Southern Cooking Techniques
Southern cooking has some characteristics that are unlike other styles of cooking. Additionally, some unique cooking techniques are employed.
To become a good Southern cook, you should master these techniques. Don't worry, there is nothing difficult about Southern Cooking. It's just different.
CHARACTERISTICS
Southern dishes utilize a lot of vegetables, fried foods and crunchy food. And it is not, unfortunately, low fat. Southern food is not intended to be low fat. It is robust, stomach-filling, flavorful food. So I urge you to go for it and make it as it was intended to be.
TECHNIQUES
* Cookware *
One of the most important techniques in Southern Cooking is the use of cast iron cookware. Cast iron retains and transfers heat unlike other materials and is particularly suited for Southern dishes, especially cornbread. All that aside, it's simply the traditional way to cook Southern. See the article on Care and Use of Cast Iron
* Cooking Time *
Most recipes in Southern cooking require cooking longer than you may be accustomed to. For example Fried Okra is cooked until it is slightly burned around the edges. This gives it a tasty crunch. Also green beans are cooked until a dull, brownish, green color. They are not bright green (like canned beans...uuugh!) Southern fried chicken is also cooked until crunchy
* Milk and Cornmeal *
Milk and cornmeal are used a lot in Southern cooking. Of course cornmeal is the main ingredient in cornbread, but it is also used in breading (coating) fried foods such as chicken, okra, pork chops and fried green tomatoes.
Every cook has their own preference, but I recommend you use only white cornmeal, except for the Mexican cornbread and tamale pie recipes you will find on this site (and they are not really Southern dishes). There may be little difference, other than color, but the white cornmeal seems a finer grind and I prefer it.
When recipes call for milk, always use buttermilk (except in desserts). It simply adds more flavor. If you do not have buttermilk on hand, you can make a substitute by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of regular milk, stir well and let sit for a minute before use.
* Made From Scratch *
Southerners pride themselves in making dishes from all original ingredients, as opposed to pre-packaged, frozen, boxed, store-bought, ready-made meals that you removed from the box and cook according to the box directions. My mom always referred to this as "made from scratch". Although the store-bought "boxed" foods are, perhaps, more fail-safe, they don't come close to "made from scratch" for flavor.
* Use of Butter and Bacon Grease *
Real butter is used in everything rather than low-fat substitutes. Yes, it is high calorie, but the flavor just can't be beat. Also, bacon grease is used in many dishes. Peas, beans, greens, cornbread are all enhanced with bacon grease. (see recipes on this site)
* Cooking by sight and taste *
Finally, Southern cooks make their fabulous dishes by taste and sight. They will frequently taste their food as it is being prepared and cooked. And they have learned when a dish "looks right" through each stage of preparation. For example, when making biscuits, they know by sight when the dough looks right. The secret to good gravy is knowing when it looks right. And, cornbread batter is mixed until ...you got it...it looks right.
For this reason, it is very difficult to write a Southern recipe. Although you can easily write down the ingredients, it's hard to write when it "looks right". Therefore, I urge you not to take every Southern recipe too literally. It's a starting point to give you the ingredients. But, you will learn, through experience, when a little more or less of a certain ingredient is called for.
There are many tips included in the individual recipes on this site (do you know the proper way to cut out biscuit dough? Find out in the biscuit recipe.) So look for the tips as you browse the site, bookmark us and come back often.
