The Essential Southern Pantry
From Garden & Gun
From next-level Tennessee pickles to grits watermilled in South Carolina, these 13 staples add homegrown flavor to any kitchen.
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The Essentials of the Southern Pantry
1. Carolina Ground Flour
From $5
Jennifer Lapidus, a former baker, launched this Asheville, North Carolina–based mill to create a market for locally harvested flour and wheat products.
2. Duke’s Mayo
$16 for a 2-pack of 32 oz. jars
No Southern kitchen—or chicken salad or pimento cheese—is complete without a jar of Duke’s mayonnaise, made from the same family recipe since 1917.
SEE ALSO: What To Do With Your Leftover Gameday Barbecue
3. Anson Mills Benne Seeds
$5.95 for 8 oz.
A precursor to the sesame seed, these South Carolina–grown heirlooms lend nutty depth to everything from cookies to sautéed greens.
4. Virginia Vinegar Works Wine Vinegar
From $6.95
In the bucolic countryside of Nelson County, craft vinegar producers Jay and Steph Rostow derive flavor from local Virginia wines, and recently, ale.
5. Woodberry Kitchen’s Snake Oil Hot Sauce
$12; 410-464-8000
Crafted from heirloom fish peppers, an indigenous varietal grown in Baltimore in the 17th and 18th centuries, this hot sauce tastes like a happy hybrid of Tabasco and Sriracha.
6. Waxing Kara Butterbean Honey
$18
Beekeeper Kara Brook pays homage to the Eastern Shore land where her bees pollinate an array of crops, including the South’s summertime go-to, the butterbean.
7. Jerky
$4.29
This gas-station staple is the new charcuterie, thanks to culinary-minded Southern jerky makers like Stripling’s General Store in Cordele, Georgia. Their hickory-smoked beef and pork jerky contains nothing but meat—no nitrates, artificial flavors, MSG, gluten, or sugar.
8. Boykin Mill Farms Grits
From $5
These old-fashioned yellow grits are ground the old-fashioned way in a water-powered mill in South Carolina and come in old-school paper or cloth bags.
9. Schermer Pecans
$33 for four 5 oz. bags
These nuts are harvested from Georgia orchards that have been in the same family for more than a century. And, come winter, they can be packaged with fresh mistletoe, which grows in pecan trees.
10. Texas Olive Oil
$26
The Texas Hill Country Olive Company, in Dripping Springs, produces homegrown oil that stands up to the best of Italy. Try the grassy, buttery Miller’s Blend.
SEE ALSO: Brown Sugar, Pear, & Pistachio Cake Recipe
11. Lowcountry BBQ Sauce
$6.42
You can never have too many barbecue sauces in the pantry. Down in St. Simons Island, Georgia, this old gas station turned smokehouse specializes in inventive blends, such as Habanero Peach and Hot Red Cayenne.
12. Blackberry Farm Pickles
From $13
From pickled okra to ramp kraut to honey-brined turnips, Blackberry Farm in the Tennessee Smokies specializes in the wild cards that will take your cheese board or pickle plate to the next level.
13. Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon Tomato Jam
$9.50
Armed with heirloom family recipes, former pastry chefs Jessica DeMarco and Dayna Stubee make pickles and jams using finds from North Carolina farmers’ markets, including this oven-roasted tomato spread. Pair it with goat cheese, add crostini, and watch it disappear.
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