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A brief overview of Southern food
If this is your first visit, welcome! If you're a returning visitor or a member, I hope this article will help you find what you're looking for quickly. Whether you're a Southerner, a displaced Southerner, or simply enjoy sampling regional Americana, this is the place to start.
My first taste of Southern food came from one of the best cooks in the South, my mother-in-law. I'll never forget the wonderful sampler she served -- fried green tomatoes, purple hull peas, squash casserole, fried okra, chicken and dumplings, cornbread AND biscuits. Her simple home-cooked introduction inspired me to begin my own adventure.
"It is a cuisine that transcends the harsh realities of our past, a cuisine of which all Southerners, but peculiarly (and especially) those of African descent, can be proud."
-Damon Lee Fowler |
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Southern cuisine, to a greater or lesser degree, includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The cuisine throughout the South has many similarities along with common roots, yet the diversities from region to region make it all the more interesting.
The influence of Native Americans can be seen in the use of corn, beans, peas, squash, and berries, along with their methods of preparation. Dishes such as Burgoo and Brunswick Stew may be compared to typical Native American style of cooking. "...those women cooks had brought their ancestral ways with a number of products from Africa by way of the slave trade or elsewhere in the African Diaspora of the New World, such as the West Indies, such as okra, cowpeas, sorghum, and rice, all indigenous to Africa, as well as benne seed and eggplant, long cultivated there. These products came to characterize the cookery of the South generally, as distinguished from that of the North."
-Karen Hess, from her Historical Notes on What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking |
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African-Americans, during the time of slave trade, were the primary cooks in all but the poorest Southern kitchens. Their culinary skills certainly had more influence on Southern cooking than any other group. The use of African foods such as okra and benne (sesame), and certain combinations of herbs and spices attest to that influence, though there is little documentation. Food historian Damon Lee Fowler, in "Classical Southern Cooking", purports that Africans are the most likely reason foods such as eggplant, peanuts, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes became common in the Southern diet. Mrs. Abby Fisher's cookbook, "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking," is believed to be the first published collection of recipes recorded by an African-American. Her cookbook, published in 1881, presents a variety of typical Southern recipes, including gumbos, Circuit Hash (Succotash), and Jumberlie - A Creole Dish (Jambalaya).
Browse through past articles for more information on specific dishes, recipes, regional cuisines, and history. Here are some helpful links:
Articles on Specific Regions and States
Articles on Specific Foods
Articles on Specific Dishes & Beverages
Southern Historical Cookbooks
Southern Cookbooks
Graphics created by and © copyright 1999 Diana Rattray
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