# Your favorite southern foods?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178>\
**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:** 3

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**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, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/41 "2003-05-29T16:40:25Z")

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Does that green bean/mushroom soup/Durkee onion casserole count as Southern cooking? It’s about as healthy as a typical Southern vegetable dish.

Anyway, I love that too.

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**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/42 "2003-05-29T17:39:35Z")

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Get an unsmoked, salt-and-pepper cure country ham from a guy who lives up on a mountain, kills his own pigs, and does his own curing.

Soak for two days and then completely cover with water and gently simmer until aitch bone will pull out. Take out of water and remove fat. Glaze and bake. Remove bones and slice to suit.

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**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/43 "2003-05-29T18:23:24Z")

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Fried Green Tomatoes are excellent.  
Grits are good too, and that egg and rice thing sounded good except for the coffee part. Gaak!

While in Florida, in Mount Dora I pointed out a bottle to my girlfriend. Coffee Viniagrette dressing. I gagged just thinking about it. She likes coffee (I hate it) but also thought it sounded bad.

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**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/44 "2003-05-29T18:29:21Z")

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Fried Green Tomatoes are excellent.  
Grits are good too, and that egg and rice thing sounded good except for the coffee part. Gaak!

While in Florida, in Mount Dora I pointed out a bottle to my girlfriend. Coffee Viniagrette dressing. I gagged just thinking about it. She likes coffee (I hate it) but also thought it sounded bad.

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**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/45 "2003-05-29T18:29:28Z")

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Yankee checking in.

What I love about southern food:

Sausage gravy - genius invention!  
Biscuits with aforementioned sausage gravy, but I like the round hockey-puck style ones - lumpy ones look too much like the Bisquick “biscuits” my mom used to make - blech!  
Memphis-style ribs  
Hush puppies  
Fried pickles

However, I cannot stand grits & chicken-fried steak. Not sure if I’ve ever had country-fried steak. Both have a texture than makes me gag. I might like grits if someone would let me put maple syrup on them, but I’ve deduced that’s either illegal or immoral, based on the looks I get when I suggest it. 😃

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**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/46 "2003-05-29T19:20:06Z")

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MMMmmmmm Grits! Especially if you’ve poached an egg in them… and served with good hot sausage and cat head biscuits…

Or Hoppin’ John (rice, black-eyed peas, pork of some sort - do NOT ask - and onions) served with REAL cornbread (no sugar) and fresh sliced cold tomatoes.  
Good Heavens! I just drooled on my keyboard!

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**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/47 "2003-05-29T19:49:08Z")

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Hmm. We just call those Drop Biscuits (v. rolled)  
What the heck is wrong with our flour? I seem to do alright on this side of the Mason Dixon with King Arthur.

Biscuits and Gravy are near the top of my list, although my immediate reaction to the thread title was fried pickle chips. Lor-dee that’s good stuff. I first fell in love with them when I visited New Orleans for my sister’s wedding. Her father-in-law told me they’re easy to make. Just get yourself a package of Crawdad Breading Mix, as if there are aisles of _that_ in NY grocery stores.

[www.cooks.com](http://www.cooks.com) has a few recipes **Peach** I cannot vouch for any of them. Heinz Hamburger Dill Pickle chips are the most like what I had when I had the real thing. I just might try one of the online recipes this weekend. I’ll certainly report the results.

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**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/48 "2003-05-29T19:56:22Z")

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Turnip greens, fixed right with a little bit of sugar to take the bitter out.

Sawmill gravy (sausage, flour and milk – I’m not a red-eye gravy fan, nor a fan of country ham) with home-made biscuits. I like the cut-out ones my grandma used to make. I also liked to eat biscuit dough (still do, actually)

Corn bread, crumbled up, with black-eyed peas poured on top

Buttermilk, with left-over cornbread crumbled in it. Sweet milk will do if you’re out of buttermilk

Those little catfish, dipped in batter and fried. None of this weenie catfish filets for me! You just gotta know how to deal with the bones.

Hush puppies, with bits of onion in the batter.

Okra, dipped in cornmeal and fried. I used to eat it with ketchup (not southern – even my family made fun of me for that.)

Alas, I eat almost no corn or wheat or legumes these days, so I don’t get most of these dishes. But they’ll always be my favorites.

At least I can still eat the turnip greens!

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/49 "2003-05-29T19:58:29Z")

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OK, anyone for tomato sandwiches?

They need to be from the \*vine, though. Store-bought 'maters just aren’t juicy enough.

I like mine sliced thick, with liberal doses of mustard on one piece of bread and \*\*mayo on the other with lots of black pepper.

\*I wouldn’t personally call a tomato plant a “vine,” but the fact is those that come from the stalk itself are called “vine-ripened.” Heck, I was always told to pick them once they started turning colors, since they will go ahead and ripen off the vine/stalk. That way, there’s less chance that some six-legged critter will munch on it before you.

\*\*Duke’s–never, never, never Hellmann’s

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/50 "2003-05-29T20:04:02Z")

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Pimento cheese!

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/51 "2003-05-29T20:22:10Z")

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Texas caviar  
Black-eyed peas  
Chicken fried steak  
Pecan pie  
Sweet tea  
Make a chihuahua break his chain, baby.

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**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, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/52 "2003-05-29T20:23:02Z")

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Did ya used to put the tomatoes around the rail of the screen-porch?  
Every summer, tomato sandwiches.  
Weed the veggies, pick the veggies, can and freeze the veggies. The one that really killed me was going up to Uncle Phil’s to pick greens. We had to pick a couple of brown paper bags of just kreesy 'cause those were dads favorites. Then you get the greens home and have to wash the dirt out, meaning several times through the sink. Then you cook ‘em up and ONE BAG makes about a quart worth of greens. All that work. And silkin’ corn, the grown-ups got to shuck, us kids had to silk.

Sorry for the hi-jack, I was having flash-backs.

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**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, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/53 "2003-05-29T20:37:22Z")

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No prob, **catnoe**. When I was a kid, I used to love to shuck butterbeans. We’d pick a whole tubful and sit on the back porch shucking butterbeans all afternoon.

I used to love silkin’ corn too. We used to make dolls out of sticks and use that as hair.

::sigh:: memories.

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/54 "2003-05-29T21:02:20Z")

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Butterbean sat in front of me at the Atlanta Olympics.  
That’s pretty much a pointless observation, isn’t it? When I come back I’ll bring pecan pie.

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**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/55 "2003-05-29T21:20:39Z")

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Oh my God! I’m drooling all over my keyboard.

\ ***Chicken** fried steak and ,mashed potatoes and cream gravy  
\*Ham and red eye gravy  
\*black-eyed peas  
\*homegrown tomatoes, eaten whole over the sink with a salt shaker nearby  
\*Mama’s fried chicken  
\*grits–any ole way  
\*biscuits and sausage gravy, along with the whole country breakfast – fried eggs, home-fries, bacon and sausage  
\*fried speckled trout with corn dodgers — my dad made these: corn meal, salt, pepper, and boiling hot water—whip until light, then drop by spoonfuls into the fish grease, serve with lots of butter.  
\*boiled shrimp with lots of red sauce and corn on the cob

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**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/56 "2003-05-30T02:22:54Z")

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Fried Green 'maters and anything on the menu at Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Midtown Atlanta.

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**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/57 "2003-05-30T02:52:54Z")

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Okra, God Okra, second only to the corn that give the Blessed Grits. Doused in Comeback sauce, blessed be thy name! fried okra, fried right, is the food of the Gods! Mainly, best right fresh, can’t be picked by machine, so, a southern delicacy. Sorry if ya cain’t get it fresh picked.

Collards, fresh from the field. You can feel that nice green flowing into your blood!

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**Author:** ![Peach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/67e7ee/32.png) [@Peach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peach)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/58 "2003-05-30T03:13:08Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by elelle \*  
> \*\*Okra, God Okra, second only to the corn that give the Blessed Grits. Doused in Comeback sauce, blessed be thy name! fried okra, fried right, is the food of the Gods! Mainly, best right fresh, can’t be picked by machine, so, a southern delicacy. Sorry if ya cain’t get it fresh picked.
> 
> Collards, fresh from the field. You can feel that nice green flowing into your blood! \*\*

HEAVEN!

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**Author:** ![jesleigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@jesleigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesleigh)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/59 "2003-05-30T03:18:31Z")

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After reading all this I am so ready for our garden to start producing…I am so ready for some fresh peas and beans I won’t even complain about picking this year

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**Author:** ![Novus\_Opiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@Novus\_Opiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novus_Opiate)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-southern-foods/178178/60 "2003-05-30T03:25:31Z")

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Fried chicken with gravy, rolls and mahed potatos.

Biscuits w/ sausage gravy (not bacon!).

Chicken dumplings.

BBQ pork sandwichs (either sweet western NC style or vinegary eastern style BBQ will suffice).

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