By: Maggie Horton
Walking into the kitchen, the aroma of collard greens and cornbread fills the hot air.
Family and friends filter in and out of the room sipping on sweet tea and nibbling on cheese straws. Their laughter, gossip and small talk drowns out the sound of oil popping and hissing on the stove.
On the nearby counter, steam rises from the freshly baked peach cobbler. As one final piece of fried chicken is placed gently onto a platter, someone yells ‘y’all come get your plate.’
The crowd forms a line, anxiously awaiting their first bite of comfort food.
Food is a central part of the culture, community and history of Alabama. As Alabama evolves and changes, old recipes are kept alive while new ones are created.
“Food, like any cultural product, is ever evolving. Culture is a process not a product. There is no end result,” said John Edge, author and director of the Southern Foodways Alliance.
The foodways of Alabamians reveal the state’s history, progress and commitment to carrying on traditions.
Defining Modern Alabama Cuisine
Alabama is most well-known for foods like Bar-B-Q, fried green tomatoes, biscuits with gravy, pecan pie and grits.
While these dishes are still prevalent, Alabama foodways are always expanding.
“If Southern food to you is only fried chicken and fried green tomatoes, then is that food as relevant as it used to be? It’s debatable, but I think if you regard Southern food as this expansive thing that’s continuing to change and evolve then it is as relevant as it’s ever been no matter the generation,” Edge said.
Today, Alabama cuisine encompasses everything from fast food, to fusion, to elevated classics.
Alabamians have access to a larger variety of ingredients and have new techniques and tools, that were not available when these dishes were created. This allows for the expansion of Alabama food beyond the limits of traditional recipes.
“I feel fortunate to be able to add things to recipes that previously weren’t available or were too expensive, or prepare them with new techniques,” said Jonathan Harrison, Alabama-based chef.
Kathleen Phillips, owner of Grits and Gouda, a Southern recipe blog, also utilizes modern luxuries to alter traditional dishes. She creates shortcuts for Southern recipes, so that they align with modern lifestyles.
“I love providing people with recipes that they grew up with, that their grandma maybe made, but they don’t want to spend the time grandma spent in the kitchen,” Phillips said.
In this way, she keeps food traditions alive in a more accessible way.
Fast food restaurants like Hardees, KFC and Milo’s also offer Alabamaian staples for busy people.
“Fast food is a thing we made if you look at the prevalence of fast-food biscuits all across the South, even fast-food fried chicken. I don’t think of fast food as other; I think of fast food as us” Edge said.
Some Alabamians are even opting for healthier alternatives to Alabama comfort food.
“I like to make traditional comfort recipes that you can eat without killing yourself,” said social media Chef Amber Rebold. She was a contestant on “Next Level Chef,” and shares her recipes via Instagram.
International Influences
International influences also contribute to Alabama’s cuisine and influence the classics. Cultural ingredients are now widely available across Alabama as well as restaurants serving international cuisine.
Alabama’s immigrant population has brought international flavors to Alabama.
With an influx of different cultures pouring into Alabama, fusions between international flavors and southern food have become more prevalent.
“In Birmingham we had a big influx in Greek communities way back when. A lot of them came in and started meat and threes where they took the Southern flavors and Southern foods and also merged it with Greek style chicken or fish or sides. That’s kind of an interesting melting pot, and I think that’s just as southern now as fried chicken or collard green and what your normal staples would be,” said Nick Nicholson of Eating Alabama. Nicholson and his wife Jenny started Eating Alabama, an Alabama food blog, Instagram account and podcast that highlight the food scene in Alabama.
The largest number of immigrants in Alabama are from Mexico, China, India, Guatemala and Germany, according to the American Immigration Council. Immigrants also account for seven percent of food service workers in Alabama.
“In Alabama you may not have that broad of a community, but you still have those pockets of international food within those small towns. That’s unique in a sense because those people are beginning to get a taste of what international food is,” Nicholson said.
“This food has facilitated interactions between immigrants and native Alabamians, and led to a greater understanding, respect and acceptance of immigrant population in communities,” Nicholson said.
A Product of History
The history of food in Alabama explains the history of Alabama itself.
The process of creating the defining food of Alabama began with the merging of three distinct cultures. In the New World, Native Americans, Europeans and West African slaves exchanged culinary techniques, influences and ingredients.
Traditional Southern foods like cornbread, gumbo, grits and okra are a product of this initial exchange. For years to come, Alabamians relied on subsistence farming, eating what was in season and raising livestock.
During and after World War II, Alabamians embraced convenience foods like canned goods, frozen meals and prepared baking mixes.
“A lot of traditional Southern recipes are very time intensive. People don’t have time to be in the kitchen all day,” said Kathleen Phillips, owner of Grits and Gouda food blog.
During this time, farms in Alabama decreased by 66%, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.
In the 1960’s, restaurants serving traditional dishes replaced home cooked meals across Alabama.
A decade later in the 1970s, Alabamians rediscovered the value of preserving traditional foods. This renaissance of Alabama food ways brought new value to old traditions and the love of Southern food expanded across the country.
Chefs like Lucy Buffet and James Boyce brought back old recipes and traditions. They utilize seasonal local ingredients, that were once all Alabamians had.
This movement placed new value in farmer’s markets and created new Bar-B-Q restaurants.
“The history of Southern cuisine is the history of the South itself. It encompasses a history that has the imprint of enslavement and racism. It is defining, and it shows fissures that break along class lines and along gender lines. It is a history of bounty, the long growing seasons in the South, but also want, a history of economic deprivations,” Edge said.
Keeping Traditions Alive
Prior to industrialization, Alabama’s largely rural population relied on food to build community and strengthen social ties.
Gathering centered around food, such as peanut boils, brought together members of the community that were otherwise isolated.
Today, this tradition continues in the form of crawfish boils, Bar-B-Qs and fish fries. Sumter County even has Bar-B-Q clubs, and Dothan has the Peanut Festival.
“Food offers us a reason to gather. Fellowship comes from that and of that. So, we knit together families. We knit together communities at communal meals,” Edge said.
Food can also bring back memories of loved ones, of good time and of traditions.
“When you taste food, sometimes it can just take you right back to a memory. During Covid we couldn’t go to grandmas to eat her fried chicken and her banana pudding, but we could make it. Around the table with whoever we were gathering with, we could still go home to those memories,” said Kathleen Phillips, Grits and Gouda recipe blog owner.
In these instances, whether the food is traditional or not, Alabamians are carrying Alabama’s food traditions on to the next generation.
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