Penny For Your Thought
By: Nancy Whitaker
Bring on the grits, black-eyed peas, cornbread, ham hocks and beans and fried chicken, chess pie for dessert and you’ve got a meal. Southern cooking has become more popular with the recent cooking show hosts and the idea of good home-style comfort food. I know my grandma was from the South and no one could cook like her. She could take a can of beans and make them taste delicious. Her dandelion greens, wilted lettuce, juicy pork chops, ham with red eye gravy and biscuits were a treat everyone looked forward to when they ate at grandma’s house. When thinking of great tasting comfort foods, many are reminded of southern home cooking which is exactly what it is.
The same basic foods in the South exist as they did three centuries ago when the settlers arrived in the 1700s. The land was fertile and the opportunity to grow plentiful crops was there. Corn became the staple. The Native Americans taught early settlers how to prepare, grow, store and cook corn. Since most everything from bread to whiskey was made from the corn crops. People thrived with gardens full of vegetables of all types and their hunting skills.
Much of the food eaten in the south came from the Native American culture and from slave and sharecropping days. The settlers relied on the wild game in the area for food at least until they cleared land, planted corn and vegetables and learned how to prepare and eat certain foods, such as squash, peppers and cowpeas. Tomatoes were discovered and produced by the Native Americans; however, most southerners would not touch the unique red vegetable, due to the fact, they felt it was poisonous up until the 20th century.
The Indians also taught settlers cooking techniques. They taught them how to dry meats and vegetables of various types. They learned how to make preserves and jerky. Women soon became good at processing corn to create breads and cornbread. With an ash hopper, they could soak the dry grains to produce “hominy” or “hominy grits.” Grits became a popular staple of southerners during this time and even today it is traditionally set on a southern table, at least for a breakfast food.
Now I have heard folks from the South pronounce grits in two syllables which is different than how we pronounce it. They say, “Gri yats.” Personally, I am not a grits or a “gri yats” eater, so my experience with them is very limited. I saw in the grocery store you could buy packages of instant grits and also grits with cheese. Now even though grandma didn’t fix a lot of grits, she did cook hominy. This was a southern staple and was usually cooked in with scrambled eggs. I remember one time when we were on a vacation in Tennessee, my one little girl was ordering from a breakfast menu and said, “I want some of those grits.” We let her try them and she tried to eat them; however, I saw her spit some in her napkin. I bet my grandchildren have never heard tell of southern cooking and foods like grits, hominy, mush, and the ever popular beverage of the south, “sweet tea.”
I remember one Thanksgiving my grandpa went hunting with a slingshot. He had got lucky and bagged a pheasant. Even though grandma cleaned and cooked it beautifully, I just could not eat it. I guess I would not have made a good southern settler, because wild game is just not in my repertoire of favorite southern food.
People all like to eat and most of us like the old fashioned southern comfort foods. I know in the winter, when the cold winds blow and the snow starts falling down, my thoughts go to soups, stews and belly warming food. If you were to travel south, you would probably get to try all the home cooked southern cooking and things like “gri yats”, corn pone, thick slices of salt pork, grease gravy, light fluffy biscuits and oh yes, “a glass of sweet tea.”
Each area of our country eats different depending on availability of certain foods. Where you live and where you visit will bring all kinds of area cuisine for your palates. As for me, I like it all, but maybe not pheasant.
Do you like southern cooking and foods such as: ham hocks, sauerkraut, corn pone and oh yes, “gri-yats”? Let me know and I will give you a Penny for your Thoughts.
