Southern cuisine
Southern cuisine refers to the cuisine of the American southern states . It is influenced by the geographical and climatic characteristics of the area as well as by its different inhabitants. Traditional coastal and inland cuisines differ across the southern states of Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , Kentucky , Alabama , Mississippi , Georgia, and Arkansas . While plantation households shaped the kitchen in the flat marshland, it was smallholders in the hill and mountain regions.
The kitchens of Louisiana are also counted as southern cuisine , namely the Cajun cuisine and the Creole cuisine . The Texan and Tex-Mex cuisine differs in many aspects from the classic southern cuisine . In the last decades of the 20th century, the term soul food established itself for the special cuisine of African American people .
Southern cuisine has shaped eating and drinking habits worldwide through its influence on the fast food industry. Both KFC and other Fried Chicken vendors and soft drink -Produzenten as Pepsi and Coca-Cola come from the food traditions in the region.
history
Foodstuffs that naturally grow in the area and have been cultivated for ages include corn , beans , pumpkins , berries, and plums . On animals lived there, for example, bison , turkeys , deer , rabbits , squirrels , ducks and quails . Oysters , turtles , shrimp , crabs , catfish , trout , herring , alosa and sturgeon can be found in the waters .
The original cuisine of the southeastern United States was Native American cuisine . From these the first immigrants got to know local fruits and animals and their preparations. The indigenous people hunted the wild animals found there and had domesticated turkeys. They grew beans, pumpkins, and corn; other Native Americans had established tomatoes , eggplants , peppers, and chilies. They gathered nuts , berries and plums.
The southern states of the United States were mostly settled by settlers from the British Isles . In addition to their cooking traditions, they also introduced various foods. This included cattle , pigs , chickens and sheep ; Wheat and rye , fruit trees and root vegetables and various types of cabbage . Compared to other parts of the USA, immigration from other parts of Europe was less pronounced in the southern states; In the kitchen, French and German influences are particularly evident in certain regional sub-kitchens.
African influences are particularly pronounced in southern cuisine. The import of slaves from Africa began in the 17th century . In many regions of the southern states, African Americans formed the majority of the population. Although they lived under racial segregation well into the 20th century , many African Americans worked as domestic servants and cooks for the white upper and middle classes, so that they also had a significant influence on the food of white people. For upcoming African ingredients include okra , black-eyed peas ( black-eyed peas ), melon , marrow stem kale and sweet potatoes. The peanut originally came from Brazil , but it also took a detour via Africa, from where it was imported into today's USA.
The industrialization and the lost Civil War had an impact on the food in the South. Much of the food was no longer grown locally, but came from industrialized production in the more developed regions of the Midwest. Fruit and vegetable consumption decreased, the corn flour came from industrial production, in which many of the nutrients were lost, instead of bacon it was now fatback, the fat rim directly under the pig's back skin and significantly less protein-rich than bacon. At the same time, however, the price of wheat flour from other parts of the US became cheaper. The proportion of maize in the diet of large parts of the population rose, and the deficiency disease pellagra , which was little known before the civil war, spread among sharecroppers , cotton processing workers and poor sections of the urban population.
While traditional cuisine was often able to last well into the 20th century or had to be kept, items such as refrigerators, televisions and cars began to spread in the poor, rural areas of the south since the middle of the 20th century. While the auto quickly brought industrialized food of all kinds south from across the United States, canned food and refrigerators removed the storage problems of many foodstuffs. People learned about dishes from other parts of the United States through the radio and television; the food in the whole of the USA was homogenized, from which the southern states were not excluded. Restaurants and fast food stalls also established themselves in the 20th century. While these often offered a meal that was the same throughout the USA, the southern classics Fried Chicken, Fried Catfish and, in particular, various cola drinks were able to assert themselves in this menu.
ingredients
In the first decades, bison was the most important indigenous hunting estate, but was extinct east of the Mississippi a short time after the arrival of European immigrants and has not played an important role in the area's diet since then. While beef played a major role in the basic supply in Texas and Louisiana, it was rarely on the table in the central southern states, and when it did, it was in the form of veal. The pioneers also hunted black bears and cured and smoked them like pork.
Feral domestic pigs, the razorbacks , had spread in the southeastern United States before the first settlers arrived, and these probably came from escaped populations of Spanish explorers. The pigs were kept in the wild from the 18th to the 20th centuries: they were tagged but could roam freely in the local forests. In the autumn, their owners rounded up the pigs, castrated excess boars and tagged newborn babies. The pigs they wanted to eat they drove home and fattened them with corn for the last few weeks. Most of these pigs were smoked and cured, traditionally pork was included in almost every meal - even if more as a flavoring ingredient than as a full meal component. Pork is the main ingredient in almost every barbecue. Lard, on the other hand, was the dominant frying fat until the late 20th century.
While pigs formed the basis of everyday food, the settlers began to raise other animals after the regional extinction of the predators. Duck, chicken , turkey and goose were especially on the table on Sundays and public holidays. The consumption of lamb was and is very different from region to region. Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky are strongholds here, and Kentucky is the only region in the south where lamb is the traditional barbecue meat.
The humid subtropical climate of the southern states allows a long vegetation period in which many edible plants grow. Standard vegetables today include okra, watermelon, green tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, lima beans, kidney beans, white beans, peaches, and corn, as well as pecans . In some regions, which were characterized by large plantations, rice replaced the otherwise dominant maize as the most important accompaniment to meat. Different types of cabbage, pumpkins, carrots and peas also occur, although less frequently than the former. The most important ingredients in the vegetable kitchen, however, were turnips , sweet potatoes and black peas . The leaves of the turnip produced the first green of the year and were more popular than the actual turnip. The wheat harvests suffered from rust fungus , so that wheat flour and baked goods made from it were mainly to be found on the tables of wealthy plantation owners until the end of the 19th century.
While in the 19th century the plantation owners often consumed elaborate and varied meals, the slaves limited themselves to staple foods: in large parts of the southern states, the weekly ration of an adult field worker consisted of about two to three pounds of cured pork and one peck (about 9 liters) of cornmeal. The coastal regions often had fish instead of pork, and beef instead of pork in Texas and southwest Louisiana. In season these were often supplemented with turnips, black peas and sweet potatoes.
preparation
Most of the pioneers had modest cooking utensils, and diets depended largely on what they had just hunted or harvested. Deep- fried dishes in particular are typical of southern cuisine - a direct influence of the region's slave cuisine, which preferred deep-fat frying. The preference for rich soups and stews is also primarily due to African influences. Whites tried to avoid African-American cultural influences, but kitchen traditions quickly gained ground, as house slaves took over cooking on many farms and plantations and they also taught white children how to cook.
As a result, traditions have emerged in many places that try to recreate traditional European dishes using original African cooking techniques and local ingredients. In the huts of the slaves there was usually only one large pot that was in the campfire, so that all the ingredients were cooked together in this. All residents of the southern states, and especially Afro-Americans, show a preference for boiled instead of fried meat to this day. The importance of pigs for nutrition was also evident in vegetables. This was also fried, but mostly boiled in water with a large piece of cured pork fat until it was coated with a layer of fat. Sweet potatoes were cooked directly in the coals of the stove fire.
dishes
Typical dishes include grits (corn groats), biscuits (a type of bread roll), sausage gravy , corn bread and many types of barbecue . Cajun cuisine includes dishes such as gumbo , a spicy stew and the rice dish jambalaya . Other stews include Brunswick Stew , Hoppin 'John , Burgoo (Kentucky), and Country Captain .
Chicken and pork are the two main types of meat. In the coastal regions this is partly being replaced by fish and seafood, with mussels and shrimp playing an important role. Ham and sausage were essential components of every breakfast. As long as sufficient quantities were available, almost every warm meal contained roasted pork, other forms of preparation of pork were mainly served on Sundays and public holidays.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, oysters were more abundant than meat on the coast and thus played an important role in the cuisine of the region there. They are prepared as a stew in milk or cream, baked, steamed or eaten raw. Prawns are boiled, steamed, fried, grilled, baked in cakes, served with pasta or grits, added to rice dishes and soups. Crayfish are mostly steamed or eaten in soup. Freshwater fish is often served with hush puppies , and the most famous southern fish food is catfish.
Whilst corn is often eaten pure or processed into corn flour, rice is both the most common side dish and the main ingredient in dishes such as dirty rice or red beans and rice . Corn bread was the dominant bread of the southern states until the 19th century. This was available in simple variations such as corn flatbreads through to elaborate baked goods with milk, eggs, sugar and, occasionally, wheat flour. Simple corn bread served to soak up the cooking water, which was mostly enriched with pork fat. Cornmeal Mush was part of both breakfast and dinner, while grits made from ripe corn were the most common side dish alongside cornbread and are still popular in the southern states to this day.
The rich selection of sauces probably comes from the kitchens of the rich plantation owners. Chutneys have been a regular part of the kitchen since the 17th century. The Gravys are made from leftover meat juice enriched with roux, milk or broth. They are not only eaten with meat, but also with mashed potatoes, rice and biscuits. Relishes often consist of green tomatoes, cabbage, pears, Jerusalem artichokes , peppers, or corn.
Sweet desserts and sweet pastries often make up almost half of all recipes in old cookbooks from the southern states. After dishes made from wheat flour spread among the population at the end of the 19th century, biscuits in particular became an integral part of many coffee tables.
While wine (especially Madeira ) often accompanied the sumptuous meals in the houses of the plantation owners , milk and coffee usually predominated. After the British-Scottish settlers had developed processes to extract whiskey from corn , this bourbon whiskey became the most important spirit in the south. Another typical drink is iced tea , which is often sweetened extensively. Strongly sweetened drinks are also common elsewhere, be it as sweet lemonade or in the form of cocktails such as Mint Julep . The world-famous cola drinks ( Coca-Cola , Pepsi or Dr Pepper ), like Gatorade, all originally come from the southern states.
Influence on US food culture
For a long time in the US, southern cuisine was considered greasy and unhealthy. Fried chicken was the standard known throughout the US, gravys were often perceived as a viscous, unsavory mass. In the last few decades, southern cuisine has spread more and more across the rest of the USA and is becoming increasingly influential there. Could contribute Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe , a tribute to the Southern cuisine par excellence. Fannie Flagg wrote the book about the little Whistle Stop Cafe in Alabama and brought out a book of recipes after the successful film Green Tomatoes . In the southern states themselves, there has been a return to the cuisine of the region since the late 20th century. The Southern Foodways Alliance conducts on-site research into the origins and existence of southern cuisine , journalists and authors such as Edna Lewis and Craig Claiborne deal intensively with the kitchen. In restaurant kitchens, it has become fashionable to at least praise echoes of traditional southern cuisine.
reception
Essen has found forms of expression both in the songs of the southern states and in literature. The Chitlin 'Circuit , a series of venues for African American artists, is named after a typical dish, chitterlings , as is the traditional Chitlin' Cookin 'Time song in Cheatham County.
Other well-known songs related to southern cuisine include Jambalaya by Hank Williams , Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat by Uncle Dave Macon , Dan Penn's Memphis Women and Fried Chicken or Memphis Minnies I'm Selling My Porkchops (But I'm Giving My Gravy Away) .
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l John Martin Taylor: Southern Regional Cookery in: Andrew F. Smith The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink , Oxford University Press 2007 ISBN 978-0-19-530796-2 p 554-556
- ↑ a b c d Taylor / Edge p. 1
- ↑ a b c d e f Taylor / Edge pp. 6-7
- ↑ a b c Taylor / Edge pp. 8-9
- ↑ a b c d e Taylor / Edge p. 3
- ↑ a b Taylor / Edge p. 2
- ↑ a b c d Taylor / Edge pp. 4-5
- ↑ James Tuten: Liquid Assets: Madeira Wine and Cultural Capital among Lowcountry Planters, 1735-1900 . In: American Nineteenth Century History . 6, No. 2, 2005, pp. 173-188. doi : 10.1080 / 14664650500314513 . Retrieved February 22, 2018.
- ^ A b John T. Edge: Introduction in Edge (ed.) 2007 pp. Xix-xx
literature
- John T. Edge (Ed.): The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 7: Foodways. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC 2007, ISBN 978-0-8078-3146-5 , pp. 22-26.
- John Egerton: Southern Food. At home, on the road, in history. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC 1993, ISBN 0-8078-4417-9
- Lolis Eric Elie (Ed.): Cornbread Nation. Volume 2: The United States of Barbecue. University of North Carolina Press et al, Chapel Hill NC et al. 2005, ISBN 0-8078-5556-1 .
- Joe Gray Taylor and John T. Edge: Southern Foodways. In: John T. Edge (Ed.): The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 7: Foodways. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC 2007, ISBN 978-0-8078-3146-5 , pp. 1-13.