# Your favorite southern foods? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 29, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178 "2003-05-29T03:02:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/21 "2003-05-29T10:37:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by shep proudfoot \* > \*\*What are cat head biscuts? Is there a cat involved?? > \*\* I’m from Tennessee (born n’raised) and have lived there, Mississippi and Georgia since I finished college and have never heard that term. Me? I like grits (either cheese and a dash of Tobasco or sugar and butter), a good pecan pie, good fried chicken and the things that I can never remember the names of, but they always show up whenever there’s a church picnic, a death or any sort of potluck dinner - that stuff is the _good_ stuff. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/22 "2003-05-29T10:57:33Z")
Cat Head biscuits are an Appalachian/Ozark term, I think. Flatlanders might be unfamiliar. The word comes from what the biscuits look like, as they are plopped onto the baking surface in a big dollop, as opposed to rolled out and cut into hocky puck shape. Being Southern by birth and raisin’, I like most all of the dishes mentioned. I cook many of these things myself. I’m really good at making Catfish and Hushpuppies, Fried Chicken, Chicken Fried Steak w/ Cream Gravy, Blackberry or Peach Cobbler, real Grits (not those instant dishwater-tasting kind you get at restaurants), homeade biscuits & sausage gravy, beans, greens and cornbread. No, I don’t weigh 300 lbs, either… ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/23 "2003-05-29T11:03:30Z")
…oh yeah, I think it was mentioned here before, but you CANNOT make proper biscuits with yankee flour, it’s too hard. White Lilly is really good. Since I live in yankee-occupied Northern Virginia, it’s kind of hard to find good flour… ---
**Author:** ![catnoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/24 "2003-05-29T11:44:02Z")
Tomato pudding, bread pudding, greens (turnip, kreesy, whatever if it’s green and cooked), fried okra, Mom’s pickle’s (dill, grape-leaf, bread and butter, sweet), scrambled eggs w/creamed corn, peach cobbler, sweet iced tea, meatloaf, brussel sprouts, sweet cornbread, country fried steak, tapioca pudding, most any fresh veggies cooked with/seasoned with fatback or a hamhock, home-made sausage, the skin of fried chicken. (I think I gained five ponds typing that list.) The funny thing is, I don’t cook. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/25 "2003-05-29T14:25:01Z")
It’s **Chicken** fried steak, not _country_ fried. Jeez. It gets the name from being dipped in egg and milk, dredged in flour, then fried like chicken. Got it? Good. Don’t make the mistake again. Chicken fried steak with butter (or lima) beans and mashed potatos with cream gravy. No better comfort food can be had. Add a bowl of Banana Pudding and I’m in heaven (and fat as a tick). Bread Pudding makes any meal a special occasion. And don’t get me started on Pecan Pie. ---
**Author:** ![DarbyV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@DarbyV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarbyV)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/26 "2003-05-29T14:31:26Z")
Shrimp and Grits with Red Eyed Gravy. Believe me it deserves to be all capital. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/27 "2003-05-29T14:36:33Z")
Apple butter and biscuits _country_\* fried steak with lots of gravy fried chicken pan bread (spoon bread, johnny cakes) butter beans black eyed peas biscuits and sausage gravy grits and ham \*either is correct, **Homebrew** 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/28 "2003-05-29T14:39:42Z")
Fried catfish with Texas Pete. Absolutely heavenly. Grits – especially grits made with a little bit of half-and-half and plenty of salt and pepper, topped with good cheese. They gotta be slow-cooked: quick-cooking grits are sub-par, and instant grits are the devil’s work. Green tomatoes lightly dusted with salt-and-pepper flour and fried are superb. Some people like to coat them in a thick batter, which is unnecessary and gross. Make them light, and they rock. Biscuits fresh from the oven, topped with butter and honey. Okra, cooked any way you like it and then shipped in a lead-lined container to a country far, far away from me where it’ll be buried deep beneath the earth’s crust. That’s the best way for okra to be. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/29 "2003-05-29T14:53:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lyllyan \* > \*\*\*either is correct, **Homebrew** 🙂 \*\* Don’t make me take this to the Pit. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/30 "2003-05-29T15:31:42Z")
Cheese grits, pecan pie, turnip greens, butter beans, pulled barbecued pork. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/31 "2003-05-29T15:33:28Z")
Black-eyed peas with some sort of smoked pork product over rice… Shrimp and gravy over rice… Grits with butter and salt and scrapple (I don’t think scrapple’s southern, though)… Buttermilk drop biscuits (I’m no good at making the other kind of biscuits)… Corn bread (I use sugar in my batter, though)… I can only eat like this once in a blue moon, though. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_Schmeese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Marconi\_Schmeese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_Schmeese)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/32 "2003-05-29T15:40:01Z")
[ul] [li]Fried Okra[/li][li]Cheese Grits[/li][li]Fried Green Tomatoes[/li][li]Pickled Okra[/li][li]Pickled Green Beans[/li][li]Butter Beans[/li][li]Country Ham[/li][/ul] **drool** ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/33 "2003-05-29T15:44:00Z")
**Country** fried steak. Shrimp and grits. Or just grits (every morning) Low Country Broil (potatoes, sausage, corn-on-the-cob, shrimp boiled together for awhile then dumped on the paper-covered counter for mass comsumption) Oyster roast (maybe not southern?) Pig pull. My grandfather is a semi-famous chef and he makes his own BBQ sauce that is incredibly good. Chicken BBQ. Pork BBQ. BBQ ribs. Banana pudding (not just Southern either?) **Real** Iced Tea. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/34 "2003-05-29T15:47:21Z")
No okra or boiled peanuts for **DanielWithrow**? You’re not one of them hippies up there in Asheville are you? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/35 "2003-05-29T15:51:20Z")
Chicken Fried Steak You can NOT get a decent CFS in NYC. Fried Okra is great. Chicken and waffles. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/36 "2003-05-29T15:51:42Z")
Oh man, this is making my mouth water! Yes, I’d forgotten about red velvet cake, always a holiday staple at my mom’s. And divinity! Haven’t made that for a long time! It’s pure heaven on earth, I tell ya. Anyone else like pickled okra? Man, I can eat a whole jar of those like it was nothin’. Thoroughly addicting. Cheese grits and homefries are always a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/37 "2003-05-29T16:07:47Z")
Cherry Cobbler Peach Cobbler Blueberry Cobbler Blackberry Cobbler you get the idea… to paraphrase Lewis Grizzard: Let me explain something about grits to the Yankees out there. I’ll admit that grits by themselves taste like 20-year old wallpaper paste. But they compliment everything else so well. You can sop them up with the juice from your sausage patties. You can mix them up with scrambled eggs. You can serve them in biscuits with country ham and it acts like a glue and keeps the ham from slipping out. Grizzard offered advice on how to cook grits, from what I recall…they have to creep over the edge of the pot a little bit or they aren’t done. to complete my list: Fried Chicken, Fried (but NEVER boiled) okra, green beans with bits of ham and onions, cornbread, cooked cabbage with lots of butter and pepper, country fried steak with red eye gravy, biscuits, green bean casserole with French’s onions topping, applesauce… ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/38 "2003-05-29T16:25:04Z")
Ok, here’s the scoop. **_Chicken_ fried steak** is dredged in an egg and milk mixture, then coated with flour and fried. **_Country_ fried steak** is coated only in flour, then fried. There. Hope that settles the issue. And for the record, I like **Country** Fried Steak. (insert tongue- sticking- out smilie here) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/39 "2003-05-29T16:25:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bruce\_Daddy \* > \*\*No okra or boiled peanuts for **DanielWithrow**? > > You’re not one of them hippies up there in Asheville are you? 😃 \*\* Me? Never! I’m shocked at the very idea! Okay, maybe just a wee little bit. But I know how to make a mean corn bread, and I love me some Hoppin’ John come New Years, and my banana pie will rock your world. If there’s some Southern food that I rightly recognize as foul and nasty, there’s other Southern food that I pay proper respect to. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/40 "2003-05-29T16:38:35Z")
Cat head biscuits are, of course, biscuits as big as a cat head. My father makes the world’s best. Sunday dinner at mama’s house: Fried chicken mashed potatos corn on the cob the above-mentioned biscuits with butter sliced tomato or cucumbers in pepper and vinegar sweet tea lemon merangue pie followed by a looooonnnnnggggg nap [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178.md?page=3)