Quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent rather than a biological one like yeast or sourdough starter . An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, without requiring the time-consuming skilled labor and the climate control needed for traditional yeast breads.
108-723: Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal , associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States , with origins in Native American cuisine . It is an example of batter bread . Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are staple foods of the Hopi people in Arizona. The Hidatsa people of the Upper Midwest call baked cornbread naktsi , while the Choctaw people of
216-451: A breakfast . It is also widely eaten with barbecue and chili con carne . In parts of the Southern and Southwestern United States, cornbread, accompanied by pinto beans , has been a common lunch for many people. It is still a common side dish for many suppers , often served with butter . Cornbread crumbs are also used in some poultry stuffings or dressing as it is called; cornbread stuffing
324-557: A beef-and-potato stew, cornish game hens and ham and beans." Union and Confederates foraged for food when rations were low and cooked the fresh food they found. They also ate desiccated vegetables which were dehydrated and compressed vegetables into one inch by one-foot rectangular bricks that were made from string beans, turnips, carrots, beets, and onions. Other vegetables were packed into cakes, dried, and boiled for consumption. Interest in American regional cooking continued to grow after
432-455: A bowl and the wet ingredients are heated sauces in a saucepan off-heat and cooled. During the chemical leavening process, agents (one or more food-grade chemicals—usually a weak acid and a weak base ) are added into the dough during mixing. These agents undergo a chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide , which increases the baked good's volume and produces a porous structure and lighter texture. Yeast breads often take hours to rise, and
540-422: A bun beginning in 1867. This method of eating sausages later spread across America making its way into the Southern states and are eaten at baseball games. Southerners make different versions of hot dogs, giving them a southern flavor. Some Southern hot dogs have brown sugar mustard as a topping. In Huntsville, Alabama , hot dogs are served with chili and ketchup-slaw. In Mobile, Alabama , hot dogs are served on
648-439: A corn muffin . A typical contemporary northern U.S. cornbread recipe contains half wheat flour , half cornmeal, milk or buttermilk , eggs , leavening agent , salt , and usually sugar , resulting in a bread that is somewhat lighter and sweeter than the traditional southern version. Unlike fried variants of cornbread, baked cornbread is a quick bread that is dependent on an egg-based protein matrix for its structure (though
756-482: A crunch around it. I mean, it ain't thick; it don't look like pancakes. It's real thin and crunchy". After the fried cornbread is made, it is typically served with slices of cheese or collard greens. Glen Hunt, owner of Lumbee Homemade Ice-Cream in North Carolina, states, "You know how the old folks like to eat collards? They like to get a piece of cornbread and dip it in those collards and eat it with their fingers". In
864-524: A daily basis." Enslaved African Americans prepared meals for wealthy Confederate soldiers. In Union camps, contraband of war (Freedmen) and other cooks prepared meals for the Union army. Over time, rations between Union and Confederate armies varied as Confederate rations were reduced in wheat and livestock because of a Union blockade that prevented the Confederates from obtaining food and supplies. Hardtack
972-620: A desperate headline in the Times-Picayune , "Who's Got Coarse Grits?," further explaining, "The only grits we can get is very fine and no better than mush. In short, I'm advertising for some grocer or other individual selling coarse grits to drop me a line." Like Parr, some Southerners still prefer the traditional white cornmeal. Cornbread is a popular item in Southern cooking and is enjoyed by many people for its texture and aroma. Cornbread can be baked, fried, or (rarely) steamed. Steamed cornbread
1080-464: A far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes of the Southeastern Indians live on today in the "soul food" eaten by both black and white Southerners. Hominy, for example, is still eaten ... Sofkee lives on as grits ... cornbread [is] used by Southern cooks ... Indian fritters ... variously known as "hoe cake", ... or "Johnny cake." ... Indians boiled cornbread
1188-556: A heavier ketchup base. Memphis barbecue is best known for tomato- and vinegar-based sauces. In some Memphis establishments and in Kentucky, meat is rubbed with dry seasoning ( dry rubs ) and smoked over hickory wood without sauce. The finished barbecue is then served with barbecue sauce on the side. Fried chicken is among the region's best-known exports. It is believed that the Scots, and later Scottish immigrants to many southern states had
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#17328843567501296-468: A meal and were taken aboard ships during long voyages because they lasted longer and did not spoil like other foods. In the Southern United States, Americans evolved the recipe and made fluffier biscuits and poured gravy, honey and jam over them which became a popular breakfast item. Biscuits were an economical food for Southerners after the mid-19th century as they were made with simple ingredients of flour, baking powder , salt, butter, and milk. In 1614,
1404-647: A new breakfast menu selling either Egg McMuffins (with English muffins) or a variant with biscuits, the biscuit zone was practically a map of the South with the exception of Virginia , Maryland , and Florida . The American hot dog originated from German sausages called "frankfurts" in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany . Sausages in Germany were served without bread. Charles L Feltman was a German immigrant and came to Coney Island, New York in 1856 and served sausages wrapped in
1512-533: A new look to cornmeal; the new cornmeal tended to be yellow, whereas the old-fashioned stone ground cornmeal in the coastal South had been traditionally white. Following the proliferation of the more finely-ground yellow cornmeal, debates arose surrounding sweet vs. savory cornbread and white vs. yellow cornmeal—debates which still occur among cornbread eaters and cookers today. The importance of these differences for some cooks and eaters cannot be overstated; in 1950, for example, Francine J. Parr of Houma, Louisiana, posted
1620-468: A penchant for sour, sweet and spicy ingredients such as vinegar, sugar and coarse mustard. Hot potato salad, usually made with bacon, onion and vinegar dressing, was so closely associated with German immigrants that it was called 'German potato salad.'" Culinary historians do not know who added mayonnaise to potato salad. Mayonnaise became available to purchase in the early 1900s. By the 1920s and 1930s, people were adding mayonnaise to potato salad. During
1728-889: A pie ( sweet potato , chess , shoofly , pecan , and peach are the most common), or a cobbler (peach, blackberry, sometimes apple in Kentucky or Appalachia). Other Southern foods include grits , country ham , hushpuppies , beignets (in the Gulf South ), Southern styles of succotash , brisket , meatloaf , chicken fried steak , buttermilk biscuits (may be served with butter , jelly , fruit preserves , honey , gravy or sorghum molasses ), pimento cheese , boiled or baked sweet potatoes , pit barbecue , fried catfish , fried green tomatoes , macaroni and cheese , bread pudding , okra (principally fried okra that has been dredged in cornmeal , but also steamed, stewed, sauteed, or pickled), butter beans , and pinto beans . "White barbecue sauce" made with mayonnaise , pepper and vinegar
1836-481: A plant native to West Africa, were eaten raw with sugar or milk. Enslaved people also made cakes, wafers, and brittles from them for white plantation families. In the Appalachian region, 19th-century meals included greens fried in bear grease , elk backstrap steaks and venison stew. Ashcakes were cornbread cooked directly on hearth coals. Cornbread was the most common bread in the mountains, and still remains
1944-448: A rangetop, one frying method involves pouring a small amount of liquid batter made with boiling water and self-rising cornmeal (cornmeal with soda or some other chemical leavener added) into a skillet of hot oil and allowing the crust to turn golden and crunchy while the center of the batter cooks into a crumbly, mushy bread. These fried breads are typically 3–4 inches (8–10 cm) in diameter and soft and very rich. Sometimes, to ensure
2052-494: A staple in Louisiana cuisine cultivated by enslaved people from West Africa's rice growing regions. French people incorporated roux into Louisiana cuisine that influenced the making of gumbo . Another French influence is mirepoix made with carrots, celery, and onion that became a Creole and Cajun version in Louisiana called the "holy trinity" made with bell peppers, celery and onions. Indigenous peoples of Louisiana during
2160-483: A staple of Southern U.S. cuisine and have been discussed or referenced by many American writers, including Mark Twain . In the Appalachian Mountains , cornbread baked in a round iron skillet , or in a cake pan of any shape, is still referred to as a "pone" of cornbread (as opposed to " hoe cakes ", the term for cornbread fried pancake style); and when biscuit dough (i.e., " biscuits " in the American sense of
2268-502: A staple. As wheat flour and baking powder / baking soda became available in the late 19th century, buttermilk biscuits became popular. Today, buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy are the classic Appalachian breakfast; they are also a common breakfast everywhere where Appalachian people have emigrated. Both North Carolina and West Virginia have statewide biscuit chain restaurants; many Southern or originally-Southern chains offer biscuits and gravy, and when McDonald's introduced
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#17328843567502376-518: A toasted bun with a mustard-based coleslaw. Since the 20th century into present day, immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and other European countries brought their cuisines to the South and influenced southern cuisine. An article from Time Magazine explains: "...immigrants and their American-born sons and daughters have helped transform the perception of Southern cuisine into something beyond biscuits and gravy and mint juleps. Southern food
2484-550: A tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. However, some sources trace the origin of fried chicken to Southern and Western England where most of the Early settlers to the South came from. They conclude that Southern and Western England had a strong tradition of frying, simmering, and sautéing meats in a skillet as opposed to East Anglia which favored baking and boiling meats. The importance of fried chicken to southern cuisine
2592-733: A tradition that came from West Africa. As the National Museum of African American History and Culture explained that African Americans in the American South spread the recipe of collard greens to other parts of the United States when they left the South during the Great Migration . The French established a permanent settlement in the South in present-day New Orleans , Louisiana in 1718. French colonists relied on Indigenous people to survive. As historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall explained how
2700-450: A weak acid , such as cream of tartar , lemon juice, or cultured buttermilk, to create an acid–base reaction that releases carbon dioxide . (Quick bread leavened specifically with baking soda is often called " soda bread ".) Baking powder contains both an acid and a base in dry powdered form, and simply needs a liquid medium in which to react. Other alternative leavening agents are egg whites mechanically beaten to form stiff peaks, as in
2808-473: Is Spanish-based with obvious Caribbean influences; and Tex-Mex has considerable Mexican and Indigenous influences with its abundant use of New World vegetables (e.g. corn, tomatoes, squash, and peppers) and barbecued meat . In Southern Louisiana, West African influences have persisted in dishes such as gumbo , jambalaya , and red beans and rice . Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American cuisine that have been blended with
2916-474: Is a specialty of Alabama barbecue usually served with smoked barbecue chicken. "Yellow barbecue sauce" made with a mustard base is unique to South Carolina barbecue and has roots in the mass immigration of Germans to the area in the mid-1700s. For barbecue in the United States , each Southern locale has its own variety of barbecue, particularly sauces. In recent years, the regional variations have blurred as restaurants and consumers experiment and adapt
3024-440: Is a traditional staple in the rural United States, especially in the South. This involves heating bacon drippings, lard or other oil in a heavy, well-seasoned cast-iron skillet in an oven, and then pouring a batter made from cornmeal, egg , and milk directly into the hot grease. The mixture is returned to the oven to bake into a large, crumbly and sometimes very moist cake with a crunchy crust. This bread tends to be dense and
3132-497: Is also used in a scattered sense as a more general term for cornbread, chiefly in the North. A thicker buttermilk-based batter that is deep-fried rather than pan-fried forms the hushpuppy , a common accompaniment to fried fish and other seafood in the South. Hushpuppy recipes vary from state to state, some including onion seasoning, chopped onions, beer , or jalapeños . Fried properly, the hushpuppy will be moist and yellow or white on
3240-591: Is apparent through the multiple traditions and different adaptations of fried chicken, such as KFC ; Nashville's Prince's Hot Chicken Shack ; or the Cajun-inspired Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits and Popeyes Chicken . Pork is an integral part of the cuisine. Stuffed ham is served in Southern Maryland . A traditional holiday get-together featuring whole hog barbecue is known in Virginia and
3348-566: Is directed at persons from rural areas of the Southern and Midwestern United States. A character in the Li'l Abner comic strip, General Jubilation T Cornpone, was a mythical Civil War general from Dogpatch known for his retreats and imputed cowardice. President John F. Kennedy 's staffers, who were mostly Northeastern Ivy League elites, openly mocked Texan Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson 's rural speech patterns, referring to Johnson behind his back as "Uncle Cornpone" or "Rufus Cornpone". Cooked on
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3456-409: Is fried green tomatoes. Squash was (and continues to be cooked) by Native Americans and has a long shelf life when not cooked, and because of its long shelf-life African Americans and European Americans placed it in their kitchens. An additional Native American influence in Southern cuisine is the use of maple syrup . Indigenous people used maple syrup to sweeten and add flavor to dishes; this influenced
3564-426: Is most common as it allows for making the cornbread crispier. Corn pone (sometimes referred to as "Indian pone") is a type of cornbread made from a thick, malleable cornmeal dough (which is usually egg-less and milk-less) and cooked in a specific type of iron pan over an open fire (such as a frontiersman would use), using mostly bacon grease, but later, butter , margarine , shortening , or cooking oil. Corn pones are
3672-459: Is mushy, chewier, and more like cornmeal pudding than what most consider to be traditional cornbread. Cornbread can also be baked into corn cakes. Cornbread is a common bread in United States cuisine, particularly associated with the South and Southwest, as well as being a traditional staple for populations where wheat flour was more expensive. Cornbread, especially leftovers, can be eaten as
3780-527: Is now kebabs in Nashville's Little Kurdistan, one of the largest enclaves of Kurds in the U.S. It's Greek diners across Alabama and Ethiopian restaurants standing next to Salvadoran pupuserías in Virginia. In rural towns that have seen their populations decline, it's the Chinese or Mexican restaurant that took over former greasy spoons while preserving them as de facto community centers. And in reborn urban centers, it's
3888-481: Is occasionally crumbled and served with cold milk or clabber (buttermilk), similar to cold cereal. In Texas , Mexican influence has spawned a hearty cornbread made with fresh or creamed corn kernels and jalapeño peppers and topped with shredded cheese. Cornbread is typically eaten with molasses in the southern states and with butter and honey in the northern states of America. Skillet-fried or skillet-baked cornbread (often simplified to cornbread or skillet bread)
3996-531: Is particularly associated with Thanksgiving turkeys. In the United States, northern and southern cornbread are different because they generally use different types of corn meal and varying degrees of sugar and eggs. Southern cornbread has traditionally been made with little or no sugar and smaller amounts of flour (or no flour), with northern cornbread being sweeter and more cake-like. Southern cornbread traditionally used white cornmeal and buttermilk. Other ingredients such as pork rinds are sometimes used. Cornbread
4104-658: Is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal dumplings", ... and as "hush puppies", ... Southerns cook their beans and field peas by boiling them, as did the Indians ... like the Indians they cure their meat and smoke it over hickory coals. Southern food have influences from Native American , European , and West African cuisines and foods. From corn Southeastern Native American tribes made grits, cornmeal mush, corn chowder, hush puppies, and cornbread that were adapted by European settlers and enslaved Africans cuisine called soul food . Another Native American influence in Southern cuisine
4212-776: Is produced by grinding dry, raw corn grains. Besides cornbread, Native people also used cornmeal and hominy to make grits and alcoholic beverages, such as the Andean chicha . Although Native people in the Americas first cultivated corn, it was introduced in West Africa by European traders shortly after contact through the Atlantic slave trade , and quickly became a major staple in African cooking. Cornbread dishes like kush , for example, in Senegambia and
4320-406: Is usually served as an accompaniment rather than as a bread served as a regular course. In addition to the skillet method, such cornbread also may be made in sticks, muffins, loaves or baking pans. A slightly different variety, cooked in a simple baking dish, is associated with northern U.S. cuisine. The batter for northern-style cornbread is very similar to and sometimes interchangeable with that of
4428-540: The American Civil War , food supplies were limited for Union and Confederate soldiers. Civil War soldiers received limited food rations which consisted of bread, coffee, salt pork, hard bread, a pound of beef or pork and a pound of bread or flour, and sometimes extras which included dried beans or peas, rice, vinegar, and molasses . Historians found that a lot of food was fried during the Civil War. An article from
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4536-768: The Antelope Creek in the Panhandle, the Caddo in East Texas, and the Jornada Mogollon near El Paso influenced Southern foodways as venison, catfish, and pecans are staples in Texas cuisine. The Tejanos are a multiethnic people of Spanish and Native American heritage, and their food influenced Texas cuisine. A common dish in Texas is chili con carne made with cumin, black pepper, garlic, onion, and beef are all foreign imported foods, and
4644-496: The Industrial Revolution accelerated, the marketing of mass-produced prepackaged foods was eased by the use of chemical leaveners, which could produce consistent products regardless of variations in source ingredients, time of year, geographical location, weather conditions, and many other factors that could cause problems with environmentally sensitive, temperamental yeast formulations. These factors were traded off against
4752-511: The Lowcountry region of South Carolina due to the fact that the enslaved people who settled the region (now known as the Gullah people), were already quite familiar with the crop. Many Southern foodways are local adaptations of Old World traditions. In Appalachia, many Southern dishes are Scottish or British Border in origin. For instance, the South's fondness for a full breakfast derives from
4860-556: The Lumbee people in southeastern North Carolina have a unique method of cooking their cornbread. The "fried cornbread" or "frybread" that most Lumbee families serve with meals differs from both hushpuppies and johnnycakes. Prepared with yellow cornmeal, egg, buttermilk, and salt, the cornbread batter is thinly poured into a cast-iron skillet to fry. As Eric Locklear, a member of the Lumbee tribe and owner of Fuller's Old-Fashioned BBQ, notes, "It's got
4968-553: The Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia influenced some of the Southern rice-based dishes. West Africans in the rice growing regions of present-day Senegal , Sierra Leone , and Liberia cultivated African rice for about 3,000 years. African rice is a species related to, yet distinct from, Asian rice . It was originally domesticated in the inland delta of the Upper Niger River . Once Carolinian and Georgian planters in
5076-537: The Western Hemisphere influenced Southern and global cuisine. The first European nation to colonize the mainland portion of North America was Spain in the early 16th century in the year 1513 under Juan Ponce de León . In the year 1565, Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established a settlement in St. Augustine, Florida and was accompanied by free and enslaved Africans. Two Spanish expeditions encountered
5184-462: The 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists in Virginia came into contact with Powhatan Indigenous people and adapted corn into their cuisine and Johnny cakes, corn pone, and fry bread became a part of their diet. English settlers at Jamestown were not prepared on how to survive in Virginia's wilderness. Settlers experienced the " starving time " in the winter of 1609 to 1610. Powhatan people taught
5292-425: The 20th century, the quality of cornmeal was degraded. The heat from the steel rollers detracted from the corn kernel's natural sweetness and flavor and reduced the particle size of the cornmeal produced. As a result, newer cornbread recipes adapted, adding sugar and wheat flour to compensate for the reduced sweetness and structural integrity of the cornmeal. In addition, the introduction of steel roller mills ushered in
5400-452: The American South discovered that African rice would grow in that region, they often sought enslaved Africans from rice-growing regions because they had the skills and knowledge needed to develop and build irrigation, dams and earthworks. The rice-based dished created by Gullah people are Charleston red rice and Hoppin' John . Enslaved African Americans grew collard greens in their gardens. They incorporated collards in their soups and stews
5508-559: The American South from England . It became popular in Virginia and has had many incarnations, from the Classic Chess Pie to fruity versions, like Lemon Chess Pie." Enslaved Africans influence in Southern cuisine are food items from West Africa such as okra, black-eyed peas, one-pot rice cooking methods to make stews that influenced the making of gumbo and jambalaya , and adding a variety of spices and hot and sweet sauces to Southern dishes. West-Central Africans were trafficked to
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#17328843567505616-671: The Apalachee in the first half of the 16th century. The expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez entered the Apalachee domain in 1528, and arrived at a village, which Narváez believed was the main settlement in Apalachee. The Apalachee Indigenous people influenced the foodways of Spanish colonists in Florida. Apalachee people prepared meals with hunted animals such as deer, rabbit, raccoon, and turkey (a bird indigenous to North America). They grew in their gardens corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers, and foraged for wild berries and nuts. From these food sources
5724-583: The Apalachee made stews and sweet flavored dishes. Spanish colonists enjoyed Native American cacina tea and turkey. New Spain was in the present-day southern states of Florida and Louisiana. An article from the Florida Department of State explains the influence of the Spaniards in Southern cuisine: "The Spanish brought many foods to Florida (and the Americas) that are commonly eaten today. One major change to
5832-596: The Baptist Parish, suggests jambalaya originated on the Senegalese coast of West Africa. Senegalese people had knowledge of rice cultivation and created dishes using rice and meats that were brought to Louisiana during the era of the slave trade. About sixty percent of enslaved Africans brought to Louisiana came from Senegambia . Senegambians had knowledge of rice cultivation and prepared meals using rice and other grains adding meat and vegetables into one pot. An article from
5940-606: The British full breakfast or fry-up. Pork, once considered informally taboo in Scotland , has taken the place of lamb and mutton. Instead of chopped oats , Southerners have traditionally eaten grits , a porridge normally made from coarsely ground, nixtamalized maize , also known as hominy . Certain regions have been infused with different Old World traditions. Louisiana Creole cuisine draws upon vernacular French cuisine , West African cuisine , and Spanish cuisine ; Floribbean cuisine
6048-457: The Carolinas as a " pig pickin' ". Green beans are often flavored with bacon and salt pork , turnip greens are stewed with pork and served with vinegar, ham biscuits ( biscuits cut in half with slices of salt ham served between the halves) often accompany breakfast, and ham with red-eye gravy or country gravy is a common dinner dish. Country ham, a heavily salt-cured ham, is common across
6156-401: The Civil War, especially concerning the traditions of the Southern United States. Many new cookbooks were added to the existing body of literature. Some of these fell within the scope of domestic manuals offering instruction to southern homemakers to the maintenance of homes in the new post-Slavery era. Some of these works like Mary Stuart Smith 's Virginia Cookery Book (1885) aimed to preserve
6264-846: The Dutch established several settlements in Maryland and other Northern colonies. Dutch colonists introduced pancakes , waffles , doughnuts , cookies , coleslaw and pretzels into the cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies . Colonial records showed Dutch people brought their waffle irons from the Netherlands to colonial America. The English and Dutch introduced pies and Dutch settlers introduced deep-dish crust pie recipes which enslaved African Americans and other Southerners adapted into their cuisine. The first documented pie recipe in Colonial America
6372-835: The English how to hunt, fish and grow corn to survive. The food and survival skills English settlers learned from Natives became a part of their diet and cuisine. However, most Jamestown's residents did not survive that winter because of dwindling food supplies. Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia was founded in 1632 by the English. Historians at Colonial Williamsburg researched colonial records and found what colonists in Williamsburg ate. The dishes colonial cooks prepared for Williamsburg's upper class were roast pigeon, fried ox tongue, mince pies, made meat dishes from beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish with vegetables, and made baked breads. For beverages they drank coffee, tea and chocolate. An article in
6480-399: The Florida Department of State explains the soldier's diet: "The most common form of hard bread, was called hardtack , a basic wheat biscuit that did not easily decay and could survive a rough march. It was extremely hard, and was often soaked in water, coffee, or in meat fat to soften it enough to eat. Other items, such as beans, peas, rice, coffee, sugar, or salt, were also issued, but not on
6588-506: The French learned from the Chitimacha and other Indigenous people about the flora and fauna, topography of the land, how to build boats and navigate the waters, how to preserve food, and cultivate corn, squash, potatoes, and other indigenous crops. The first enslaved Africans to arrive in Louisiana came in 1719 aboard two slave ships that brought several barrels of rice seeds. African rice became
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#17328843567506696-723: The Michelin-approved fine-dining restaurants where chefs have fused techniques from India, Laos and Nigeria with the staples of the Southern canon." Mexican food culture influence on Southern cuisine is tacos . Texas was once apart of Mexico until it declared independence on March 2, 1836, and became a US state in 1845. Tex-Mex food is a fusion of Texas cuisine with Northern Mexican. Tacos in Texas have barbecued meats from pork, chicken, brisket , vegetables, and Mexican salsa . Indigenous people of Texas hunted pronghorn, deer, rabbits, turkeys, and quail. They made flour from ground acorns and mesquite pods. The Indigenous nations of
6804-506: The New World. First domesticated in Mexico around six thousand years ago, corn was introduced to what is now the United States between three thousand and one thousand years ago. Native cooks developed a number of recipes based on corn, including cornbread, that were later adopted by European settlers and enslaved African people—especially those who lived in Southern colonies. Aside from eating corn on
6912-525: The Sahel represent the transference of cuisine and culture that occurred across the Atlantic Ocean. Cornbread has become a "cornerstone" of cuisine within the southeastern United States as well as being featured on the plates of African Americans, European Americans, and Native people alike. In its earliest developments in the American colonies, cornbread was a simple combination of ground cornmeal and water that
7020-443: The South as early as 1526 under Spanish explorers to the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia called San Miguel de Gualdape , and enslaved people from Angola were brought to colonial Virginia in 1619. Other foods brought from West Africa during the slave trade that influenced Southern cuisine were guinea pepper , gherkin , sesame seeds , kola nuts , eggplant, watermelon , rice, and cantaloupe. Gullah Geechee people in
7128-459: The Southeast call it bvnaha . The Cherokee and Seneca tribes enrich the basic batter, adding chestnuts , sunflower seeds , apples , or berries , and sometimes combine it with beans or potatoes. Modern versions of cornbread are usually leavened by baking powder . Native people in the Americas began using corn ( maize ) and ground corn as food thousands of years before Europeans arrived in
7236-649: The Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several subregions, including cuisine of Southeastern Native American tribes , Tidewater , Appalachian , Ozarks , Lowcountry , Cajun , Creole , African American cuisine and Floribbean , Spanish , French , British , and German cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread to other parts of the United States, influencing other types of American cuisine . Many elements of Southern cooking— tomatoes , squash , corn (and its derivatives, such as hominy and grits ), and deep-pit barbecuing —are borrowings from Indigenous peoples of
7344-494: The Southern United States, with the most well-known being the Virginia-originating Smithfield ham . Southern meals sometimes consist only of vegetables, with a little meat (especially salt pork) used in cooking but with no meat dish served. "Beans and greens"—white or brown beans served alongside a "mess" of greens stewed with a little bacon—is a traditional meal in many parts of the South ( Turnip greens are
7452-490: The Southern diet and they became classic American foods that are eaten today in the form of hot dogs and hamburgers . The Southern side dish potato salad have German influences. An article from South Carolina National Public Radio (NPR) explains: "The earliest written recipes for American potato salad date to the mid-19th century. Cooked potatoes were typically dressed with oil, vinegar and herbs, which culinary historians believe were introduced by German immigrants who had
7560-646: The United Nations states that the cuisines of Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, and Benin influenced the development of jambalaya: "Jambalaya (mixed rice, meat and vegetables), feijoada (black beans and meat), gombo(okra), and hopping johns (peas) are all dishes that have been re-adapted from Senegal, Nigeria, Guinea and Benin. You will find variations of these dishes in America and the Caribbean region." German immigrants came to colonial America beginning in 1608 and helped to start
7668-709: The United States dates back to 1846 with the introduction of commercial baking soda in New York, by Church and Dwight of " Arm & Hammer " fame. This development was extended in 1856 by the introduction of commercial baking powder in Massachusetts, although perhaps the best known form of baking powder is " Calumet ", first introduced in Hammond, Indiana and West Hammond, Illinois (later Calumet City, Illinois ) in 1889. Both forms of food-grade chemical leaveners are still being produced under their original names, although not within
7776-401: The addition of wheat flour adds gluten to increase its cohesiveness). The baking process gelatinizes the starch in the cornmeal, but still often leaves some hard starch to give the finished product a distinctive sandiness not typical of breads made from other grains. A primarily Southern dish consisting of cornbread with pork cracklings inside. It can be prepared with any method, but a skillet
7884-419: The article, "As We Cooked, We Lived: Lumbee Foodways," Malinda Maynor Lowery goes on to track the creation of the collard sandwich—a Lumbee special, which features two pieces of fried cornbread with collard greens and fatback meat. Dorsey Hunt, co-owner of Lumbee Homemade Ice-Cream, notes that "[Lumbee people] just started putting [fried cornbread and collards] together and made a sandwich out of it. ...We made
7992-567: The case of many waffle recipes, or steam, in the case of cream puffs . Nevertheless, in a commercial process, designated chemical leavening acids and bases are used to make gas production consistent and controlled. Examples of acid—base combinations include: Almost all quick breads have the same basic ingredients: flour, leavening, eggs, fat (butter, margarine, shortening, or oil), and liquid such as milk. Ingredients beyond these basic constituents are added for variations in flavor and texture. The type of bread produced varies based predominantly on
8100-411: The chiles come from Mexico . Tamale is a dish native to Central America and Mexico. The Tejanos' Indigenous ancestors brought tamales to Texas. Chains serving Southern foods—often along with American comfort food —have had great success; many have spread across the country or across the world , while others have chosen to stay in the South. Pit barbecue is popular all over the American South; unlike
8208-534: The civil rights movement. Upon returning to Atlanta from Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. got permission "to bring his team members and guests to Paschal's to eat, meet, rest, plan, and strategize." A traditional Southern meal may include pan- fried chicken , field peas (such as black-eyed peas ), greens (such as collard greens , mustard greens , turnip greens , or poke sallet ), mashed potatoes, cornbread or corn pone , sweet tea , and dessert—typically
8316-495: The cob, Native people also mixed corn kernels with lye to produce hominy through an ancient process called nixtamalization . Both hominy and unprocessed corn were then ground up to varying degrees to make dishes like sofkee (a corn-based soup or drink) and grits or to make cornflour . Frequently, cornflour was, and continues to be, used to make various cornbreads, like corn or ash pone, tamales , arepas , and tortillas . In contrast, cornmeal tends to be coarser than cornflour and
8424-400: The colonial period (and into present day) made fry bread and Indian tacos. They also prepared meals with hunted animals such as turkey and deer and caught fish. Native Americans in Louisiana influenced the foodways of African Americans and European Americans as non-Natives prepared their meals with turkey, cornbread, and other Indigenous staples. Spaniards and enslaved West Africans influenced
8532-507: The colony in 1722. For example, "German sausage making is called andouille. Andouille sausage is a combination of pork, pork fat, salt, garlic, red pepper and black pepper, all packed into a sausage casing, which is smoked over sugar cane and pecan logs. When smoked, the sausage becomes very dark in color." This method of preparation of sausage is found in between St. Charles and St. John Baptist parishes. German foods such as marinated meats, pastries, sour flavors, and wursts were assimilated into
8640-776: The colony of Jamestown, Virginia and established settlements in the Shenandoah Valley . They brought their food traditions from Germany and influenced cuisine in America. The classic southern dish chicken and dumplings have origins in German cuisine . "...the famous southern dish, Chicken and Dumplings, received its birth from the German influence of Spaetzel , which are small potato dumplings, even smaller than its Italian cousin, gnocchi." Other German influences are liver beef dishes, German sausages , and liver dumplings. German people also influenced cuisine in Louisiana after their arrival to
8748-448: The consistency of the bread, a small amount of wheat flour is added to the batter. This type of cornbread is often known as "hot water" or "scald meal" cornbread and is unique to the American South. Pouring a batter similar to that of skillet-fried cornbread, but slightly thinner, into hot grease atop a griddle or a skillet produces a pancake -like bread called a johnnycake . While johnnycake often denotes this pancake-like cornbread, it
8856-405: The cornmeal fritters, and just put the collards in between it. Put your fatback meat and chow-chow". Quick bread Quick breads include many cakes , brownies and cookies —as well as banana bread , pumpkin bread , beer bread , biscuits , cornbread , muffins , pancakes , scones , and soda bread . The term "quick bread" most likely originated in the United States at the end of
8964-585: The culinary heritage of the South. Recipes made by former slaves were published in African-American cookbooks after the Civil War. The earliest such cookbook was self-published in 1866 by Malinda Russell as a pamphlet titled, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen . A cookbook published in 1900 in the city of Charleston, South Carolina had recipes used by formerly enslaved Gullah people . Benne seeds from sesame ,
9072-450: The eighteenth century. However, the similar bannock was well known in Ireland, Scotland and northern England centuries earlier. Before the creation of quick bread, baked goods were leavened either with yeast or by mixing dough with eggs . "Fast bread" is an alternate name. The discovery or rediscovery of chemical leavening agents and their widespread military, commercial, and home use in
9180-512: The first non-Native American Southerners to many other vegetables still familiar on southern tables. Squash , pumpkin , many types of beans , many types of peppers , and sassafras all came to the settlers via Indigenous peoples. The Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora means hickory -nut meat or a nut milk drink made from it. Many fruits are available in this region. Muscadines , blackberries , raspberries , and many other wild berries were part of Southern Native Americans' diet. To
9288-572: The foodways of enslaved Africans and European settlers as they used maple syrup to sweeten their dishes and poured syrup over pancakes and other breakfast foods. Other Indigenous influences are dried meats, smoked fish, and preparing meals with deer, rabbit, turtle, catfish, and eating local strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and cranberries. A few of these foods are potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, chilies, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peanuts, pineapple, avocado, papaya, pecans, and chocolate. Foods cultivated by Indigenous people in
9396-409: The inside, while crunchy and light to medium-dark golden brown on the outside. Although Native people ushered corn and cornmeal into African people's diets, African cooks are generally credited with introducing the frying of foods in fats. The combination of Native cornmeal and the African technique of frying, therefore, led to the creation of hushpuppies. Alongside other iterations of Native cornbread,
9504-521: The landscape of Florida was the Spanish introduction of domesticated animals to provide favored meats, like beef, pork, and chicken! Olive oil and wine (brought over to the colonies in large earthenware jars) were essential staples for any Spanish kitchen. Fruits (like peaches, figs, and watermelons), nuts and beans (like almonds, field peas, and garbonzo beans) and spices (like saffron, cinnamon, and different types of peppers) were brought to Florida from all over
9612-402: The loss of traditional yeast flavor, nutrition, and texture. Preparing a quick bread generally involves two mixing containers. One contains all dry ingredients (including chemical leavening agents or agent) and one contains all wet ingredients (possibly including liquid ingredients that are slightly acidic in order to initiate the leavening process). In some variations, the dry ingredients are in
9720-640: The making of jambalaya in New Orleans. Some historians suggest jambalaya has its roots in West African cuisine. The French introduced the tomato (a food native to the Americas) to West Africans, and they incorporated the food into their one-pot rice cooking meals and enhanced jollof rice and created jambalaya. Author Ibraham Seck, director of research at the Whitney Plantation Slave Museum in St. John
9828-584: The method of mixing, the major flavoring, and the ratio of liquid in the batter. Some batters are thin enough to pour, and others thick enough to mold into lumps. There are three basic methods for making quick breads, which may combine the "rise" of the chemical leavener with advantageous "lift" from other ingredients: Quick breads also vary widely in the consistency of their dough or batter. There are four main types of quick bread batter: The above are volumetric ratios and are not based on baker's percentages or weights. Southern cooking The cuisine of
9936-490: The methods of early Europeans to form the basis of what is now Southern cuisine. Prior to the 1600s, native peoples lived off the land in very diverse bioregions and had done so for thousands of years, often living a nomadic life where their diet changed with the season. Many practiced a form of agriculture revolving around the Three Sisters , the rotation of beans , maize , and squash as staples of their diet. Wild game
10044-459: The newspaper, The Warren Record, explains the influence of the English and Scottish on Southern American food: "English settlers in the South baked yeast bread, made savory puddings and drank beer...." "Settlers from lowland Scotland brought with them a tradition of cooking a kale soup and drinking distilled beverages." English and Scottish settlers introduced biscuits into Southern breakfast. In England and Ireland people ate biscuits as part of
10152-511: The predominant cooks in Virginia's kitchens were enslaved African Americans. Enslaved cooks in white plantation homes combined food traditions from West Africa with Native American and European cooking methods and prepared new dishes that influenced Southern cuisine, such as fried okra . The origin of fried chicken in the southern states of America has been traced to precedents in Scottish and West African cuisine . Scottish fried chicken
10260-565: The region (e.g., Cherokee , Caddo , Choctaw , and Seminole ). From the Old World , European colonists introduced sugar, flour, milk, eggs, and livestock, along with a number of vegetables; meanwhile, enslaved West Africans trafficked to the North American colonies through the Atlantic slave trade introduced black-eyed peas , okra , eggplant , sesame , sorghum , melons , and various spices. Rice also became prominent in many dishes in
10368-798: The rest of the country, most of the rural South has locally owned, non-franchise pit-barbecue restaurants, many serving the regional style of barbecue instead of the nationally predominant Kansas City style . Family-style restaurants serving Southern cuisine are common throughout the South, and range from the humble and down-home to the decidedly upscale. During the civil rights movement , soul food restaurants were places where civil rights leaders and activists met to discuss and strategize civil rights protests and ideas for implementing social and political change. Paschal's Restaurant in Atlanta, like Georgia Gilmore's eatery in Montgomery, had an important part in
10476-399: The resulting baked good's texture can vary greatly based on external factors such as temperature and humidity. By contrast, breads made with chemical leavening agents are relatively uniform, reliable, and quick. Usually, the resulting baked good is softer and lighter than a traditional yeast bread. Chemical leavening agents include a weak base , such as baking soda ( sodium bicarbonate ) plus
10584-481: The same corporate structure. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the demand for portable and quickly-made food was high, while skilled labor for traditional breadmaking was scarce. This encouraged the adoption of bread which was rapidly made and leavened with baking soda, instead of yeast. The shortage of chemical leaveners in the American South during the Civil War contributed to a food crisis there. As
10692-448: The styles of other regions. South Carolina is the only state that traditionally features all four recognized barbecue sauces , including mustard-based, vinegar-based, and light and heavy tomato-based sauces. North Carolina sauces vary by region; eastern North Carolina uses a vinegar-based sauce, the center of the state uses Lexington-style barbecue , with a combination of ketchup and vinegar as its base, and western North Carolina uses
10800-438: The texture and flavor of earlier iterations of cornbread, making it much more similar to the version that is eaten today. Although those ingredients were introduced in the 19th-century to improve the texture and taste of cornbread, there are two other common ingredients that were excluded from most recipes until the 20th-century: sugar and wheat flour. As traditional stone mills were replaced with more-efficient steel roller mills in
10908-477: The typical greens for such a meal; they're cooked with some diced turnip and a piece of fatback ). Other low-meat Southern meals include beans and cornbread —the beans being pinto beans stewed with ham or bacon—and Hoppin' John ( black-eyed peas , rice, onions, red or green pepper, and bacon). Cabbage is largely used as the basis of coleslaw , both as a side dish and on a variety of barbecued and fried meats. Sauteéd red cabbage, flavored with vinegar and sugar,
11016-403: The word) is occasionally baked in one large cake rather than as separate biscuits, this is called a "biscuit pone". The term "corn pone" is sometimes used derogatorily to refer to one who possesses certain rural, unsophisticated peculiarities ("he's a corn pone"), or as an adjective to describe particular rural, folksy or "hick" characteristics (e.g., "corn pone" humor). This pejorative term often
11124-548: The world." The British established a permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They brought their food traditions from London that influenced Southern cuisine. British cuisine has cured and aged ham and English bread. These foods were augmented in colonial Jamestown with North American ingredients. For example, the ham dishes in Britain became Virginia hams, and English breads became hot breads and other sweets. However,
11232-643: Was battered with seasonings and cooked in lard , later West African fried chicken added different seasonings, and was battered and cooked in palm oil . Scottish frying and seasoning techniques and African seasoning techniques were used in the American South by enslaved Africans. At Monticello in Virginia, President Thomas Jefferson noted how the enslaved prepared meals with the African crop sesame seeds . Enslaved people ate sesame raw, toasted, or boiled and prepared stews, baked breads, boiled their greens with sesame seeds, and made sesame pudding. European colonists used sesame seeds to make baked breads. In
11340-463: Was equally a staple of nearly every tribe: generally, deer, elk, and bison were staples, as were rabbits and hare. The Cherokee of the Southern Appalachians used blowguns made of an indigenous type of bamboo to hunt squirrels. Though a less important staple, potatoes were also adopted from Native American cuisine and have been used in many ways similar to corn. Native Americans introduced
11448-485: Was in 1675; it was a pumpkin pie recipe modified from British spiced and boiled squash. European settlers prepared pies because they preserved food. They made meat and sweet pies using local ingredients and other ingredients from foreign countries. An article from Southern Living Magazine explains the history of the Southern American pie tradition: "The mixture of eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour made its way to
11556-804: Was not available to many Confederates because it was made from wheat, and wheat was not grown in many Southern states except for Georgia and Virginia. Cornbread replaced the hardtack rations in the Confederate army. Confederate soldiers made Johnnie cakes and "corn dodgers" that was similar to hardtack. In addition, they made fried flatbread and balls of cornmeal called "flapjacks" cooked over an open fire, and ate bacon, imitation coffee, and molasses . In some Southern hospitals patients ate dried fruit, potatoes, mush, beef, chicken soup , and bread. Despite limited rations, some Union soldiers were able to make hearty meals. The meals prepared were "...chicken fricassee, mushroom ketchup (a condiment made by boiling mushrooms),
11664-549: Was then stirred together and baked over an open fire or in a hearth. At this point in its history, cornbread's role in Southern cuisine emerged out of necessity. Although farmers in the Northeast and Midwest could grow wheat and rye, the heat and humidity of the South made European wheat wither and turn rancid. In the 18th-century, the addition of other ingredients, such as buttermilk , eggs, baking soda , baking powder, and pork products (rendered bacon and ham hog fat), greatly changed
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