The universe will never allow that same set of ingredients to be in my kitchen at the same time in the same ratios ever again. It’s impossible to recreate a dish that uses leftover something as its base. Pretty much every meal starts with the question “what needs used up?” For example, baked beans are always a mix of the condiments in the fridge: ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, some random pepper jelly, etc plus bacon if I have it, tons of brown sugar, maybe some onion. I am always annoyed when I have more condiments than will fit in the door, so if I can empty a bottle or jar then I do it.
Haha! I feel that. I have people all the time who will ask me for the recipe. First reaction, "What recipe?" Second, "Crap! What did I even do here? I legit need some time to recollect."
When I was in kindergarten, we made these little recipe cards explaining how to make a dish. I chose chicken. My mother still has it because it said "add all the ingredients and chicken, put in oven, bake until done". She raised a proper southerner.
From a 60+ year old man from swamp country in Louisiana, cooking in 100+ year old cast set of cookware handed down from my great grandmother and a box of index card recipes.. your video is right on. Coonass approved!
Louisiana girl here. My husband (still alive) left my great-grandmother's Griswold cast iron skillet on the grill sideburner overnight in the rain. Over a 150 years of careful seasoning ruined, it was a black-diamond thing of awe and beauty. I had to strip it and start over. He has not been allowed to touch it since. I still think about it.
@@carolmelancon reading your comment made me sick to my stomach. I am so sorry. My husband left my cast iron out like that one time too, and it was a huge mess. I wanted to kill him. And it was just a 6 month old cast iron from Amazon. You could kill your husband today and nobody would blame you
One of my favorite recipes is a chicken and dumplings recipe from my great-grandma. The directions are something to the effect of "an egg for each person and a half egg of water for each person, then keep adding flour until you get tired of adding flour"
Also, grandparents telling you to just bake it in hot oven until done when you ask them for baking time/temp. Tho my grandpa's actual (translated) words where "Not too high and until it's cooked".
More informative than any cooking class could ever hope to be. Might I suggest adding a Tip #6: When you get stuck, call your mama. It doesn't matter what you're trying to cook, Mama has already cooked it a million times and will know exactly where you went wrong.
@Kathy Peebles Same here but I'm the only one left who knows how to cook my grandaddies family chicken mull recipe, I get requests from all the family every Christmas. I've shipped it frozen to my cousins in Texas, no lie!
So true 😂. I love my grandma's recipes. "Butter the size of a hen's egg", "put in a hot oven until done". I'll admit to measuring somethings when I bake, but cooking? I'm gonna wing it like granny.
@@jd-no7rw They had measuring cups and spoons back then, so if the cooks wanted to actually measure something they could. She specifically didn't write 1/4 cup because she didn't measure. Also she cooked with wood, so "hot oven" is going to be by experience, not a thermometer.
@@jd-no7rw The point of this video is not measuring your ingredients, tossing ingredients together and having a great meal....which is what my comment refers to. Don't know how you missed that....or maybe you like to complain. You do you.
LOVE THIS! I'm a transplanted Southerner but I still cook the way my Grannies and Mama taught me. But you need to discuss the difference between Barbeque and a cookout. They are NOT the same. Drives me crazy
I agree..a cookout is hamburgers, hotdogs, porch chops, etc. on a grill. A BBQ involves whole hog, slabs of ribs, brisket slow cooked over low heat for hours till fall-apart tender, bbq sauce optional.
I love southern food so much. I love thinking about all the people who have gone to doctors & when they’re told “eat more dark leafy greens.” & go, “yup. Collards are that. But I just gotta add some pepper, salt, butter, & ham hock so it actually tastes like food”
All I could do was say AMEN after this video was done. :) It was like you gave the same lecture my Mama gave me when I first moved out of the house and started cooking for myself...
You forgot one: deep fry anything and everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s battered or not. You can deep fry it. After all, this pillar of southern cooking is what blessed us with the miracle that is the deep fried honey bun.
Lol. They are not even kidding. One time we ran out of ingredients to make something for church so my mom make a coffee and everyone asked her for the recipe. She couldn’t remember how she made it. She basically just threw it all together. Southern cooking is basically “happy accidents” 😂
My family’s recipes have been put into a book by four generations. My mother took it upon herself to buy three identical blank cook books and rewrite every recipe in them for her three children. Now we have legible recipes from my great grandmother, grandmother and others. The original cookbook literally has things just scribble down, things have spilled on the book or have been written on an envelope then stuck on a random page. My mom has told me since I was a child “every thing is better with butter”. If your rue is not as dark as a Hershey’s chocolate bar it’s not dark enough (she is from south Louisiana). The book has room for more recipes and a comment section in the back with helpful tips and suggestions for pantry staples. It also has a sins section for things like minute rice for your jambalaya or quick rue in the oven (she said my grandmother would be turning in her grave if we made a rue in the oven instead of on the stove).
Salad : baked potatoes, bacon, sausages, grill meat, fried onion, pickles, fried or pickled mushrooms, shredded cheese, boiled eggs, mayo and little pinch of shredded greens as a decoration.
My mother was born and raised in the north. However, her approach to cooking is...well, let's just say she'd fit right in down south in many ways. For example, I once asked her for her chocolate chip cookie recipe. Her response: It's not really a recipe, it's more of a principle. Ask her how much of an ingredient goes in something: enough. I am similar. How much soy sauce in my Asian inspired marinade: until it smells right. Recipes are a jumping off point. I follow it the first time (sometimes making a few alterations) and then decide what needs to be adjusted, removed, or fixed. Never trust crock pots, timers etc. The only food to never check on is a soufflé (make sure to learn the correct heat and timing and follow both as you would the good Lord Jesus). Butter makes everything better. Bacon is yet further proof of a loving God. The right cracker crumbs blow breadcrumbs out of the water. Different crackers are good for different things. Buttercrisp Toasteds are great with fish. There are many kinds of mac and cheese; each kind has its own uses. There is something about cookies made by a loving grandmother, they're the best. Good ingredients make good food.
I love collecting cookbooks, especially church cookbooks. The only recipes I follow are ones for baking and something by Julia Child because you have to get those things precise. And I will shout from the mountaintops about the wonders and versatility of a cast iron skillet. But when it comes to casseroles, salads or anything fried? I commune with my ancestors with that. It's just something you feel when it's just right.
I know someone who had a ton of family recipes that said to use one cup. It wasn't an actual measure. The grandma meant an actual cup that she used for cooking ..lol.
Ohhh thanks for that memory!!! My grandma great laughed so hard at me over that one! She's never owned measuring cups! How silly of me to even think she meant a cup.
my sister was bellyaching about how much casseroles were piles of junk and she never made one, until i told her that her beloved peach cobbler she makes 3 times a year was nothing but a dessert casserole. i thought she might explode. it’s true, fight me! 😆
I laughed myself silly , that was funnier then Justin Wilson , have you ever seen or heard him before he died ? Google him , he was a Louisiana Cook / Comedian very funny just liked his cooking Sherry ( wine ) too much ,
I have store bought cookbooks that have only been open once. But, my Calling All Cooks 1&2 cookbooks are well used. They have pages falling out, little pieces of paper stuck in the top for bookmarks. I’ve taped the binder on both books. And those wonderful Church Cookbooks with the plastic binders have been worked over just as much.
I do every single one of these cooking tips. My mom never owned a cookbook or one recipe card and her cooking was legendary...no- it was heavenly. Great vid, y'all. I'm going to send this to my daughter.❤
This is exactly how my grandmother cooked. Good memories. Thanks. To this day, I'm convinced, that cooking is more about experience, taste, creativity and love than fixed recipes.
1. If it feels like it's missing something, add more butter and/or garlic. 2. If a soup doesn't taste quite right, but it's well salted and well seasoned, just leave it on simmer for like 10-20 more minutes. It takes a while for the flavors to meld together.
Grandma was a master of not having recipes. She used her Ecko mixing spoon to spoon out some flour, spoon out some Crisco, a little cold tap water, and she had the exact amount of dough for six hand pies (she baked them) and not a bit left over.
This was my mother to a T, everything you said she said at one time or another. My mom could take any recipe and turn it Southern 😂 And in our household, if we ran out of onions and Dr Pepper (her fave, had to have something to drink while cooking) lawdhavemercy on your soul 😂 I still to this day always have onions, no matter what. And another thing, a Southerners spice cabinet is a sight to behold and waaaayyyy different than everyone else's 😆 I have 2 cabinets for spices personally, I don't wanna run out of anything mid dish 😂
Baked or broiled fish fillets, served with steamed (not boiled to mush) vegetables, Seasoned rice, corn bread muffins, and lots of softened real butter.
My mom has a casserole called “hamburger casserole” and it has hamburger meat in it, onions, any kind of pasta we can find, cheese and butter. It’s heaven to have ❤🫶🤧
I would love a video on the perils of discussing ambrosia recipes. Having lived in the South, I definitely recall that being a hot topic. To marshmallow or not to marshmallow, that is the question. I personally feel they are a required ingredient, with extra potluck points if they are the mini, multi-colored marshmallows! Don't even get me started on the shredded coconut debate either!!
I haven't even heard the term Ambrosia mentioned in decades. Both it and egg custard were staple desserts during the holiday season when I was young. 😢🤓🍻
I just subscribed to your channel! I just love your ability to make it so fun! Plus, my momma was southern in a past life! Her black-eyed peas with cornbread, lots of butter, and the family recipe for chowchow! Mmmmmm! I sure miss her!
I know how to make my Great-Maw Maw’s Potato Salad that the recipe was never written down! I’m one of a few people in the family who know how to make it and I’m teaching my Nieces how so that the recipe doesn’t get lost!
As a Southern guy this is 100% true. Southern Tea: Minimum 2 cups of sugar "And then some more", tea, and enough HELLFIRE hot water to make a gallon of which you pour (still so hot) into a cleaned and reused plastic gallon jug. If you mouth doesn't pucker and at your eyes don't squint you didn't add enough sugar. Throw out the trash you just made, call up a real Southerner and let them help you.
@Amcsae we bring our water and tea bags (lipton is the best) to a boil in our tea pan and then turn the burner off. While it's cooling off just slightly, we put our sugar or sugar substitute in our plastic or glass pitcher that has just been washed out with hot water. Then, you pour the hot tea into the pitcher and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Fill the gallon pitcher the rest of the way full with cold water and stir again. Then fill up a glass with ice cubes and pour yourself a glass of tea! Been making it that way ever since I can remember and was raised here in the south.
I can't even begin. I know a few tricks that I did not understand are southern things. I'm from Maryland and I have seemingly inherited the habit of putting any grease in a coffee can under the sink. I also learned how to dredge. Which means I am not much perhaps of a deep fryer without the help of eggs and seasoned flour. I loved this video! When my mom passed away, I was able to get her cookbook called The Joy of Cooking, and, included were old grease stained recipe cards by her mom. I also subscribe to not using recipes. I like how the lady said they are for the weak 😂. Although, I have tried to pass along some of my supposed creations. I'm having the same aha moment as the lady in this video 😂.
Talia, I totally love you. You are the only person that can make absolutely miss the South. I still cook exactly like this... I make it up as I go along, use LOTS of butter, bacon in whatever I can, and cook 'til its done
When I would call Mom when I first got married to ask for something like how to make chicken and dumplings, she usually started with, “Well, I don’t really have a recipe.” She did dumplings basically like biscuit dough and dropped them by spoonfuls on the boiling broth and chicken. She would say things like, “just stir it till it looks right,” “cook till the dumplings are puffy and tender.” I took them to a potluck when we lived in Chicago area and everyone wanted my recipe. I started with, “Well, I don’t really have a recipe. If I write it down I can’t guarantee it will taste the same because I don’t measure.” I knew I was grown up when my daughter called to ask how to make something and I said the same thing as my mom. My grandmother told me when I was young that to learn how to make her biscuits and macaroni and cheese I would just have to come watch her. 😂
@spirals 73 My hair was always merely slightly wavy, but when I went through 'the change,' it suddenly developed curls ... now 10+ years down the road, they're gone - they were nice while they lasted
My Kroger sells a salad that literally has Snickers bars in it. Amazing. I just taught my kids to make slaw dressing using the big pinch, heapin spoonful, and the couple big splashes method. Came out great. :). I know Southern Indiana is not the South, but I don't think people around here know that. It's a weird mix, so many people came from the south, including my family.
@@NMWoman Whoa. Born and raised in Seymour, too! Tell her that about 2000 indigenous Guatemalans live there now. It's in National Geographic and everything. I am having trouble articulating how very weird that is. I am sure she can explain. I live in Bloomington now, but all of my family still live in the county and it is so weird going back. The food culture there is amazing now
My granny made the best Red eye gravy that you ever ate with country ham , white gravy and plenty of homemade biscuits. My favorite meal of all time! Everything Y'all do on the show just cracks me up !!! I guess you know where Mt Pilot is ?
Thank God that's how my Grandma taught me to cook and I still do to this Day,Thanks Y'all for a Wonderful recipe for Memories❤😂‼️(one more thing there ain't no other way😂‼️)
My dad had a German bakery in Chicago when I was growing up. Every recipe I have from him starts out with: 5 pounds butter, 20 pounds flour, a brick of fresh yeast.... etc. :D
You can tell the same thing about Southerners in all countries. I, actually, come from another country but it is also the southern region. The cooking rules are the same ❤❤❤ And yes, my son put bacon and frech fries on the top of ice cream 😂
Someone asked me for the recipe for my Mac & Cheese. I learned how to make from my great grandmother who never used measurements to make it. When the person read the directions to add enough milk to the beat eggs so that they are a bright sunny color, she just about lost it and kept asking how much milk was that. I couldn’t tell her cause I’ve never measured it. Then when adding the pepper, you add enough pepper so that you’ll get a good somewhat even spread off it through the mixture. My Mac & cheese is not that creamy gooey stuff. It is like a loaf and it’s fabulous.
My daughter used to call and ask me how I made various things, and I told her "Well, I put the biscuit ingredients in a bowl, stir it up good, add enough milk, and whop 'em down and knead and fold a few times then shape 'em by hand or use a biscuit cutter and put 'em in the oven until they're done". She got all mad, but now when I ask her the recipe for something that she brought over, she can't tell me.
Mine too, none of that gooey stuff. I also use a minimum of 3 types of cheese. If tomatoes are in season I cover the top of the casserole with thick slices.
I’m happy that most of these were past down from my great grandmother all the way to me, but my great grandmother wasn’t southern. She was Pennsylvania Dutch. I guess there’s a lot of overlap. But seriously I burst out laughing when she mentioned the mason jar full of bacon grease. I mean what else am I supposed to fry the venison in that my dad brought home from hunting?
My heritage is also PA Dutch. Cooking/baking exactly the same as the South. My mom and her sisters were known as "the best pie makers in the county!" Best Cooks ever.
My mom puts ham hocks, and bacon and a lot of other things NOT OLIVE OIL NONE in her Homemade collard greens recipe that was past to her from my grandfather and it’s so good. Like the best ever. I live in the country part of Florida
I'm Irish, and so some of this doesn't resonate... But for sure the measuring system is "from the old country", cause that's exactly how Granny baked... She's in heaven over 15 years now, and I still put "mix with love" as a step on all my baking instructions.
Great video. My resident southern friend gave it a thumbs up. She did say that you should have mentioned the use of Crisco more. Love your stuff. Great work!
My Malaysian-Chinese Grandma cooked the same way as this. Switch out butter for peanut oil, skillet for wok and switch some of the words for Manglish ones (agar-ation comes to mind) and it's EXACTLY the same. Good food is good food is good SOUTHERN food no matter which region you're in. So glad I moved to this part of the US - it's so much easier to transition to.
I am watching this in May 2024, in the UK. I have not yet had any opportunity of travelling to anywhere in the USA (unfortunately). I have watched your channel for some time now but have missed a lot due to personal reasons. I have never cooked "Southern food" but watching this made me hungry. If only there was a recipe book out there, somewhere.
Some additions I can’t live without for cooking is parkay butter, mollymcbutter and Molly n butter cheese sprinkles. I swear those three things go good on everything. Also the type of butter or margarine you use makes all the difference. Don’t go with off brand stuff, kerigold and president are by far the best butters that I know of
Born and raised in California by an Oklahoma mama, a Tennessee grandma and a Texas grandma, I’ll fit in just fine when I finally get the heck out of here!
My daughter with no instructions whatsoever because her mother hated cooking makes potato salad and macaroni and cheese both with bacon. We are from Michigan but bacon is universal.
I just love that "sweet home alabama" playin' waaaayy down low in the background. Well done! What's better than using butter in cooking? Using more butter!
One of my family's favorite meals came from my grandmother's recipe card; however, it called for "a nickel's worth of cheese". Obviously, the family altered it over time. 😂🤣
All good information, but the best part was the teaser from the Southern Vittles Unit video. Well done, Talia! Gonna share this with a Georgian friend so she can add more "secrets". 😊
Sounds remarkably like my approach to cooking, developed long before I migrated from California to Tennessee. I haven't quite picked up on the batter thing, though, and I tend to refer to casserole as "hot dish" owing to a North Dakota influence. I even take a very informal approach to making bread, despite all the proclamations that precise measurements are required. Add flour during kneading until it feels right, that's the ticket!
GOOP Got Out Of Pantry - brown onion and pepper and garlic Add ground beef When browned add some kind of tomato that you have in the pantry such as paste or whole etcetera. Simmer for half an hour and serve over noodles or rice.
This confirms it: I must he a Southener in spirit. So was my great-grandmother. “Bake until done” “A handful” “To taste” “Enough to serve four on a weekday” “Until it feels right” “Until it smells right” Don’t. Wash. My. Cast. Iron. Of course drippings and bacon grease are collected and used in another dish! And butter is what puts the world back to how it needs to be. Recipes are a suggestion at most. Except for the addition of bacon grease, butter and drippings. They’re mandatory. 😊 On another note: between birth and the age of 18 I’ve lived on three continents. There are a few parallels between Indian cuisine and Southern cuisine: In large parts of India, ghee is the cooking grease of choice and you shouldn’t be light-handed when using it. Ghee is… clarified butter. Desserts are so sweet they’ve got the ability to candy your insides. Recipes consist of a list of ingredients. What makes the difference between two dishes will often be the proportions and the cooking time. To correctly prepare a dish you need to be shown how to, because you need to use all your senses to get it right. My SO is a recipe-follower. I’m not. I cook with what I have and just… go with it.
I never measure, unless I'm baking pastries. I'll sometimes look at recipes on Google, but tweak it the way I want. The rest of my meals are from my grandparents and 2 louisiana cookbooks I have yet to try, because I don't make cajun/creole meals as well as my grandfather did. Most older folks in my family would only use one cookbook as a guideline, but the rest was out of love. ❤ born and raised Texan 😊
When I was a kid, I used to laugh at the church recipe book and then included instructions such as cook until done or heat until hot. Now decades later I realized that the vagueness wasn't a joke. It's just that nobody recalled the recipe they were cookin.
Oh, my God. I am in tears.😂 I have heard every single one of these said at one time or another. Of course I am also from Houston so kinda makes sense, but this was hilarious.
My little, New York raised, Italian mother must have been from South Brooklyn. Our measurements included "a handful". Meat in vegetables was always a big hit, especially bacon.
"Bake until done". Every old church cookbook on my shelf.
It's the guessing game that keeps on givin'
exactly 👍
🤚 amen
You got that right!! 😂
Damn. I didn’t think twice about that for a good minute or so because that’s the vast majority of my books
My husband when someone raves about a dish I made ... "Well enjoy it, because she's never going to make it the same way again."
So true.
Them: "Wow, that was good!"
Me: "Dang; I'm going to have to try to remember what I did, then..."
The universe will never allow that same set of ingredients to be in my kitchen at the same time in the same ratios ever again. It’s impossible to recreate a dish that uses leftover something as its base. Pretty much every meal starts with the question “what needs used up?” For example, baked beans are always a mix of the condiments in the fridge: ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, some random pepper jelly, etc plus bacon if I have it, tons of brown sugar, maybe some onion. I am always annoyed when I have more condiments than will fit in the door, so if I can empty a bottle or jar then I do it.
@@amyschmelzer6445 Exactly!
Haha! I feel that.
I have people all the time who will ask me for the recipe. First reaction, "What recipe?" Second, "Crap! What did I even do here? I legit need some time to recollect."
When I was in kindergarten, we made these little recipe cards explaining how to make a dish. I chose chicken. My mother still has it because it said "add all the ingredients and chicken, put in oven, bake until done". She raised a proper southerner.
to the point ! great recipe 😋
That's a basic southern recipe.
@@carol22368 It's every southern recipe. 🤣
The layers in the bacon grease jar are like the rings of a tree. They have a story to tell. A delicious one.
From a 60+ year old man from swamp country in Louisiana, cooking in 100+ year old cast set of cookware handed down from my great grandmother and a box of index card recipes.. your video is right on. Coonass approved!
Your cast iron set is literally priceless!! So glad it is in loving hands. Enjoy!
Louisiana girl here. My husband (still alive) left my great-grandmother's Griswold cast iron skillet on the grill sideburner overnight in the rain. Over a 150 years of careful seasoning ruined, it was a black-diamond thing of awe and beauty. I had to strip it and start over. He has not been allowed to touch it since. I still think about it.
@@carolmelancon he's a lucky man
@@carolmelancon reading your comment made me sick to my stomach. I am so sorry. My husband left my cast iron out like that one time too, and it was a huge mess. I wanted to kill him. And it was just a 6 month old cast iron from Amazon. You could kill your husband today and nobody would blame you
My condolences
One of my favorite recipes is a chicken and dumplings recipe from my great-grandma. The directions are something to the effect of "an egg for each person and a half egg of water for each person, then keep adding flour until you get tired of adding flour"
Southern cooking has one thing in common with French cooking: you can never use enough butter.
Also, grandparents telling you to just bake it in hot oven until done when you ask them for baking time/temp. Tho my grandpa's actual (translated) words where "Not too high and until it's cooked".
I had to teach my wife to cook with butter. My coworkers all lament the poundage of butter I use while cooking, but they always eat my food.
Lol.
It's not so much that "you can never use enough butter"
It's just that you can never use TOO MUCH butter. 🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈
More informative than any cooking class could ever hope to be. Might I suggest adding a Tip #6: When you get stuck, call your mama. It doesn't matter what you're trying to cook, Mama has already cooked it a million times and will know exactly where you went wrong.
My daughter calls me, dad😊
@@tinkwilkinson9446 I believe it 100%. I ask my dad stuff about cooking as well. He's a very creative cook.
Doesn’t help when all grandparents and parents are gone. 😢
@@kathypeebles7001 Oh no! I'm so sorry!
@Kathy Peebles Same here but I'm the only one left who knows how to cook my grandaddies family chicken mull recipe, I get requests from all the family every Christmas. I've shipped it frozen to my cousins in Texas, no lie!
I would add another B... buttermilk. You can dredge with it, use it in marinade and add to breads
Oh, buttermilk is a must for southern cooking, especially cornbread and biscuits. ;)
5th "B" Brown Sugar - use it in your breakfast, your rib rub, candied bacon, green bean bundles, glazing a ham etc, etc etc.
I like to sweeten my coffee with it. 🤓🍻
And it's liquid country cousin-molasses!
So true 😂. I love my grandma's recipes. "Butter the size of a hen's egg", "put in a hot oven until done". I'll admit to measuring somethings when I bake, but cooking? I'm gonna wing it like granny.
Yeah, but those actually have some correlation to modern cooking, hen's egg = 1/4 cup, hot oven=400 to 450 degrees F.
@@jd-no7rw They had measuring cups and spoons back then, so if the cooks wanted to actually measure something they could. She specifically didn't write 1/4 cup because she didn't measure. Also she cooked with wood, so "hot oven" is going to be by experience, not a thermometer.
@@queenbunnyfoofoo6112 I think you missed my point, but no worries. Have a great day anyway.
That's only because baking requires it, somwhat...
@@jd-no7rw The point of this video is not measuring your ingredients, tossing ingredients together and having a great meal....which is what my comment refers to. Don't know how you missed that....or maybe you like to complain. You do you.
Wise words Taila. Wise words. And all God’s people said AMEN!
LOVE THIS! I'm a transplanted Southerner but I still cook the way my Grannies and Mama taught me. But you need to discuss the difference between Barbeque and a cookout. They are NOT the same. Drives me crazy
I agree..a cookout is hamburgers, hotdogs, porch chops, etc. on a grill. A BBQ involves whole hog, slabs of ribs, brisket slow cooked over low heat for hours till fall-apart tender, bbq sauce optional.
Indeed. BBQ is not a verb! 😂
Bbq is not a verb.
I love southern food so much. I love thinking about all the people who have gone to doctors & when they’re told “eat more dark leafy greens.” & go, “yup. Collards are that. But I just gotta add some pepper, salt, butter, & ham hock so it actually tastes like food”
Doctor: take all that extra crap out and you'll be fine. You can keep the peppers in vinegar, but the extra stuff will give you high blood pressure.
@@CoasterMan13Official 😂😂 right on the money.
Z❤❤ 3:42 3:42 3:42 3:42 😂
My greens are with some salt / ham & plenty of vinegar!
you got that right -ham bone or hock is prime ingrediant to anything ..
All I could do was say AMEN after this video was done. :) It was like you gave the same lecture my Mama gave me when I first moved out of the house and started cooking for myself...
You forgot one: deep fry anything and everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s battered or not. You can deep fry it. After all, this pillar of southern cooking is what blessed us with the miracle that is the deep fried honey bun.
Lol. They are not even kidding. One time we ran out of ingredients to make something for church so my mom make a coffee and everyone asked her for the recipe. She couldn’t remember how she made it. She basically just threw it all together. Southern cooking is basically “happy accidents” 😂
She made a coffee... ?
@@danielleking262i think "cake" fell off 😂
My family’s recipes have been put into a book by four generations. My mother took it upon herself to buy three identical blank cook books and rewrite every recipe in them for her three children. Now we have legible recipes from my great grandmother, grandmother and others. The original cookbook literally has things just scribble down, things have spilled on the book or have been written on an envelope then stuck on a random page. My mom has told me since I was a child “every thing is better with butter”. If your rue is not as dark as a Hershey’s chocolate bar it’s not dark enough (she is from south Louisiana). The book has room for more recipes and a comment section in the back with helpful tips and suggestions for pantry staples. It also has a sins section for things like minute rice for your jambalaya or quick rue in the oven (she said my grandmother would be turning in her grave if we made a rue in the oven instead of on the stove).
Salad : baked potatoes, bacon, sausages, grill meat, fried onion, pickles, fried or pickled mushrooms, shredded cheese, boiled eggs, mayo and little pinch of shredded greens as a decoration.
Thank you Talia for the humor in it all!!! I've learned some great tips. Born and raised in the West. God bless you!!!!!!
My mother was born and raised in the north. However, her approach to cooking is...well, let's just say she'd fit right in down south in many ways. For example, I once asked her for her chocolate chip cookie recipe. Her response: It's not really a recipe, it's more of a principle. Ask her how much of an ingredient goes in something: enough. I am similar. How much soy sauce in my Asian inspired marinade: until it smells right. Recipes are a jumping off point. I follow it the first time (sometimes making a few alterations) and then decide what needs to be adjusted, removed, or fixed.
Never trust crock pots, timers etc. The only food to never check on is a soufflé (make sure to learn the correct heat and timing and follow both as you would the good Lord Jesus).
Butter makes everything better. Bacon is yet further proof of a loving God. The right cracker crumbs blow breadcrumbs out of the water. Different crackers are good for different things. Buttercrisp Toasteds are great with fish. There are many kinds of mac and cheese; each kind has its own uses. There is something about cookies made by a loving grandmother, they're the best. Good ingredients make good food.
"Enough, but not too much" heard often growing up.
I love collecting cookbooks, especially church cookbooks. The only recipes I follow are ones for baking and something by Julia Child because you have to get those things precise. And I will shout from the mountaintops about the wonders and versatility of a cast iron skillet.
But when it comes to casseroles, salads or anything fried? I commune with my ancestors with that. It's just something you feel when it's just right.
I know someone who had a ton of family recipes that said to use one cup. It wasn't an actual measure. The grandma meant an actual cup that she used for cooking ..lol.
Ohhh thanks for that memory!!! My grandma great laughed so hard at me over that one! She's never owned measuring cups! How silly of me to even think she meant a cup.
my sister was bellyaching about how much casseroles were piles of junk and she never made one, until i told her that her beloved peach cobbler she makes 3 times a year was nothing but a dessert casserole. i thought she might explode. it’s true, fight me! 😆
😂😂😂
It's true!
Cobbler is a pie
Are pies casseroles??
I laughed myself silly , that was funnier then Justin Wilson , have you ever seen or heard him before he died ? Google him , he was a Louisiana Cook / Comedian very funny just liked his cooking Sherry ( wine ) too much ,
Yeah, I don’t get why some people wanna hate on casseroles. I mean, what is lasagna but a casserole?
Talia Lin is a true Southern treasure!!! 😍
I have store bought cookbooks that have only been open once. But, my Calling All Cooks 1&2 cookbooks are well used. They have pages falling out, little pieces of paper stuck in the top for bookmarks. I’ve taped the binder on both books. And those wonderful Church Cookbooks with the plastic binders have been worked over just as much.
I can recommend 2 fine Southern cookbooks- White Trash Cooking" and "Hot Flashes, Sinking Spells, and Fits & Cravings"..both by Earnest Mathew Micklin
My northern born husband was amazed at how I could make a casserole out of leftovers! 😂😂
I do every single one of these cooking tips. My mom never owned a cookbook or one recipe card and her cooking was legendary...no- it was heavenly. Great vid, y'all. I'm going to send this to my daughter.❤
There is no lie here. i am a mid 50's southern man and this is how i cook. There is butter and a container of bacon grease in my kitchen.
Well of course, we all have those front and center
Always save the bacon grease!
This is exactly how my grandmother cooked. Good memories. Thanks.
To this day, I'm convinced, that cooking is more about experience, taste, creativity and love than fixed recipes.
1. If it feels like it's missing something, add more butter and/or garlic.
2. If a soup doesn't taste quite right, but it's well salted and well seasoned, just leave it on simmer for like 10-20 more minutes. It takes a while for the flavors to meld together.
3. If a dish isn't brown enough, add some Kitchen Bouquet...
Can’t have too much butter, bacon(bacon grease) and garlic!
Grandma was a master of not having recipes. She used her Ecko mixing spoon to spoon out some flour, spoon out some Crisco, a little cold tap water, and she had the exact amount of dough for six hand pies (she baked them) and not a bit left over.
This was my mother to a T, everything you said she said at one time or another. My mom could take any recipe and turn it Southern 😂 And in our household, if we ran out of onions and Dr Pepper (her fave, had to have something to drink while cooking) lawdhavemercy on your soul 😂 I still to this day always have onions, no matter what.
And another thing, a Southerners spice cabinet is a sight to behold and waaaayyyy different than everyone else's 😆 I have 2 cabinets for spices personally, I don't wanna run out of anything mid dish 😂
Baked or broiled fish fillets, served with steamed (not boiled to mush) vegetables, Seasoned rice, corn bread muffins, and lots of softened real butter.
My mom has a casserole called “hamburger casserole” and it has hamburger meat in it, onions, any kind of pasta we can find, cheese and butter. It’s heaven to have ❤🫶🤧
Hello 👋
Now I'm hungry! That casserole Talia described sounds so good right now! 😋
I would love a video on the perils of discussing ambrosia recipes. Having lived in the South, I definitely recall that being a hot topic. To marshmallow or not to marshmallow, that is the question. I personally feel they are a required ingredient, with extra potluck points if they are the mini, multi-colored marshmallows! Don't even get me started on the shredded coconut debate either!!
In some places it's called 5 Cup Salad...
I haven't even heard the term Ambrosia mentioned in decades. Both it and egg custard were staple desserts during the holiday season when I was young. 😢🤓🍻
I have my great great grandmother's Ambrosia bowl. It has only ever had Ambrosia in it.
All versions are good
I always enjoy Miss Talia’s videos! This one is no exception. And as a southern cook, it’s so true y’all!! 😂
I just subscribed to your channel! I just love your ability to make it so fun! Plus, my momma was southern in a past life! Her black-eyed peas with cornbread, lots of butter, and the family recipe for chowchow! Mmmmmm! I sure miss her!
I know how to make my Great-Maw Maw’s Potato Salad that the recipe was never written down! I’m one of a few people in the family who know how to make it and I’m teaching my Nieces how so that the recipe doesn’t get lost!
As a Southern guy this is 100% true.
Southern Tea: Minimum 2 cups of sugar "And then some more", tea, and enough HELLFIRE hot water to make a gallon of which you pour (still so hot) into a cleaned and reused plastic gallon jug.
If you mouth doesn't pucker and at your eyes don't squint you didn't add enough sugar. Throw out the trash you just made, call up a real Southerner and let them help you.
A true conissure of "Southern House Wine"
Doesn't the plastic jug melt if it's that hot? I'd think you'd have to brew it in something else and transfer it to the jug when cooler.
@Amcsae we bring our water and tea bags (lipton is the best) to a boil in our tea pan and then turn the burner off. While it's cooling off just slightly, we put our sugar or sugar substitute in our plastic or glass pitcher that has just been washed out with hot water. Then, you pour the hot tea into the pitcher and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Fill the gallon pitcher the rest of the way full with cold water and stir again. Then fill up a glass with ice cubes and pour yourself a glass of tea!
Been making it that way ever since I can remember and was raised here in the south.
Born and raised in NOLA, Mississippi, and Alabama and two cups is way too sweet for me. I like a generous 1 1/4 cup. ;)
@@auntypc4791 Taste is subjective but you know in the South we can handle a lot more of true tea than anyone else.
I can't even begin. I know a few tricks that I did not understand are southern things. I'm from Maryland and I have seemingly inherited the habit of putting any grease in a coffee can under the sink. I also learned how to dredge. Which means I am not much perhaps of a deep fryer without the help of eggs and seasoned flour. I loved this video! When my mom passed away, I was able to get her cookbook called The Joy of Cooking, and, included were old grease stained recipe cards by her mom. I also subscribe to not using recipes. I like how the lady said they are for the weak 😂. Although, I have tried to pass along some of my supposed creations. I'm having the same aha moment as the lady in this video 😂.
Talia, I totally love you. You are the only person that can make absolutely miss the South. I still cook exactly like this... I make it up as I go along, use LOTS of butter, bacon in whatever I can, and cook 'til its done
This video made my day!!! All true. Thank you gurl. Just awesome.
My fave Southern Thing member. Hilarious 😂. Thanks. I now am ready to cook southern 😁
I love it!!!! Bacon Bacon Bacon!!!!!! ❤
When I would call Mom when I first got married to ask for something like how to make chicken and dumplings, she usually started with, “Well, I don’t really have a recipe.” She did dumplings basically like biscuit dough and dropped them by spoonfuls on the boiling broth and chicken. She would say things like, “just stir it till it looks right,” “cook till the dumplings are puffy and tender.” I took them to a potluck when we lived in Chicago area and everyone wanted my recipe. I started with, “Well, I don’t really have a recipe. If I write it down I can’t guarantee it will taste the same because I don’t measure.” I knew I was grown up when my daughter called to ask how to make something and I said the same thing as my mom. My grandmother told me when I was young that to learn how to make her biscuits and macaroni and cheese I would just have to come watch her. 😂
Loving the new (to me) hairstyle she's sporting ... and the southern cooking is point-on :-)
@spirals 73 My hair was always merely slightly wavy, but when I went through 'the change,' it suddenly developed curls ... now 10+ years down the road, they're gone - they were nice while they lasted
My Kroger sells a salad that literally has Snickers bars in it. Amazing. I just taught my kids to make slaw dressing using the big pinch, heapin spoonful, and the couple big splashes method. Came out great. :). I know Southern Indiana is not the South, but I don't think people around here know that. It's a weird mix, so many people came from the south, including my family.
My mother was born and raised in Seymour, IN but she might as well had been born and raised in KY.
@@NMWoman Whoa. Born and raised in Seymour, too! Tell her that about 2000 indigenous Guatemalans live there now. It's in National Geographic and everything. I am having trouble articulating how very weird that is. I am sure she can explain. I live in Bloomington now, but all of my family still live in the county and it is so weird going back. The food culture there is amazing now
My granny made the best Red eye gravy that you ever ate with country ham , white gravy and plenty of homemade biscuits. My favorite meal of all time! Everything Y'all do on the show just cracks me up !!! I guess you know where Mt Pilot is ?
Thank God that's how my Grandma taught me to cook and I still do to this Day,Thanks Y'all for a Wonderful recipe for Memories❤😂‼️(one more thing there ain't no other way😂‼️)
My dad had a German bakery in Chicago when I was growing up. Every recipe I have from him starts out with:
5 pounds butter, 20 pounds flour, a brick of fresh yeast.... etc.
:D
And here I was thinking this video would be a wise, serious, instructional video on the fine art of “Southern cooking.” 😁😊😆
It was.
@@allensturdivant3044 oh come now. You can’t just throw any old thing into a casserole dish and call it a casserole. 😁
@@thomashardy1600 Why not?
You can tell the same thing about Southerners in all countries. I, actually, come from another country but it is also the southern region. The cooking rules are the same ❤❤❤
And yes, my son put bacon and frech fries on the top of ice cream 😂
Someone asked me for the recipe for my Mac & Cheese. I learned how to make from my great grandmother who never used measurements to make it. When the person read the directions to add enough milk to the beat eggs so that they are a bright sunny color, she just about lost it and kept asking how much milk was that. I couldn’t tell her cause I’ve never measured it. Then when adding the pepper, you add enough pepper so that you’ll get a good somewhat even spread off it through the mixture. My Mac & cheese is not that creamy gooey stuff. It is like a loaf and it’s fabulous.
My daughter used to call and ask me how I made various things, and I told her "Well, I put the biscuit ingredients in a bowl, stir it up good, add enough milk, and whop 'em down and knead and fold a few times then shape 'em by hand or use a biscuit cutter and put 'em in the oven until they're done". She got all mad, but now when I ask her the recipe for something that she brought over, she can't tell me.
@@mizdeb7287 🤣🤣🤣
Mine too, none of that gooey stuff. I also use a minimum of 3 types of cheese. If tomatoes are in season I cover the top of the casserole with thick slices.
Talia's cooking tip a so relatable especially her measurements... and I'm Canadian
Banana pudding!!! My favorite!! You should do a video on the secrets of making that!
One problem with that- topped with baked meringue or chilled with Cool Whip?
@@caronstout354 Meringue!!
I’m happy that most of these were past down from my great grandmother all the way to me, but my great grandmother wasn’t southern. She was Pennsylvania Dutch. I guess there’s a lot of overlap. But seriously I burst out laughing when she mentioned the mason jar full of bacon grease. I mean what else am I supposed to fry the venison in that my dad brought home from hunting?
My heritage is also PA Dutch. Cooking/baking exactly the same as the South. My mom and her sisters were known as
"the best pie makers in the county!" Best Cooks ever.
My mom puts ham hocks, and bacon and a lot of other things NOT OLIVE OIL NONE in her Homemade collard greens recipe that was past to her from my grandfather and it’s so good. Like the best ever. I live in the country part of Florida
Oh that sounds wonderful I sure miss my mom's collard greens!
@spirals 73 Yes half or less than half of Flordia is country the other half is tropical and city/beach life
I'm Irish, and so some of this doesn't resonate...
But for sure the measuring system is "from the old country", cause that's exactly how Granny baked... She's in heaven over 15 years now, and I still put "mix with love" as a step on all my baking instructions.
Great video. My resident southern friend gave it a thumbs up. She did say that you should have mentioned the use of Crisco more.
Love your stuff. Great work!
I was expecting one of the ingredients to be Crisco. LOL
Granny's Potato Salad (yes, there's bacon grease in it) and my Pecan Pie are so good my family won't eat anyone else's. This video is spot on, Talia!
Now Chicken tenders cut up and added to mac and cheese with some ranch dressing is the favorite salad around here
My Malaysian-Chinese Grandma cooked the same way as this. Switch out butter for peanut oil, skillet for wok and switch some of the words for Manglish ones (agar-ation comes to mind) and it's EXACTLY the same. Good food is good food is good SOUTHERN food no matter which region you're in. So glad I moved to this part of the US - it's so much easier to transition to.
In the south, butter is an actual blood type.
I am watching this in May 2024, in the UK.
I have not yet had any opportunity of travelling to anywhere in the USA (unfortunately).
I have watched your channel for some time now but have missed a lot due to personal reasons.
I have never cooked "Southern food" but watching this made me hungry.
If only there was a recipe book out there, somewhere.
You had me at bacon.
Bacon on everything !!!!!
@spirals 73 That sounds SO good !
Some additions I can’t live without for cooking is parkay butter, mollymcbutter and Molly n butter cheese sprinkles. I swear those three things go good on everything.
Also the type of butter or margarine you use makes all the difference. Don’t go with off brand stuff, kerigold and president are by far the best butters that I know of
Very cool! I would like to see another one with desserts.
This is soooooo true!!!!! My MeMaw would say add, stir, etc. until it’s Thus…🤷♀️ we basically know how to adapt!!
Somewhere in my archives is a Corned Beef Salad recipe. If I remember right, there are very few if any vegetables in it.
Those five Sothern measures are directions on the road to perfection.
Bacon, Butter, Batter! I totally agree! And As a mathematician, I stand by the Southern Measuring System.
Preach, Talia! 100% true❤
Born and raised in California by an Oklahoma mama, a Tennessee grandma and a Texas grandma, I’ll fit in just fine when I finally get the heck out of here!
Im so hungry now
Sorry, we should have started the video with a warning 😂
Macaroni, cheese and fried chicken salad. With a bit of bacon. Yes PLEASE! 😍
My daughter with no instructions whatsoever because her mother hated cooking makes potato salad and macaroni and cheese both with bacon. We are from Michigan but bacon is universal.
Talia, good girl! Cast Iron Frying Pan.
This made me smile so much reminds me of my mom and grandma's god bless there souls and this video thankyou. =)
That's why I love living in the south Georgia in the house
Talia made me put on 5lbs just watching this.
I just love that "sweet home alabama" playin' waaaayy down low in the background. Well done! What's better than using butter in cooking? Using more butter!
Born & raised in the south here & every single word you spoke was 100% true 👌🤣🤣❤️
Hello 👋
One of my family's favorite meals came from my grandmother's recipe card; however, it called for "a nickel's worth of cheese". Obviously, the family altered it over time. 😂🤣
Welp, now I'm hungrier than a tick on a teddybear
All good information, but the best part was the teaser from the Southern Vittles Unit video. Well done, Talia! Gonna share this with a Georgian friend so she can add more "secrets". 😊
Sounds remarkably like my approach to cooking, developed long before I migrated from California to Tennessee. I haven't quite picked up on the batter thing, though, and I tend to refer to casserole as "hot dish" owing to a North Dakota influence.
I even take a very informal approach to making bread, despite all the proclamations that precise measurements are required. Add flour during kneading until it feels right, that's the ticket!
GOOP Got Out Of Pantry - brown onion and pepper and garlic
Add ground beef
When browned add some kind of tomato that you have in the pantry such as paste or whole etcetera. Simmer for half an hour and serve over noodles or rice.
This confirms it: I must he a Southener in spirit. So was my great-grandmother.
“Bake until done”
“A handful”
“To taste”
“Enough to serve four on a weekday”
“Until it feels right”
“Until it smells right”
Don’t. Wash. My. Cast. Iron.
Of course drippings and bacon grease are collected and used in another dish! And butter is what puts the world back to how it needs to be.
Recipes are a suggestion at most. Except for the addition of bacon grease, butter and drippings. They’re mandatory. 😊
On another note: between birth and the age of 18 I’ve lived on three continents. There are a few parallels between Indian cuisine and Southern cuisine:
In large parts of India, ghee is the cooking grease of choice and you shouldn’t be light-handed when using it. Ghee is… clarified butter.
Desserts are so sweet they’ve got the ability to candy your insides.
Recipes consist of a list of ingredients. What makes the difference between two dishes will often be the proportions and the cooking time. To correctly prepare a dish you need to be shown how to, because you need to use all your senses to get it right.
My SO is a recipe-follower. I’m not. I cook with what I have and just… go with it.
That’s right…BACON is Universal!!!! Yee haw!
Bacon is the universal element...
I never measure, unless I'm baking pastries. I'll sometimes look at recipes on Google, but tweak it the way I want. The rest of my meals are from my grandparents and 2 louisiana cookbooks I have yet to try, because I don't make cajun/creole meals as well as my grandfather did. Most older folks in my family would only use one cookbook as a guideline, but the rest was out of love. ❤ born and raised Texan 😊
Yup. So my momma hit nearly every mark. ❤❤❤
I have that apron. And, I look hot in it!
When I was a kid, I used to laugh at the church recipe book and then included instructions such as cook until done or heat until hot. Now decades later I realized that the vagueness wasn't a joke. It's just that nobody recalled the recipe they were cookin.
I thought this would have been funny and have me rolling on the floor as usual but actually this was the truth. No comedy here just the whole truth.
I'm laughing at the background footage of Deadwood, SD in a video about southern cooking. 😂😍
Butter, lard, Crisco, and bacon grease are the 'must haves' for cooking.
Oh, my God. I am in tears.😂 I have heard every single one of these said at one time or another. Of course I am also from Houston so kinda makes sense, but this was hilarious.
if its cold its a salad, warm a casserole.... yes!
My little, New York raised, Italian mother must have been from South Brooklyn. Our measurements included "a handful". Meat in vegetables was always a big hit, especially bacon.