Cuisine of the Southern United States
The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several subregions, including the cuisines of Southeastern Native American tribes, Tidewater, Appalachian, Ozarks, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, African American cuisine and Floribbean, Spanish, French, British, Ulster-Scots, German, Italian and Middle Eastern cuisine. 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 deep-pit barbecuing—are borrowings from Indigenous peoples of the region. 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 the Lowcountry region of South Carolina because the enslaved people who settled the region were already quite familiar with the crop.
Many Southern foodways are local adaptations of Old World traditions. In Appalachia, many Southern dishes are of Scottish or British Border origin. For instance, the South's fondness for a full breakfast derives from 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 is Spanish-based with obvious Caribbean influences; and Tex-Mex has considerable Mexican and Indigenous influences with its abundant use of New World vegetables and barbecued meat. In southern Louisiana, West African influences have persisted in dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice.
History
Indigenous cuisine before colonization
Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American cuisine that have been blended with 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 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.
Native Americans introduced 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.
Colonial era 1513 to 1776 and Antebellum era 1776 to 1861
Southern food has 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 is fried green tomatoes. Squash was 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. Settlers used honey and Indigenous people used maple syrup to sweeten and add flavor to dishes; this influenced 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. Foods cultivated by Indigenous people in 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 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. They grew in their gardens corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers, and foraged for wild berries and nuts. From these food sources 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 that are commonly eaten today. One major change to the landscape of Florida was the Spanish introduction of domesticated animals to provide favored meats, like beef, pork, and chicken! Olive oil and wine were essential staples for any Spanish kitchen. Fruits, nuts and beans and spices were brought to Florida from all over 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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."
File:South Carolina red rice.jpg|thumb|Charleston red rice in South Carolina originated from West African jollof rice.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the colonial period 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 the making of jambalaya in New Orleans. Some historians suggest jambalaya has its roots in West African cuisine. The French introduced the tomato 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 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 the United Nations states that the cuisines of Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, and Benin influenced the development of jambalaya: "Jambalaya, feijoada, gombo, and hopping johns 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 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 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 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 explains:
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.