ABSTRACT
In the same way that the South is a synthetic culture composed of overlapping immigrant populations that have over time developed into a recognizable social group, southern food is a synthetic cuisine composed of ingredients and techniques that have developed over time through the transatlantic transfer of foods and cooking methods. Many of the region’s totemic foods illustrate this process. Cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet combines a Native American ingredient with a European cooking method. Pit-smoked pork barbecue combines an animal brought to the Americas by Europeans with a cooking method used by native tribes in the Caribbean. Creole gumbo combines filé powder used by Choctaw Indians with okra brought from Africa and seasonings common to French and Spanish cuisine. Black-eyed peas are indigenous to America, and collards are indigenous to Europe, but the practice of boiling each with salt pork shows the influence of one-pot stews common in West African cooking. Most of the dishes we think of as “southern” are products of cultural borrowing among the many populations who have interacted in the region, and the dishes have developed over time as new ingredients and new technologies have emerged.
