Conference turris::cooks

    How about some pinto beans, collard or mustard greens, kale or fried
    okra?
    
    T
    

    Bob:
    
    Standard fare when serving BBQ is Cole Slaw, and BBQ beans, kind of
    like our baked beans but different. French fries are optional.
    Dessert is Banana pudding, made with vanilla wafers....
    
    	Beverage of choice is ice tea (not iced) with a sugar level
    comparable with straight glucose...
    
    My husband and I have been transplanted (5 years now!) and love good
    barbeque...
    
    					Cynthia

    
    The other standard is not bisquits, but hushpuppies!
    
    Took me awhile to figure out why all of these people were going out to 
    lunch at a place where they used a bar-b-que grill.  I kept asking
    what... hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, chicken ... of course I've had
    bar-b-q before :-)
    
    I'm suprised noone has gotten into the "eastern NC vs. westen NC" style
    "Q"
    
    

    I'd vote for a good Coconut Cake for dessert.  Always a standard
    with my family...with Banana Pudding a close second.
    
    Judy

Mentioning Banana Pudding reminds me of a family story.  My dad's from Georgia 
and his sisters used to make Banana Pudding for him.  Shortly after my parents
were married, he asked Mom if she would fix some for him.  She found some 
recipes in cookbooks and made several variations and none of them were like 
what his sister's used to fix.  After a couple years Mom finally got tired of 
dad complaining about her Banana Pudding and asked one of his sister's for her 
recipe.  She said "Hun, it's on the side of the `nilla wafer box!"  She had it 
all along but never tried that particular recipe.  She laughs just thinking 
about this episode.....

    If you're having a Texas barbecue you need to serve cole slaw, potato
    salad, barbecued pinto beans, white bread, raw onion slices, and dill
    pickles.  Lots of (ice) tea, and beer.  I never had room for dessert.
    
    For any southern meal you need about a half dozen different vegetable
    dishes.

    
    No, no, NO biscuits with BBQ, what ya'll want is hushpuppies.  Baked
    beans are good, with slaw, personally I like marinated cabbage and
    onion in the vinegar-sugar-water marinade.  Do some yams somehow, fried
    or baked, or at least do baked sweet potatoes.  Potato salad is a great
    idea.  Beverage, hmmmm, mint julep?  And for dessert, I'd go for
    something light, fruity, tangy, say...lemon meringue pie or key lime
    pie.  Pecan pie is of course very Southern, or try a hickory nut pie if
    you have time.
    
    An earlier note siad it first, serve lots of vegetables.
    
    Helen

    OK sounds real good... seems to be almost a religon around southern
    cooking.  What's this about TX vs the rest of the south... there's 
    here, Mason Dixon and there.
    
    Hushpuppies.. did a directory on it but no listings...
    I have an old pair around the house.. should I use filet of sole,
    spiced tongue, laced drinks, or would we all end up as odor eaters?
    
    So if anyone wants to bother to try to educate a Yank on hushpuppyalia
    .. you might need a 2x4 to get his attention... it would be
    appreciated.
    
    Bob

�What's this about TX vs the rest of the south... 
    
    It's not just TX vs the rest of the south.  The south is very regional
    when it comes to cooking (or probably just about anything).  There are
    at least 3 styles of southern barbecue, there are 2 distinctly
    different styles of cuisine in Louisiana alone (cajun, creole).  To
    think all that Texas offers is tacos and barbecue is also misleading. 
    There is a very strong German influence in several pockets of Texas as
    well as influences from neighboring Lousiana.  Try telling someone from
    Minnesota that northern cooking means clambakes and at the least you'll
    get a strange look.

    Ok, Bob...
    
    Being transplanted, see this note .2, I'm sweeten the deal....Let me
    look around this weekend and I'll see if I can find you a decent,
    cheap, southern (GA) cookbook.
    
    						Cynthia

    Hushpuppies are a kind of cornbread.  There's a story something about
    tossing them to dogs to keep them from begging while dinners cooking. 
    Apparently, you toss your dog one and say "Hush, puppy."
    
    2 cups corn meal
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 1/2 cups milk
    1/2 cup water
    1 large onion, chopped fine.
    
    Mix it all up, add more corn meal or milk as necessary to make a soft
    dough.  Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat and fry 'til golden.  
    
    This stuff is a necessity with pork BBQ as well as fish fries.
    
    Helen

    When we have a BBQ we make pinto beans w/smoked neck bones. Creole
    potato salad,ham hocks and collard greens, hush puppies, or cracklin'
    corn bread, and for dessert Red Velvet cake, banana pudding, or peach
    cobbler. To drink, we have lots and lots of sweetened iced tea. If you
    would like any of the above recipes, let me know.
    
    
                                                           Mary

    To me, there's nuthin' like creole cooking.  The real stuff, not
    cajun/creole feeble attempts at some local establishments.  

    Just a note on Nathalie Dupree.  We watch her show often on Saturday
    mornings.  Her cooking is authentically Southern, though perhaps
    somewhat more sophisticated than most families have for everyday fare. 
    Most of her recipes (at least the ones we've tried) are delicious, and
    we have learned from her technique.  A word of warning, though ...
    We've jokingly dubbed her show Nathalie Dupree's "Cooking with Butter"
    because the things she makes, while absolutely delicious, are rarely
    healthy in any sense of the word.  She uses lots of fat, which is
    probably why her cooking is so good!
    
    One other comment -- on barbeque.  I grew up in Florida, and my wife
    grew up in North Carolina.  We both thought we knew what good barbecue
    was.  Then we moved to Alabama.  There is no comparison!  The BBQ in
    Alabama was head and shoulders above anything we'd ever tasted -- it
    wasn't even like the same food!  Then we moved to Texas, and (sorry,
    Texans) the BBQ here can't even compare.  We've had some of the best
    food of our lives here in Texas, but BBQ ain't among the winners.  So
    if you want really mouth-watering, to-die-for BBQ, get a recipe from
    someone in Alabama!
    
    My wife and I both grew up in the South.  My Mom wasn't too much
    of a cook when I was growing up, but Pat's was.  Trouble is, many of the
    things that are pretty much standard don't really have recipes, or at
    least not very specific ones.  Here are a few things:
    
    o Banana pudding:  Use the recipe on the Nilla vanilla wafers box.  It
    can't be beat.
    
    o Fried okra:  Wash okra, and slice about 1/4 inch thick, discarding
    the stem ends.  Toss in a brown paper bag with cracker meal.  You can
    buy cracker meal in a box or make your own from saltines in the food
    processor.  Deep fry in a skillet in  about 2" of oil at a *very* high
    temperature, stirring often, until brown and crispy.  Don't worry if
    some of the breading comes off -- enough will stick to make it ummmmmmm
    good!
    
    o Buttermilk biscuits:  My wife got this from her mother, who got it from
    her mother, who got it from her mother ... don't know how many
    generations it goes back.  Pat's mother was the one who started making
    it with buttermilk -- previous generations used something called
    clabber, which isn't really available now, but Pat says had an even
    sour-er flavor than buttermilk.
    
    2 cups self-rising flour
    1 tablespoon powdered sugar
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    1/3 cup shortening
    More than 3/4 cup but less than 1 cup buttermilk
    
    Stir dry ingredients together.  Cut in shortening. Add buttermilk and
    stir with a fork just until mixed (do not overmix).  You will have
    something softer than most doughs but slightly stiffer than most
    batters, and very light.  Turn onto a floured board and roll in flour
    till coated enough not to be sticky (do not knead).  Roll or pat out
    about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, and cut with a round cutter.  Do not twist
    cutter when you lift it up.  Place biscuits touching each other on a
    greased cookie sheet.  Brush the top of each with melted butter
    (optional).  Bake at 425 degrees till golden brown.
    
    o Buttermilk cornbread:  This is *not* a sweet cornbread, so if that's
    the kind you like then you probably won't like this.  But it's
    authentically Southern.  My wife's mother made this, but didn't measure
    anything so couldn't really come up with a recipe and never got around
    to taking the time to measure everything out and write it down.  Pat
    finally convinced a friend of hers to ask her grandmother, who made
    identical cornbread, to measure the ingredients and write them down. 
    And that's how we got the recipe.
    
    1 cup white corn meal (not corn meal mix)
    1/4 teaspoon baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1 tablespoon bacon grease (you can use oil but it won't be the same)
    1 egg
    1 cup buttermilk
    
    Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Grease a #5 cast iron skillet with bacon
    grease and put it in the oven while it's preheating.  Mix all
    ingredients together and pour into sizzling skillet.  Bake 25 minutes. 
    Turn cornbread out onto a plate and slice into wedges like a pie.
    
    o  Creamed corn:  Pat learned how to make this from the mother of one
    of her friends who was a wonderful Southern cook.  It's great!
    
    Cut corn off cobs, then scrape cob with back of knife to get the
    cornstarch out into the bowl with the kernels.  Put corn in a saucepan.
    If desired, fry out some fatback and season the corn with the resulting
    grease.  Cook over medium heat till hot.  Add some milk.  Bring to a
    slow boil.  Mix a teaspoon or so of boxed commercial cornstarch with a
    little cold water.  When corn is boiling, pour the cornstarch-water
    mixture into boiling corn *very* slowly in a thin stream, stirring
    constantly.  Continue to boil for 2 - 3 minutes, till thickened.
    
    o  Greens:  A staple in the South.
    
    Wash and "look" greens (that is, examine them for bad spots, bugs,
    etc).  If you're cooking mustard greens, use only those that were
    picked after the first fall frost.  Till they're frost-bitten, they're
    bitter.  Put them in a saucepan with a large slab of fatback, some
    salt,  and some water.  Cover and simmer till done, usually around an
    hour or so.
    
    o  Black-eyed peas:  These are mouth-watering.  Recipe is from Southern
    Living magazine a few years ago.
    
    1 16-oz pkg black-eyed peas
    6 cups water
    4 slices hickory-smoked bacon
    1 tablespoon salt
    1 tablespoon sugar
    1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
    1/4 teaspoon black pepper
    1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
    
    Soak peas 8 hours. Drain.  Combine with other ingredients, cover, and
    simmer 1-1/2 hours.