Milk Punch
A CLOSE RELATIVE OF EGGNOG, MILK PUNCH (OR MILKY Way) is typically served in the South both at elegant winter brunches and as a festive Christmas drink. (The ritual in my own family has always been to sip milk punches while opening Christmas presents, and no doubt this was my initial—and harmless—introduction to alcoholic beverages […]
Hot Bourbon Nog
SOUTHERNERS LOVE A GOOD HOT TODDY AS MUCH AS anybody when the temperature drops, and this nog I was once served in a stately Virginia home near Danville, while on the farm to inspect a new litter of beagles (my canine of choice for the past forty years), left a glowing impression. All I kept […]
Kentucky Eggnog
ALTHOUGH NOG IS AN OLD ENGLISH TERM FOR ALE, most early references to what we know as eggnog mention red wine as a main ingredient. By the mid eighteenth century in America, it seems the creamy drink was made primarily with rum, followed in the South by the substitution of bourbon, which, henceforth, became the […]
Palm Beach Cobbler
YES, COBBLER IS INDEED AS MUCH A BEVERAGE IN THE South as a baked, deep-dish fruit dessert topped with a biscuit crust, referring, no doubt, to an old English punch made with wine or liquor, fruit juice, and sugar. I’ve had cobblers made with rum and pineapple juice, and with gin and cranberry juice, but […]
Fizzy Strawberry Lemonade
HOMEMADE LEMONADE IS STILL AS LOVED IN THE South during summertime as ice’ tea, and the variations folks come up with are amazing. No matter that other ingredients might detract from the lemonade itself—as in this fizzy version a friend in Huntsville, Alabama, takes great pride in serving at bridge parties. What’s most important about […]
Sun Tea
NEVER, I CAN ASSURE YOU, WILL YOU ENCOUNTER sun tea outside the South, and even in the northernmost states of the region, this method of making ice’ tea is virtually unknown. But from North Carolina over to Kentucky down to Mississippi, sun tea is almost a ritual for those who’re convinced there’s simply no better […]
Ice’ Tea
MOST AMERICANS MAY HAVE A GLASS OF ICED TEA from time to time during the summer, but so beloved and sacred is “ice’ tea” below the Mason-Dixon Line that Southerners couldn’t survive without the brew on a daily basis twelve months of the year—at brunches, picnics, church suppers, cookouts, and formal dinners; at beach parties, […]
Barbecued Country Style Pork Ribs
IF THE HIGH RATIO OF FAT TO LEAN MEAT IS WHAT makes baby back pork ribs so ideal for the barbecue grill, lean, meaty country-style ribs, cut from the shoulder end of the pork loin, are the perfect candidate for slow parboiling, before being finished in the oven with a robust barbecue sauce to give […]
Edisto Barbecued Mustard Sesame Chicken
OF ALL THE SEA ISLANDS OFF THE SOUTH CAROLINA coast, only Edisto has resisted, indeed rejected, the massive development that has completely transformed Hilton Head, Kiawah, St. Helena, and most others. To attend a family oyster roast or barbecue on pristine Edisto Beach, as I have several times, is not only to move back a […]
Dry Rub Barbecued Chicken
SINCE YOUNG BATTERY CHICKENS ARE SO BLAND today, they need to be either marinated or, as I learned at a barbecue competition in Huntsville, Alabama, seasoned with a spicy dry-rub before being grilled. (Even organic chickens, which may or may not have a bit more flavor, benefit from a dry-rub when being barbecued.) Indirect, slow […]