welp, the basic concept is this: If’n yer cornbread recipe has sugar in it (IE it is sweet) it ain’t Southern
So, Q.E.D. has special Magical Powers that discerns that the thousands of times I’ve been greeted with “How y’all doing?” are complete and total figments of my imagination? That I have auditory hallucinations many times per week?
I am thunderstruck by the awesome powers that Q.E.D. displays.
What else can he divine? That my house isn’t really blue and that I’m just seeing things?
I don’t know if my cornbread is sweet or not, because it usually comes out of a little blue box that says ‘Jiffy’ on the front. I certainly don’t add any sugar…
Huh? I grew up on cole slaw, beans and peach cobbler as the proper accompaniments to barbecue. Maybe green beans or french fries if slaw and beans aren’t your thing.
And always biscuits or rolls of some kind, along with onions, pickles and jalapenos.
The plural of anecdote is not data. Perhaps you should write to the editors of the various dictionaries and explain to them that they are wrong because you say so, hmm?
Please, please, please: those of you who haven’t had grits, please make the garlic cheese grits recipe from the site Sol posted. Here’s the link: Cheese Grits. Eat 'em for supper! (as a side dish) Then get up and make some grits for breakfast the next day. Fried mush is also good.
I think the Jiffy mix has sugar in it! yeech. The best way to make cornbread is in an iron skillet, or in those little tins that look like ears of corn.
Gah, is it lunchtime yet???
When I was fourteen I did an Outward Bound trip (basically some hard-core backpacking and canoeing) in the North Carolina mountains. I befriended Kim, a girl from Poughkeepsie, on the trip.
One day we were packing our way along a rural road. A guy came around the bend in his rusty old pickup, and I barely paused in my conversation with Kim to nod, smile, and lift a hand to this guy.
But Kim was astonished. “You know this guy?” she asked.
“Of course not!” I said. “Why would I know him?”
“Then why did you wave to him?” she asked.
That was when I understood that there really were reagional differences.
However, i always put a spoonful of sugar in my cornbread. Bwahahahaha. And to make it worse, I sometimes eat it with maple syrup.
As for the OP, a couple items are wrong. For instance,
A Southerner knows that if you’re looking for time to come in exact units, you’re no Southerner. 
Daniel
That’s so true, Daniel! Nothing’s in exact units, especially time. Remember the description of Southern visits in Gone With the Wind, in regard to honeymoon trips?
Newlyweds would make the rounds of family and friends, sometimes lingering in some pleasant household until well after the birth of their second child."
Has noone mentioned boiled peanuts yet?!
Has no one mentioned boiled peanuts yet?!
dadgummit!
I’m in Houston, but I’ve lived in Austin and spent time in north Texas, and while sweet tea is certainly by no means unheard of, I’d say 80-90%+ of the restaurants I’ve gone to will assume I want cold unsweetened iced tea when I ask for “tea.”
[NJ native]
“Tea” is hot.
“Iced tea” is cold.
“Sweet tea” is an abomination.
Can you clarify this? Does “grillin’” mean a low-and-slow method of cooking, or a hot-and-fast method? Or does it mean either one, depending on context?
[/NJ native]
And thus continues the Great Barbecue War.
Georgia Barbacue is smoked dry and served with a thick tomato based sauce. I’m not too partial to it, myself. It is generally served with Brunswick stew (yum) on the side.
Eastern North Carolina Barbecue (Raleigh on east) is smoked and kept moist by liberal soaking with a vingar based sauce, as Og intended.
Western North Carolian Barbecue (Durham on west) is smoked and kept moist with a vinegar sauce with some tomatoes added, just enough to give it a red color, but it is never thick and pastey.
In North Carolina, Barbecue is served with slaw on the side, again as Og intended.
In Texas, they make barbecue with beef :eek: which is just not right.
Go rent *My Cousin Vinny * for the definitive explanation on that particular subject.
That said, if you wish to be even more specific, you can say “all y’all” to address a group of people.
I reckon.
bamf
If I go into any establishment here in August and ask for “tea” I know what I’m getting - sweet, iced tea. It would never occur to me to have to explain my request, nor would the server think to ask.
Doesn’t everyone?
Boiled peanuts are better than sex. I mean that! (Of course, it’s been a while since I’ve had either . . .)
The last year we lived in Georgia, before moving to Texas, my Mom cooked up a huge mess of boiled peanuts. She then divided them into freezer bags and froze them. When I’d get home from school, I’d get a pot of water boiling and put the peanuts (bag and all) in the boiling water until the peanuts were nice and steamy. That’s one thing I definitely miss about Georgia!!!
I have never heard of Brunswick stew. Someone wanna explain this one to me? BTW, I’m from Florida, and there seems to be a concensus that although geographically, FL is further south than all the other “southern” states, it isn’t really considered “the south” like GA is considered “the south”.
Tea is sweet, iced tea. Hot tea can only be found in Chinese restaurants.