On Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 8:56:56 AM UTC-5, Brooklyn1 wrote:
>
> Yes, very interesting post, learned about Tom's Peanuts... thank you.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%27s_Snacks
>
Peanuts in a bottle of Coke/RC has been a favorite 'lunch' in the
South for a loooong time.
>
> I learned a lot about southern food in the navy. I quickly found out
> that most southerners had never seen spaghetti, some wouldn't eat
> those 'worms' while some tried it and liked it so much they could
> easily consume a whole pound and more.
>
I love spaghetti but will admit it was something that was NEVER
served at home when I was a child. Don't ask me why, I don't
know why.
>
> One thing you may find
> surprising is that southerners much prefered ham steaks with red eye
> gravy and breakfast sausages to bacon, it was primarily the
> northerners who prefered bacon and not too crisp, limp was preferred.
>
That will depend on the region and if it's something that was served
when growing up. Personally, I've never had red eye gravy in my life.
Give me milk gravy any day, please.
>
> I baked an awful lot of corn bread in huge roasting pans, it was served
> every day... no one wanted it with bacon grease, the most popular way
> was drowned in white sauce with breakfast sausages (southern SOS.
>
Sorry, but that sounds right damn disgusting.
>
> Corn bread smothered with baked beans was also popular among
> southerners.
>
True.
>
> Northerners preferred pound cake and bread pudding.
>
Another myth. Bread pudding is another Southern staple dessert.
>
> That southerners like blackeyed peas has to be a myth, they only
> wanted navy beans prepared Boston style... most every night I put up
> an 80 quart kopper with beans (a la Heinz pork n' beans style), every
> drop was eaten for breakfast. A kopper is a steam jacketed kettle,
> there were no pots or stoves in a ship's galley.
>
I've never cared for black eyed peas; muddy tasting to me. That is until
I lucked up on a recipe for spicy black eyed peas. Yum-yum.

What people in the South, or any region, eat is what is common for that
area and especially what each family cooks. Here's an example that
took me a good while to get used to. Potatoes. Potatoes for break-
fast was so odd to me when I'd see them at a restaurant and especially
at a friends home. Potatoes were NEVER on our table for breakfast
when I was a child. Nor were they served at grandparents, uncles,
or aunts homes and the same holds true for grits.

First time I ever saw grits I was 16 years old. I stared at my
plate and couldn't fathom what that white paste on my plate was.
I was less than impressed and that still holds true a hundred
years later.

;-)