The New Encyclopedia of Southern Food: A-M

These twenty-six people, places, and ingredients are changing the way we eat right now.

From Garden & Gun

Book art by Luciana Frigerio

A

Appalachian Food

Call it holler-to-table. Appalachian food is undergoing a renaissance as chefs explore the hyperlocal, make-do specialties of the region. This year writers, scholars, and interested civilians gathered at the first Appalachian Food Summit, in Hindman, Kentucky, for a day of lectures and discussions and a dinner of beaten biscuits, kil’t lettuce, and other favorites prepared by southwestern Virginia native Travis Milton.

B

Bison

When Europeans first arrived in North America, bison roamed over swaths of what is now Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, as well as most of the Mid-South and Texas. Today a growing number of ranchers are returning bison to their native range—and releasing damn tasty cuts of meat, too. Foremost among them right now is Carolina Bison, in Asheville, North Carolina.

SEE ALSO: Introducing the Good Dog Book

C

Counter Culture

Counter Culture Coffee is based in Durham, North Carolina, but its footprint extends far beyond the South—and even beyond the country. The nineteen-year-old roasting company has pushed hard for sustainable growing practices and fair wages overseas, cultivating a loyal community of growers who produce truly excellent beans. Stateside, classes at its eight training centers (four of them below the Mason-Dixon Line) teach baristas and enthusiasts how to brew, taste, and talk about coffee.

D

D.C.

Over the past few years, the nation’s capital has become one of the South’s culinary capitals, too, as old-guard dining rooms have given way to trendsetting bars and restaurants from up-and-comers such as Maryland-bred Aaron Silverman, whose eccentric menu keeps Rose’s Luxury, on Capitol Hill, packed. The latest chef to watch is Jeremiah Langhorne, a Virginia native whose new Beltway project will celebrate foods of the Chesapeake when it opens later this year.

E

Edible Flowers

Plates are blooming across the region. For a taste of the botanical bounty, try the squash blossom pizza at the new Pérez Art Museum Miami’s Verde restaurant, or the mustard flower–rapini appetizer at FT33 in Dallas. The concept extends to glasses, too. At Loa in New Orleans, mixologist Alan Walter makes cocktails from vodka house-infused with sweet olive flowers.

Photograph by Brennan Wesley

F

Foraging

Foraging has deep roots in the South, whether it’s picking muscadine grapes in the Carolinas or pokeweed in the mountains of Tennessee. So it makes sense that tradition-minded chefs are embracing foraged foods, and the people who hunt for them. Just ask Birmingham-based forager Chris Bennett, who has peddled his wild edibles and know-how to the area’s top restaurateurs, including Hot and Hot Fish Club’s Chris Hastings and Highlands Bar and Grill’s Frank Stitt.

G

Global Flavors

It’s never been easier to find barbecue bánh mi. From Asian influences to Italian, Southern chefs are blurring boundaries. Cases in point: Josh Walker of Asian comfort food joint Xiao Bao Biscuit in Charleston, South Carolina, and Hugh Acheson, a Georgia field-to-fork luminary whose new restaurant Cinco y Diez serves locally rooted Mexican food.

H

High Wire Distilling Co.

Charleston, South Carolina–based High Wire might be one of the newer distilleries out there, but its small-batch liquors are infused with centuries of tradition. The region’s backyard provided South Carolina sugarcane for rhum agricole and Tennessee sorghum for sorghum whiskey. The latest buzz is a partnership with Nat Bradford. After eight generations of hiding on a family farm, South Carolina’s Bradford watermelon—a juicy antebellum treat that went missing around the early 1900s—reemerges in a High Wire watermelon brandy. Look for its release in mid- September. There won’t be a lot, so get it while you can.

I

Infused Ice

In some of the South’s better bars, those giant, carved-to-order ice spheres that have become all the rage are yielding the spotlight to cubes that add flavor to cocktails. At King + Duke in Atlanta, the vodka-fueled Bloody Buck grows heartier by the sip thanks to a melting venison-broth ice cube. At Branch, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, gin meets its match in a cube flavored with cilantro and cilantro juice.

J

Jerky

The gas-station staple is gaining new culinary cred, thanks to Southern jerky makers who are adopting the delicate balancing of flavors and attention to detail typically reserved for charcuterie. The New Primal, out of Charleston, South Carolina, and Stripling’s General Store in Cordele, Georgia, craft elevated versions of traditional beef jerky; Sunburst Trout Farms in Canton, North Carolina, offers dehydrated strips of its farm-raised fish.

SEE ALSO: Test Your Southern Food IQ

K

Kool-Aid Pickles

With a pickle revival in full swing across the South, it was perhaps inevitable that these fluorescent-hued spears would make a comeback. Sweet-and-sour Kool-Aid pickles originated in kitchens and corner stores of the Mississippi Delta but have recently surfaced everywhere from Dallas to the Carolinas. In her new baking cookbook, Sweet and Vicious, Savannah, Georgia, culinarian Libbie Summers mixes four packets of cherry-flavored Kool-Aid with two cups of sugar and a jar of whole dill pickles. Just eat carefully, Summers warns, lest you end up with electric red fingers.

L

Lamb

Domestic lamb is back, thanks to producers who are regaining a foothold nearly lost to a flood of New Zealand imports. Here in the South, the shepherd of this moment is Craig Rogers, of Border Springs Farm in southern Virginia. Blackberry Farm chef Joseph Lenn, who tops braised Border Springs lamb with lamb bacon, swears you can taste the Southern grass the young sheep feed on.

Photograph by Patricia Lyons

M

Moonshine University

Used to be moonshine was typically accompanied by shadowy backwoods and midnight drives. Now learning to make your own hooch is as easy as signing up online. Louisville, Kentucky’s Moonshine University offers a five-day course covering everything from the building of the distillery to the branding of the product. The next session runs November 3–7.

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