Southern Home Cooking

[Ce'nedra]

For the past year, I've taken an interest in the cuisine of the deep South

Sadly, though, I'm pretty clueless as being from Australia, I wasn't exposed to much (if at all) of it. There are, however, a few Southern restaurants over here that I plan to visit some time soon

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone can offer me some delectable Southern recipes? As long as the recipes don't involve ingredients that are too difficult to find, I welcome all

Also, I'm not a very good cook as I've only recently been brave enough to try my hand at it (I have, however, ALWAYS loved food) and so I would prefer something simple. With that said, ANY recipe is good.

Thank you!

[Jaymes]

There are a lot of good southern cooks on eGullet, and a lot of interesting and informative info about the delicious foods of the American southland.

I did a search for threads with "southern" in the title, and got six pages. I'd suggest you start there.

Although many of the threads are not about "Southern" cooking (like the foods of southern New Jersey), many are.

"Southern" threads

But here's a typically southern take on a popular vegetable.

Southern Summer Creamed Squash

Cut up 3-5 yellow squash. Put it in a pan with a tightly fitting lid. Add about 2 TB butter, but no water. Put it on a very low flame. Stirring occasionally, allow the squash to cook in its own juice. When the squash is tender, remove the lid and turn up the heat. Stirring frequently, continue cooking until the squash is beginning to break down and become mushy. If you have to add a little extra water during this phase, do so (if the squash becomes too dry before it's completely broken down), but remember that you are trying to reduce the liquid to basically nothing at the exact same moment that the squash is ready. Add heavy cream and about 1 T sugar or to taste. Add salt & pepper to taste. You do have to 'wing it' as to how much cream to add. The squash should wind up about the consistancy of mashed potatoes, and be creamy and sweet and utterly delicious.

And "Fried Corn":

Basically the same thing, but you don't cook the corn as long. Cut the kernals off and put in skillet with blob of butter. Saute til corn is tender. Add cream and a little sugar and S & P to taste. You can also add onion and green pepper while you're sauteeing if you've got a hankerin' (in case you're also interested in the lingo), but the key is the butter, cream and a little sugar.

And, by the way, while I'm at it, my grandmother was a legendary southern cook, and she always put just a pinch of sugar in the veggies. So next time you're simmering up a pot of green peas or beans, drop in just a pinch of sugar.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Jaymes (log)

[Ce'nedra]

Thanks alot for the recipes Jaymes

And I'll go look up those Southern threads woohoo!

Edited September 28, 2007 by Ce'nedra (log)

[Doodad]

My grandmother was a grand cook and gentle southern woman. When we visited, a Sunday brunch was something along these lines:

Fried Chicken or Chicken Fried Steak

fried okra

a casserole (whatever was fresh in the garden)

green beans/limas

sweet potato souffle or cooked carrots

pickled something(s) like peaches

parker house type rolls (of course homemade, goodness sakes what a question)

lot o sweet tea

pie or cake for desert

nap shortly thereafter

[Ce'nedra]

That sounds like a lovely and very hearty meal Doodad

You're so lucky -I've never experienced coming home to such meals unfortunately

[DTBarton]

The first thing I think of when I think southern is my grandmother's slow cooked green beans. She used beans from my grandfather's garden.

Saute diced bacon with a lot of sliced onion until the whole thing (and the bottom of the pan) turn a nice brownish red color. Deglaze the pan with chicken broth. Add the beans and enough broth to just cover them. Simmer covered until very tender, adjust salt and pepper (this dish loves pepper). Cook time will vary with freshness of beans, but don't worry about over cooking the beans, that's kind of the idea!

[Jaymes]

pickled something(s) like peaches

Ah yes, southern "pickled something."

I do miss those. Pickled watermelon rinds, or okra, or homemade bread & butter pickles. And the relishes - chow chow, corn.

All homemade, of course, so different from the stuff in the stores.

Something I took so much for granted while I was growing up. And something I never see anymore.

[NYC Mike]

Good eating ahead of you Ce'nedra!

We have been living that same experiement for the past year and some months.

The book that got us started, and was a lot of fun to read and work with was The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. We have tried 80% and repeated most at least twice.

If you can get your hands on a copy try Shrimp Paste, Pan Fried Chicken with Tomato Gravy(do take the 2 day prep time to make it), Country Captain, Country Ham Steak with Red Eyed Gravy (with eggs over and biscuts too!), any of the hash recipes with leftover poultry meat, Hush Puppies, Beni Wafers (for us with the shrimp paste!) and the Fresh Apple Cake.

Bill Neal's Biscuts and Spoonbread has all our go to biscuts, bread and muffin recipes.

Enjoy and share as you go please!!

mike

[Mayhaw Man]

The South that I grew up in and will most likely go ten toes up in is located along the Mississippi River. East or Westside, if you're in the Delta, it's all about the same. I love it there. Very much. Part of the reason has to do with the landscape, part of the reason has to do with the food, but most of the reason has to do with the people who prepare it and how and why they do it.

There are lots of good books about Southern food and there are some good books about cooking from the region that I grew up in. Two of my favorites are:

The Cotton Country Collection

Published in 1972, when I was 12, this book has more to do with what became, for me, an obsession with food in the South than any other single publication. My mom was on the "testing committee" meaning that for about a year, we ate all kinds of stuff that I wasn't used to normally seeing and lots of things that I was, over and over again. While some of the recipes may seem oddly placed, some a bit "antique," (yes, there is a recipe or two that includes canned cream of whatever-just get over it and make the damned stuff. It's not in that book if it's not good to eat) it's a great way to learn about the cooking from the flattest, greenest place in America. It's worth it. Really. Plus, you get the recipe for sweet potatoes from my grandmother Lucille and the recipe for the best lemon squares that you will ever taste from my mother, Brooksie (If it says "Brooksie" you know it's good).

and

Southern Sideboards is another Jr League book, this one from the nice ladies in Jackson, MS. Printed about the same time as the book above, it's a similar book. The main differences are that the game recipes are better in Cotton Country and the baking recipes are better (imo) in Southern Sideboards (not that it's baking or anything, but the basic pancake recipe in this book seems a bit more complicated than you might think is really needed, but it's amazingly good. Oh boy, I love those things). I highly recommend this book.

Both of these books have extensive sections on cooking vegetables which, even now if you hit the right table at dinner (that's lunch in the rest of the world-we eat supper at night) you might see as many as 5 or 6 vegetable dishes on the table. Peas of all sorts, beans, corn, tomatoes, yellow squash, eggplant, and many others including the blessed and most important of southern vegetables, The Pod of the Gods, OKRA. You'll find some pretty straightforward recipes and you'll find some that are a bit more of a challenge to cook, but a rewarding challenge. You'll also, along the way, learn some stuff and what more can you ask of cookbooks?

Certainly, I could give you a list of good cookbooks as long as my arm, all of them worth having, but I would say this is a solid and very tasty way to start if you want to learn about this region of what most people call, "The Deep South." (though, in reality, the Delta extends as far north as very Southern Illinois, but most of it is in Western MS, Eastern AR, and Northeastern LA). Good luck!

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mayhaw Man (log)

[Marlene]

I love the Cotton Country cookbook and its from there, thanks to Brooks that I get my recipe for Turkey every year for Thanksgiving. Having made it that way once for a blog, I've never ever made turkey any other way, although the ingredient list is a little "imprecise".

[Mayhaw Man]

I love the Cotton Country cookbook and its from there, thanks to Brooks that I get my recipe for Turkey every year for Thanksgiving.  Having made it that way once for a blog, I've never ever made turkey any other way, although the ingredient list is a little "imprecise".

←

That's Marie Louise Snelling's recipe and cooking was one of her many, many talents. I liked her (and not just because she gave us the key to her gate to get behind the levee-though it didn't hurt matters, of course). And that is a great way to cook a turkey. I actually enjoy it and that's not my favorite thing to do. Now that I am using Alan Benton's Bacon bacon when cooking it, it's even better.

[Jaymes]

There are lots of good books about Southern food and there are some good books about cooking from the region that I grew up in. Two of my favorites are:

The Cotton Country Collection

and

Southern Sideboards

No mention of these wonderful southern junior league cookbooks would be complete without

River Road Recipes.

I may be wrong (since I haven't researched it), but I think River Road may be the first, most famous, and best-selling of all.

[Mayhaw Man]

There are lots of good books about Southern food and there are some good books about cooking from the region that I grew up in. Two of my favorites are:

The Cotton Country Collection

and

Southern Sideboards

No mention of these wonderful southern junior league cookbooks would be complete without

River Road Recipes.

I may be wrong (since I haven't researched it), but I think River Road may be the first, most famous, and best-selling of all.

←

River Road, if it wasn't the first (1959) is pretty close to being the first. And, if for nothing else, it's worth buying just for the fact that they are the folks that brought Spinach Madeline to the world. Though you cannot buy Jalapeno Kraft Cheese anymore, it's still pretty swell if you follow the recipe that they have adjusted to. I know chefs with massive talent, Frank Brigsten being one, who make it for their own holiday parties and follow the recipe down the line. It's incredibly good.

River Road, however, is a little more of a South Louisiana book and while it's still a great cookbook, the food in it is a bit different than the food from 250 miles up the river. I use them all, often, and enjoy them, but I was just pointing out books from one very well defined area in the South. The Delta might be the home of the blues, but no one got the blues from the food. If anything, that's what kept men and women going through every kind of adversity that can be put on a population. Lunch cheers everyone up. Always.

[andiesenji]

I have (and love) all these cookbooks. However, my favorite, since my first was given to me in 1951, is Charleston Receipts.

The 30th Edition published in 1995 is reasonably priced at 19.95 but a good used copy is available for far less.

As stated by one reviewer, any cookbook that has been a best seller for 50 years, must have something going for it.

Part of my father's family were among the earliest settlers in the Carolinas and in the house in which I grew up, my grandfather's cook was a wonderful Gullah woman who cooked many lowcountry dishes.

I have never been able to produce an angel-food cake as high or as light as she did, using a wood/coal stove and "testing" the oven temp by holding her hand in the middle of the oven.

And, beating the egg whites by hand with a flat whisk.

Edited October 2, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[John DePaula]

I need to checkout that Charleston Receipts...

For me, the one that I often turn to is, believe it or not, the Southern Living Annual Recipes 1979 edition. Most of the other years were kind of so-so, but '79 was especially good.

Another one, more recent, is the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. Pretty good one. I like that they give you alternate versions of a recipe e.g. Tuesday Night Collards vs. the extra special (and more time consuming) Sunday Night Collards.

[Doodad]

Andie,

My grandmother once whispered to me that the secret was to double sift the cake flour for soft goods. And more in humid weather. She was an excellent baker and that sifter was always out. Whether cake or delicate fried coating, that was her tool of choice.

[Jaymes]

I have (and love) all these cookbooks.  However, my favorite, since my first was given to me in 1951, is Charleston Receipts. 

The 30th Edition published in 1995  is reasonably priced at 19.95 but a good used copy is available for far less.

As stated by one reviewer, any cookbook that has been a best seller for 50 years, must have something going for it.

I've got Charleston Receipts, too. In fact, if I don't have every single one of those southern junior league cookbooks, it's not for want of trying. I also have two of the compilation cookbooks as well. Not sure why. An addiction, I guess.

And, as Brooks says, each book is infused with the regional influences of its own particular little slice o' heaven. They're all wonderful.

I honestly don't believe I could select a favorite.

And then, of course, there's this.

Maybe she should start there.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Jaymes (log)

[andiesenji]

I do have the Ernest Mickler books and they contain some mighty fine recipes, and some good advice.

[Ce'nedra]

NYC Mike: Thanks alot for the recommendation! I'll go check if they have it in the bookstores here (Borders and Kinokunya are my best choices because most of our bookstores are pretty crappy with their lack of range )

Mayhaw Man: Thank you Do you think that the ingredients in Southern cooking are often difficult to find if you didn't live in the US?

Which book do you think is more suitable for someone who is sort of a beginner cook?

Marlene: Sounds like Cotton Country is getting higher in my list of 'must get' cookbooks hehe.

Anyway, thanks everyone so much for contributing! Your descriptions of Southern cooking from home sounds so delightful. I'm thinking of making a trip there some time to taste all of these (though of course I won't be able to experience the whole 'what grandma used to cook' thing unfortunately if it's only restaurants that I visit).

[maggiethecat]

The book that got us started, and was a lot of fun to read and work with was The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.  We have tried 80% and repeated most at least twice. 

←

I adore, love, talk up this book every chance I get . Everything, every recipe, is delicious and it's a very approachable cookbook. The food is down home and elegant. Chic, even.

Brooks, I just ordered Cotton Country. I meant to do it three years ago when you first mentioned it.

For a Southern Appalachian take on diner cooking Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cooking is brilliant. This is the book that convinced my husband, the finicky SuperTuscan who hates white sauces, to try chicken fried steak and salmon patties with white sauce. He's a convert.

Jaymes, I'm gonna whip up your squash recipe soon.

[sanantone]

I'm wondering if anyone can offer me some delectable Southern recipes?

←

My Chicken Fried Steak

Take two cheaper cuts of steak about the size of your hand (beef! not chicken) and pound with a tenderizing hammer until they are the size of your foot. Salt and pepper both sides. Toss them in some flour to coat, toss them in a bowl with a couple of wisked eggs and then toss back into the flour and shake so there is hardly any flour left. Heat up a skillet of oil deep enough to just cover the steaks and fry until golden. Remove the cooked steaks to some paper towels. Empty out all but a few tablespoons of the oil and add two tablespoons of flour. Cook down for a few minutes on medium low heat (don't burn the roux). Whisk in whole cream and bring to a boil. Add enough cream to get a good gravy consistency but not too runny. You can't have a bowl full of lame gravy stand up to this piece of meat. Serve with mashed potatoes and you are good to go.

[Ce'nedra]

sanantone: Thanks so much for your recipe! Shall try some time How much cream do you normally add? And what kind of cream also? Fat free is probably not authentic but I guess it could be used also, right?

[Jaymes]

And what kind of cream also? Fat free is probably not authentic but I guess it could be used also, right?

Here's the thing. Southern cooking is not exactly fat-free. I think it's one of the most delicious cuisines on the planet, but it's also pretty fattening. So what you have to do is to start by making the dishes just as they are supposed to be. But you don't eat like that every night. Maybe once a month. Then, after you understand how they're supposed to taste, you can start looking for ways to cut the calories. In the case of a good cream gravy, for example, you're basically stirring heavy cream into grease and flour. Never gonna be "fat free." But I DO often substitute evaporated milk for the cream in many southern dishes.

There are strong Caribbean, African and French influences in much of southern cooking, and the French are famous for their rich sauces and gravies. Like I said, just don't eat it every night.

And Brooks - your story about your family being on the "tasting committee" for Cotton Country reminded me of my favorite tip about those cookbooks. In the front of the book, there's always a list of the ladies on the cookbook committee. Make note of those names and seek them out. It's been my experience that they're usually the best cooks in town.

[Mayhaw Man]

Mayhaw Man: Thank you  Do you think that the ingredients in Southern cooking are often difficult to find if you didn't live in the US?

Ce'nedra,

In some cases, a few of the ingredients are hard to find even if you live in the South.

But, generally, especially where you live, you shouldn't have trouble finding lots of the stuff. I, of course, don't know if you are going to be able to walk into the grocery store and find collard greens, but I bet that you can find turnip greens or something similar.

But when you think about it, look at a gumbo recipe, like the one that I have in Recipe Gullet, you can find everything, or at least something damned close (you don't have Gulf shrimp, obviously, but I'm sure that the one's that you guys are always throwing on the barbie will suffice pretty well ).

Remember, it's not so much about matching the ingredients exactly as it is about matching the cooking style of truly Southern food. As Jaymes, as almost always, correctly pointed out-

it's one of the most delicious cuisines on the planet, but it's also pretty fattening. So what you have to do is to start by making the dishes just as they are supposed to be.

Have fun.

[Lan4Dawg]

I think I have all of the books mentioned here but can not believe that no one said any thing about Natalie DuPree (yes I know she has her detractors but her books are pretty good), Mrs. SR Dull (UGA press just re-released her cook book), Camille Glenn (her book has been re-released as well)--Mrs SR Dull was the food editor for the Atlanta Journal (before it merged w/ the Constitution--or vice-versa) and Camille Glenn did the same for the Louisville paper--John Edge's excellent compendium, A Gracious Plenty, or Joseph Dabney's book on Appalachian cooking.