Sunday, January 15, 2012

When it Comes to Southern Cooking

When it comes to southern cooking, not only is it fun but the food is sublime. Food cooked through the southern method comes with a mix of influences from the Irish to the French and even the African Americans. Apart from the Cajun style of cooking southern food, there is also the Creole method that people like.

For areas in the south of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Texas, and Oklahoma, their lively culture is well represented when it comes to the food that they cook. Extensively popular in these places are squash and tomatoes to name a few things. Aside from their Choctaw brethren, other Native Americans like the Seminoles influenced the use of the deep pit barbecue for food preparation and this is something that is highly popular in the south.

Almost all southerners are fans of milk and eggs when it comes to cooking. What you have here is an influence straight from Europe. When it comes to meals, breakfast is the most popular meal in the south and everything from large quantities of breads to cheese are served.

If you think about a basic southern meal, it will come with fried chicken, collard greens, some corn bread, and potatoes. Here is where cobbler or pie is the conventional dessert option. A number of traditional American soups, such as chicken noodle soup, lentil, and even split pea, actually originated from the South.

From green beans to okra, there are tons of veggies that southern folk adore and for their pies, nothing beats pecan and apple. Garden salads or fruit salads are eaten by southerners regularly and when it comes to breads, rolls and biscuits are conventional. Food seems to taste better when the table has been set just right and so this is another thing that southerners attend to.

Cornbread is a staple. For southerners, kitchens always have baking bread since the people cannot live without corn bread. It is important for a southern meal to include biscuits, corn bread, or rolls.

As an example of Southern cooking, cornbread is prepared using self-rising flour with the added ingredients of baking soda, baking powder and salt. Then, egg, milk (buttermilk) and liquid shortening are added. It is okay to mix in some sugar if you like.

Aside from a couple of cups of flour and milk, you need a couple of eggs pus the shortening to make your corn bread. Mix well and do not forget it. Put the mixture into muffin tins that have been lined with grease.

All breads in the south are served fresh from the oven. To do this, the oven is usually fired up to 450 degrees. Warming the bread involves turning them back and forth in the pan and prior to cooking, the pan is lined with cornmeal making the bread more delicious.

When it comes to the dough, it is important for the dough to be as thin as possible. This is just one example of southern cooking and some of its secrets. There are many other tips for this kind of cooking that applies to other southern fares.

Are you interested to learn more about southern cooking? If so, hitting the link will help a lot.