Southern History Book of the Month: S is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco

by Mary Anne Ellis, Southern History Department, Central Library

S is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco
By the editors of Garden & Gun

Can all of What It Means to Be Southern be summed up in a single book? Probably not, but S is for Southern takes a valiant swing at it. With entries ranging from how to tell the difference between a common roach and a palmetto bug (both of which need to be exterminated on sight—“A flip-flop is as effective a weapon as any”) to the origins of the legendary Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, from James Dickey to Eudora Welty, from armadillos to Weeki Wachee mermaids, the editors of Garden & Gun magazine have compiled this entertaining and instructive guide to the many institutions of Southern culture. You can get an idea of the flavor of the book from this entry on Cheese Straws:

Open a drawer in any well-stocked Southern kitchen and you will find a cookie press, an industrial-looking steel extrusion tube with a lever and fitted dies. One could make fancy sugar cookies with these precision-engineered tools, but really the only action the gadgets generally see is for the production of cheese straws. These long, ridged wafers that look like bread sticks and taste infinitely richer are—axiomatically—the most beloved party snack of all time. No one says no to a cheese straw. With scant variation to the recipe, the dough consists of copious amounts of grated sharp cheddar cheese mixed with soft butter. The cook works in just enough flour to set the short dough and adds an all-important pinch of cayenne pepper, which races through the straw like Tinker Bell through the forest, leaving a sparkle of bright spice. The Southern cheese straw is the very glory of what is dismissed a bridge party food.

Cheese straws were a fixture at my great-aunt’s annual Christmas Night Open House, and I’ve never read a better description of how they should (and did) taste. This is the average-length description in the book, though many run longer and some much shorter. My hat is off to Jon Meacham for his concise entry on the Civil War; he devotes roughly one and a quarter pages to it and still covers the essentials. Iced Tea, on the other hand, is a couple of sentences and immediately re-directs you to Sweet Tea, which merits a solid half-page of analysis.

Did you know there is a specific paint color that is meant to protect your home from troubled spirits? There is such a color and it’s known as “Haint Blue” in the Gullah traditions of the Carolinas. And speaking of colors, if you’ve never had Redeye Gravy then turn directly to that portion of the book, follow the excellent and simple directions, and serve with Biscuits or over Grits. This is an excellent book for browsing at random, but once you start looking through it, you’ll find that one thing leads to another and it’s hard to stop. So treat yourself to S is for Southern. Even if you grew up here, you’ll still learn something about your home that you never really knew.

For further information:
Jon Meacham
Palmetto Bug
Pappy Van Winkle
Pretty & Practical: The History of "Haint Blue" Porch Ceilings
Cheese Straws