Appalachian cuisine

Woman preparing "poke salad" made of pokeweed (or phytolacca americana)

Johnnycakes in a cast iron fry pan

"slaw dog", a West Virginia-style hot dog with coleslaw and chili topping

Pepperoni roll with hot pepper cheese from Home Industry Bakery of Clarksburg, West Virginia

Cheerwine bottle

Fresh fiddlehead greens

British immigrants to Appalachia brought buttermilk, biscuits, dumplings, and moonshine.[2] Chefs from the region have noted other European-originated foods like Italian sausage, and borscht.[13] The Cherokee in Appalachia have contributed to the cuisine with dishes and ingredients such as boiled chestnut bread, fried creasy greens, ramps, pokeweed, corn, and fiddlehead greens.[2][4][14] Poet Frank X Walker coined the term "Affrilachian" to signify the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia, including in the cuisine.[15] The African-Americans in Appalachia have contributed to the regional food history with ingredients such as kale, collard greens, peanut beans, foods infused with bourbon (baked goods, and vegetables), spoonbread, and the use of molasses and sorghum as a meat glaze.[15][14]

Staples of Appalachian cuisine that are common in other regional cuisines of the south and in soul food include peanut brittle, sweet potato pie, pork chops, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, collard greens, cracklings, and ham hocks.[2] Appalachia has a wide variety of wild game, with venison, rabbit, raccoon, and squirrel particularly common, thus helping to compensate for distance from major cities and transportation networks (this was particularly true in the 19th-century). Many aspects of the diet came from economic necessity.[16][17] Subsistence farming was the backbone of the Appalachian economy throughout much of the 19th century, and is still a practice in the present-day in some areas through farming revitalization efforts.[18]

Traditionally most Appalachia homes used a fireplace and a dutch oven for cooking, which cooks hotter than a wood-burning stove.[19] However some households preferred using a wood-burning stove.[19] Sunday dinners are a tradition for many in the region.[20]

• corn liquor[28]
• Cheerwine soft drink
• Jack Daniel's whiskey[2]
• moonshine[2]
• Mountain Dew[2]
• sweet milk (whole milk)
• sweet tea

• Appalachian music
• Appalachian studies
• Appalachian Studies Association
• Foxfire (magazine), a student-run magazine about Appalachian culture

• Hillbilly Cookin Mountaineer Style. The Tates. Thorn Hill, TN: Clinch Mountain Lookout, Inc. 1968.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining. Foxfire Fund, Inc. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 1972. ISBN 9780385073530.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• Page, Linda Garland; Wigginton, Eliot, eds. (1984). The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. Dutton. ISBN 9780525481089.
• Sohn, Mark F. (2005). Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes. William G. Lockwood and Yvonne R. Lockwood Collection of National, Ethnic and Regional Foodways. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813191539.
• Lundy, Ronni (August 30, 2016). Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes. Johnny Autry (photographs). Clarkson Potter. ISBN 9780804186759.
• Talbott, Jason (December 28, 2022). Modern Appalachian Cuisine. Christian Faith Publishing, Inc. ISBN 979-8886855708.
• Abrams Locklear, Erica (April 15, 2023). Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0820363370.

• Media related to Appalachian cuisine at Wikimedia Commons