Southern Food Primer

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If you’re into southern baking enough to be here on this blog, odds are you may not need a primer on southern food, but just in case you want one anyway the good folks over at Southern Foodways have one all wrapped up for you:

Southern Food Primer

John Egerton writes, “Within the South itself, no other form of cultural expression, not even music, is as distinctly characteristic of the region as the spreading of a feast of native food and drink before a gathering of kin and friends.  For as long as there has been a South, and people who think of themselves as Southerners, food has been central to the region’s image, its personality, and its character.” – Southern Food

Need a primer on Southern Food?  Here ya go.  Download as a .pdf.  Or scroll through this page to read the full text online.

(It’s really worth a read, go ahead, click.)

The Southern Food & Beverage Museum

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Well, you knew there had to be a southern food museum somewhere, and there is! A great one!

Celebrate the food culture of the South by checking out The Southern Food & Beverage Museum online, or by visiting them in person in New Orleans!

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is a nonprofit living history organization dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of the food, drink and the related culture of the South.

…Not only are these guys collecting menus from every restaurant throughout the South and Southern-inspired restaurants everywhere in the world, they also create cool exhibits. Their newest exhibit, SPOILED by Tom Varisco, chronicles the tales that refrigerators told in the post-Hurricane Katrina clean-up.

Speaking of clean-ups, there is a great post at Southern Foodways on how the recent oil spill has effected the lives of folks who make their living on the water. Read it here.

Southern Foodways Goes Whole Hog

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“Southern baking is not only a way of survival: it is an expression of love, empathy, and celebration. Food brings families together at mealtime, celebrates the gathering of communities at traditional “dinner on the grounds,” consoles friends when a loved one dies, and offers topic for conversation at holidays. It represents the resourcefulness and ties that bind southern families and communities together…”

Therefore, it makes sense that these traditions should be preserved for future generations…

The Center for Public History and The Southern Foodways Alliance have completed an oral history project exploring Southern baking traditions. They have conducted over thirty interviews, created a traveling exhibit, and conducted a number of public programs at their exhibit locations, finely tuned for the special audiences in their community.

Please enjoy exploring their diligent work at The Center for Public History, University of West Georgia (View the on-line exhibit here.)

…And for hours of incredible education and entertainment, check out the The Southern Foodways Alliance‘s “Potlikker” documentary films online, here. With titles like “Whole Hog” and “Hot Chicken” you know can’t go wrong with these films!