Low Country Cuisine

[Gifted Gourmet]

Known for their colorful names, the dishes which originate in the Low Country around Charleston, SC, and Savannah, Ga., are all well known to the tourists who visit there or the residents who have enjoyed these dishes all of their lives.

Such unusual names for some very interesting dishes might include old favorites like Brunswick Stew, Hoppin' John, Limpin' Susan, Low Country Shrimp boil, She Crab soup, Shrimp and Grits, Frogmore Stew, Crab Cakes, Benne Wafers, Fried Quail, Sweet Potato Pone, or even Purloo!

If you have been one of these fortunate folks, care to share your favorite low country dish with us here at eG?

Have you replicated the dish you enjoyed when you were in your own home later?

a few classic recipes from this region

Edited June 7, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[timothycdavis]

Brunswick Stew, Hoppin' John, Limpin' Susan, Low Country Shrimp boil, She Crab soup, Shrimp and Grits, Frogmore Stew, Crab Cakes, Benne Wafers, Fried Quail, Sweet Potato Pone, or even Purloo!

Hoppin' John I have all year 'round, not just on New Year's. Fried Quail -- not too fried! -- is a delicacy worthy of a king. All of the boils -- including Frogmore -- aren't too far off from similar Maryland-style cuisine. The same with the She-Crab soup and Crab Cakes, though in my experience the Southern versions are usually way spicier. And we all know how widespread shrimp and grits has become when Emeril serves up a batch...

[andiesenji]

If you have been one of these fortunate folks, care to share your favorite low country dish with us here at eG?

Have you replicated the dish you enjoyed when you were in your own home later?

My grandfather's cook was a Gullah woman from the lowcountry. She had a huge selection of recipes committed to memory (she was illiterate). I didn't think about it back then, but now it amazes me that she could recall so many receipts accurately time after time.

I have made several of her recipes, especially sweets and condiments.

Pickled peaches, Sweet pickled figs. Then there are the rice dishes, besides hoppin John, Rice croquettes, especially served with smothered chicken. Squirrel pie or rabbit pie. (I haven't prepared the squirrel pie - the gray "tree rats" out here are not the same as the fat red squirrels we had back home.

Fresh corn fritters.....

Geez, now I am starving..

[Lan4Dawg]

pluff mud! It is a black bean dip made in the low country and named after the gooey, sticky mud that forms in the marshes & swamps around Ch'ton. We got some just b/c, well, w/ a name like that we had to try it. Apprently there is a cottage industry in and around Ch'ton making pluff mud pies, dips, sauces, &c.

I had a receipt around here some where for a version of it but can not find it to save my life.

Essentially it is black beans cooked down w/ onions, garlic, peppers, spices, &c.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Pluff Mud or, if you have not found the recipe, you can simply order it here!

but whatever you do, please check out these southern horoscope signs

Edited June 8, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Although it would be virtually impossible to schedule a meal for the G8 Summit participants this week, and the reports from Savannah say that things are very quiet in that normally touristy city, the venerable Atlanta Journal-Constitution had some local recommendations for great eating ... makes for some entertaining reading anyway ....

Savannah, Brunswick, St. Simon's, and Tybee Island dining spots

Edited June 9, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[wcmckinney]

I've always been very partial to Chicken Bog, Pilau or whatever you like to call it. Charleston Receipts, the notorious Junior League cookbook first published in the early '50s, says that the rooster used should be especially mean. (or so I recall).

[maf]

I can confirm that Savannah is extremely quiet. Were it not for all the law enforcement and military on the streets, the town would seem deserted. I would imagine some deals could be had on the many empty hotel rooms that are going unused.