OT: How Southern Are You? A Quiz

[Magy Cannon]

I realize Virginia was home to the capital of the Confederacy but anything north of South Carolina and Tennessee and west/northwest of Arkansas as well as anything but the panhandle of Florida is only marginally “Southern” at best. Basically Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, eastern Arkansas, Louisiana above I-10, and the Florida panhandle is “The South”.

You left out Mississippi.

 

[triaddukefan]

Alot to catch up on in here.... lemme go in order

New Englander through and through, but my maternal grandmother was from the south. At least 10 of these were staples of my childhood. I’d give a lot for some properly made chicken and dumplings.

Was in the store a few weeks ago when everyone was buying up all the food..... I figured I'd pick up a canned good..... got a can of chicken and dumplings... the label says its made from scratch... i'll take their word.

I scored a 35. Four of them I’ve eaten today. Further there are a vast majority of items on the list that I’m shocked are exclusively southern. What are you people eating????

Edited to add that I’ve actually eaten everything on the list. The ones I previously thought I hadn’t eaten we simply call something else where I grew up. My last comment above stands.

Just wondering.... what 4 did you eat yesterday?

 

[triaddukefan]

No collard greens in the list? That’s a minus 5 for the organizers.

And no, turnip greens ain’t the same thing.

Yeah... that being left off the list was particularly egregious. 1) Im no fan of either.... but I think I would eat a collard before a turnip. 2) this may not be politically correct to say..... but I didnt realize until maybe the last decade or so... that non-blacks ate collard greens I always picture somebody's elderly aunt or grandma in the kitchen making a pot of collards and putting fatback @Crazyhorse in it to add to the seasoning. Every christmas I always say imma try some collards, imma try some collards... but alas.... i just cant do it.

There are definitely some that are not exclusively Southern. Peach cobbler is something I grew up with in New England. Some have different names. Butter Beans are lima beans up North, for example. Deviled Eggs originated in England, so are popular in all the original colonies; It never would have occurred to me that someone might consider them Southern.



I have no interest in squirrel, chitlins, or any kind of liver.

1) deviled eggs are a gift from the heavens.... nothing like fried chicken with 4-6 deviled eggs......... and a glass of sweet ice tea

2) My neighbor and I were talking about squirrel a few weeks back...... he was talking about how he used to hunt back in the day... and mentioned squirrel. I told him I'd never had it... but it is kinda intriguing. Im not sure where I would get processed squirrel meat from though....... guess I could just set up a trap in the back yard.

 

[triaddukefan]

Make sure it is the kind mixed and fried with the cornmeal instead of those tatertot looking things you see most places.

Fried Okra Recipe

Fried Okra is a Southern staple. It's so simple to make, and makes the perfect side dish. Get this heirloom family fried okra recipe that you'll love.

addapinch.com

I only started to eat fried okra a few years ago.... there is a NC Cafeteria chain called K&W and they have the fried okra every now and then.... but alas... they are of the tater tot looking variety. There has to be a place that serves it like the picture above down here... but I could also try to cook it myself at home..

I also feel the list falls a bit short on the desserts. Chess pie is fine and good, but the staples in my grandma's house were pecan pie and black bottom pie (my heart swoons).

Other classic Southern pies include:
buttermilk pie
hummingbird pie
sweet potato pie

sweet potato pie is the best pie on earth.... pecan pie runs #2 on the list

18 for me. Left out BBQ Coon, squirrel stew, wild turkey stew, lard biscuits, mayo sandwich, crowder peas with rice, some many desserts, etc. Miss those meals!

Raccoon? BBQ Raccoon?

 

[militarydog]

You left out Mississippi.

Unbelievable considering I live in Mississippi.

 

[militarydog]

Alot to catch up on in here.... lemme go in order



Was in the store a few weeks ago when everyone was buying up all the food..... I figured I'd pick up a canned good..... got a can of chicken and dumplings... the label says its made from scratch... i'll take their word.




Just wondering.... what 4 did you eat yesterday?

Chicken fried steak in a biscuit for breakfast.
Tomato sandwich for lunch.
Fried bologna, butter beans, and black eyed peas for dinner.

 

[militarydog]

I only started to eat fried okra a few years ago.... there is a NC Cafeteria chain called K&W and they have the fried okra every now and then.... but alas... they are of the tater tot looking variety. There has to be a place that serves it like the picture above down here... but I could also try to cook it myself at home..







sweet potato pie is the best pie on earth.... pecan pie runs #2 on the list






Raccoon? BBQ Raccoon?

View attachment 52499

I’ve only seen fried okra cooked properly by family, at a place in my hometown, and one other place my current town. Everywhere else has the tater tot style.

 

[triaddukefan]

Well, I know I am a "Yankee" but I did score a 10! Triad-very disappointing that you only scored 26 of 39, that's a 67% score. Your Southern roots are now in question...

Well to be fair............ the ones I missed were either farther south type foods.... (gator tail, jambalya) or foods i missed out on because of my age and growing up in the "city" (rabbit, squirrel). I have had alligator on a pizza before....... and I do know of a place that has red-eye gravy, and I found a source for souse.... so perhaps I can hit the 30 point mark by the end of the summer.

 

[newfrontier]

There are definitely some that are not exclusively Southern. Peach cobbler is something I grew up with in New England. Some have different names. Butter Beans are lima beans up North, for example. Deviled Eggs originated in England, so are popular in all the original colonies; It never would have occurred to me that someone might consider them Southern.

I scored 19. I don’t consider myself Southern; I’ve lived in Maryland and Virginia my entire adulthood. But I’m an adventurous eater and cook. One of my best friends for a decade was a Cajun, so I cook a LOT of Cajun food.

I have no interest in squirrel, chitlins, or any kind of liver.

But I bet you LOVE Rocky Mountain Oysters!

 

[Plebe]

I realize Virginia was home to the capital of the Confederacy but anything north of South Carolina and Tennessee and west/northwest of Arkansas as well as anything but the panhandle of Florida is only marginally “Southern” at best. Basically Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, eastern Arkansas, Louisiana above I-10, and the Florida panhandle is “The South”.
Edited to add my home state of Mississippi.

I always chuckle at attempts to arbitrarily define cultural regions.

I'm not really convinced that Hilton Head is more "South" than, say, Wilmington or Jacksonville.

Or that Kingsport, TN is more "Southern" than Pikeville, KY or Abingdon, VA.

Or that Interstate 10 somehow bisects Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans into "Southern" and "non-Southern" portions.

 

[DefenseBB]

I always chuckle at attempts to arbitrarily define cultural regions.

I'm not really convinced that Hilton Head is more "South" than, say, Wilmington or Jacksonville.

Or that Kingsport, TN is more "Southern" than Pikeville, KY or Abingdon, VA.

Or that Interstate 10 somehow bisects Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans into "Southern" and "non-Southern" portions.

Kentucky is Southern?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I also feel the list falls a bit short on the desserts. Chess pie is fine and good, but the staples in my grandma's house were pecan pie and black bottom pie (my heart swoons).

Other classic Southern pies include:
buttermilk pie
hummingbird pie
sweet potato pie

OK, I'll ask - what is black bottom pie?

My only odd dessert like - not southern - is Shoe-fly Pie. It is associated with the Pa. Dutch, my family was from Pennsy and had been influenced some by that culture. A simple explanation is molasses cake in a pie crust. Most folks like a "wet bottom" pie (that's molasses wet on the bottom) although my family preferred a dry bottom. I went to an Amish Market and asked about 10 vendors one time and couldn't get a dry bottom.

I was just wondering if black bottom pie was related

 

[Plebe]

Kentucky is Southern?

Have you been to Pikeville, Middlesboro or Harlan?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Well to be fair............ the ones I missed were either farther south type foods.... (gator tail, jambalya) or foods i missed out on because of my age and growing up in the "city" (rabbit, squirrel). I have had alligator on a pizza before....... and I do know of a place that has red-eye gravy, and I found a source for souse.... so perhaps I can hit the 30 point mark by the end of the summer.

Oddly enough, Cracker Barrel used to have red-eye gravy. I have some Southern relatives (we have kind of lost touch the last few years) that live in the Atlanta area, and Cousin Don - as southern as they come - told me what red-eye gravy was so I passed, he said he didn't care for it himself, but grew up with it. The thing he liked that I just couldn't stand when we visited was the grits. Don't care for them, so he used to carry on about grits for an hour just to tease the "yankee cousins".

 

[Plebe]

OK, I'll ask - what is black bottom pie?

My only odd dessert like - not southern - is Shoe-fly Pie. It is associated with the Pa. Dutch, my family was from Pennsy and had been influenced some by that culture. A simple explanation is molasses cake in a pie crust. Most folks like a "wet bottom" pie (that's molasses wet on the bottom) although my family preferred a dry bottom. I went to an Amish Market and asked about 10 vendors one time and couldn't get a dry bottom.

I was just wondering if black bottom pie was related

The star of the black bottom pie is the chocolate custard-like layer on the bottom. That is topped with a meringue layer and optionally another layer of whipped cream. Recipes can vary quite a bit, I've discovered, but those are the basics.

Black Bottom Pie | Traditional Sweet Pie From Southern United States | TasteAtlas

Originating in the early 1940s in the American South, black bottom pie is a sweet dessert consisting of a chocolate pastry cream that is flavored with rum and vanilla, and a crust made with butter, sugar, and crumbled cookies. The pie is typically topped with stiff meringue peaks or whipped...

www.tasteatlas.com

 

[ClifSpliffy]

this thread makes me hongry. and as far as grits goes, my longtime Connecticut clan mostly luvs them, and I first learned to eat them as a breakfast when a boy, usually in winter. ie, 'ur menu options today are oatmeal, wheatena, farina, or grits.' that was the cinnamon, butter, and sugar version. the butter and salt (plus pepper when older) version usually partnered with eggs. yep, this thread makes me hongry.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Have you been to Pikeville, Middlesboro or Harlan?

Watching "Justified" should be plenty to convince anybody that parts of Kentucky are definitely "the South." I know it's a tv show, but it's based on a couple novels by Elmore Leonard who I believe goes for a certain amount of realism in his choice of settings.

 

[Carnac]

12 - Cali is my birth place and home. I have relatives from the south that introduced me to many of those southern delicacies, some of which I continue to eat and enjoy regularly. Admittedly there are several items on that list I’ve never had, nor would I eat.
Not growing up in that part of the country did not allow me to develop a taste/appreciation for some of the foods listed.

 

[triaddukefan]

I always chuckle at attempts to arbitrarily define cultural regions.

I'm not really convinced that Hilton Head is more "South" than, say, Wilmington or Jacksonville.

Or that Kingsport, TN is more "Southern" than Pikeville, KY or Abingdon, VA.

Or that Interstate 10 somehow bisects Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans into "Southern" and "non-Southern" portions.

Here's my view..... North Carolina is definitely the south..... most of Virginia is the south to me.... once you get north of Fredericksburg...... into say Stafford, Quantico.... things definitely change....... Maryland is south of the Mason Dixon....... but I view it as more Mid-Atlantic than south. Though Im sure there are areas along the chesapeake and along the eastern shore that are Southern in feel. Once you get below Jacksonville FL..... the South stops East Texas.... east of 45 is the South.... San Antonio didnt feel like the south when I visited......

 

[Duncan Idaho]

16 here. The chocolate gravy conjured up memories from my grandfather's chocolate soup. We thought it was great as kids until we learned it was actually made out of duck's blood.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Here's my view..... North Carolina is definitely the south..... most of Virginia is the south to me.... once you get north of Fredericksburg...... into say Stafford, Quantico.... things definitely change....... Maryland is south of the Mason Dixon....... but I view it as more Mid-Atlantic than south. Though Im sure there are areas along the chesapeake and along the eastern shore that are Southern in feel. Once you get below Jacksonville FL..... the South stops East Texas.... east of 45 is the South.... San Antonio didnt feel like the south when I visited......

From some work travel and basketball travel, I would agree 100%. The Eastern Shore of Maryland is mixed, I suppose there is some "southern" to it, but we spent a few days touring there some years ago and I would say it had a mid-Atlantic feel as well.

I also did some work trips in southern Ohio and various Kentucky cities and you could feel the difference - literally - between Cinci / Florence and Louisville and whatever the city just to the north is. They just felt different (although downtown Louisville was different from the burbs.

 

[Crazyhorse]

View attachment 52444

Come on man....... you should subtract one point for asking that question. Then again.... Florida is just quasi-South.

Lol, I live in the panhandle, trust me its redneck. Distinct difference between the panhandle and the rest of Florida

 

[militarydog]

I always chuckle at attempts to arbitrarily define cultural regions.

I'm not really convinced that Hilton Head is more "South" than, say, Wilmington or Jacksonville.

Or that Kingsport, TN is more "Southern" than Pikeville, KY or Abingdon, VA.

Or that Interstate 10 somehow bisects Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans into "Southern" and "non-Southern" portions.

Yeah and people also used to chuckle when told the earth was round.

 

[MSUFan2003]

22. I love a good corn pudding. I'm not sure what chocolate gravy and fatback are. They should have listed pimento cheese.

 

[Crazyhorse]

22. I love a good corn pudding. I'm not sure what chocolate gravy and fatback are. They should have listed pimento cheese.

I had not heard of fatback either! Got roasted for it