, seminole pumpkin (heirloom))

Dishes: Beverages: Orange juice, Breads: Seminole Pumpkin Bread, Breakfast: Grits and Grunts (Grunts are a fish and another name for croaker. Traditionally one of Florida's most important food fishes. In Key West, waterfront fish markets have traditionally kept their grunts and other fishes alive in pens along the docks. See recipe below), Chowders/Soups: Alcoporado (beef stew with raisins), Avocado Soup (based on chicken stock), Black Bean Soup (cooked with onions, carrots, celery, and garden herbs along with sometimes a ham bone or chicken broth), Conch Chowder (tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, and hot pepper.), Green Turtle Soup, Condiments: Old Sour (pickled birds-eye, or datil, peppers, or chiles piquin, in lime juice; it is the prevalent seasoning for seafood in Key West), Entrees: Bolichi (eye of beef round stuffed with sausage, pimiento-stuffed olives, green pepper, onions, etc. with accents of lime juice and cuminseed), Cubano, Minorcan Pilau (dates back to 1768 and has been passed down orally for generations; hen, salt and pepper, celery, onions, stewed tomatoes, sugar, thyme, chicken broth, datil chile pepper, long-grained rice), Piccadillo (a melange of minced beef, usually perked up by both raisins and olives), Pork Barbeque, Rice and Beans, Rice with Chicken, Roast Beef (stuffed with raisins, olives, and bacon; Ybor City), Pies/Cakes/Puddings: Keylime pie, Mirliton Dessert (Mirliton accented by raisins and rum, topped with an almond-sprinkled meringue), Seafood: Baked Fish with Oranges, Cebiche (raw fish marinated in citrus juices), Conch Fritters, Conch Salad (raw conch dressed with lime juice, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and black pepper.), Conch Sandwich, Grouper Sandwich, Shrimp Pilau (St. Augustine; see recipe below.), Snapper (baked with grated orange rind, a soupcon of juice, and seasoned with pepper and nutmeg), Turtleburger (made from ground green turtle meat), Vegetable Dishes: Avocado-Grapefruit Salad, Black Beans and Rice (sometimes called "Moors and Christians"; sometimes used to mark the witching hour of midnight in Tampa; cooked with bay leaf, ham hock, red onions, garlic, chopped green pepper, and a little vinegar), Fried Plantains

Note: Northern Florida is more traditonal southern while Southern Florida has more Caribbean influences.

Grits and Grunts:

Scale and clean the grunts, but leave the heads on. They are dipped in cornmeal, and fried in deep fat until they are crisp, golden brown. Heaping portions of grits are placed in plates or soup bowls, and the grunts are stacked high on a platter in the center of the table. The grunts are seasoned with "sour," a bottle of juice from the small, fragrant Key limes, and the grits are eaten with butter. The grits are eaten with a fork or large spoon, while the grunts are eaten entirely by hand.

Shrimp Pilau Supper:

In preparing the 2 pounds of shrimp, the sand vein is first removed, and the shrimp thoroughly washed in cold water, and cut in two - medium size gives the best flavor. Cut 1/2 a pound of salt pork in small pieces and fry, add 1 small can of tomatoes, 1 small green pepper, or red sweet pepper, diced, and 1 small datil pepper. Simmer until light brown. Add the raw shrimp and cook for a few minutes, then add water. When the contents boil, add rice. Thyme and other spices may be added. Salt to taste.

Other contents of pilau are ordered accordingly. Also French bread, coffee, pickles, salad, baked beans, and tarts or lemon pie for dessert.

Sources: my head, American Food: What We've Cooked, How We've Cooked It, and the Ways We've Eaten in America Through the Centuries, The Food of a Younger Land, America the Beautiful Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the United States of America, Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, & Recipes, Mrs. Kitching's Smith Island Cookbook, Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods, recipes from old virginia, Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk through the Ages with 120 adventurous Recipes that Explore the riches of our First Food, www.wikipedia.org, www.lifeintheusa.com, www.mtnlaurel.com, http://berksweb.com/pam/, www.foodtimeline.org, www.native-languages.org/states.htm, http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods011.htm