Taste of the South

taste of the south

EDITORIAL EDITOR Daniel Schumacher MANAGING EDITOR Mary-Kate Tucto FOOD EDITOR Sarah Ward ASSISTANT EDITOR Georgia Clarke SENIOR COPY EDITOR Rhonda Lee Lother COPY EDITOR Barbara McCarthy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Daniel Dubuisson CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PHOTOGRAPHY Mac Jamieson SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER John O’Hagan PHOTOGRAPHERS Jim Bathie, William Dickey, Nicole Du Bois, Stephanie Welbourne Steele SENIOR DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIALIST Delisa McDaniel DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIALIST Clark Densmore GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR Deanna Rippy Gardner ART DIRECTOR Cailyn Haynes STYLISTS Caroline Blum, Courtini Bodiford, Sidney Bragiel, Lucy Finney, Mary Beth Jones, Beth K. Seeley TEST KITCHEN DIRECTOR Irene Yeh ASSISTANT TEST KITCHEN DIRECTOR Melissa Gray FOOD STYLISTS/RECIPE DEVELOPERS Laura Crandall, Ashley Jones, Kathleen Kanen, Tricia Manzanero, Vanessa Rocchio, Elizabeth Stringer ASSISTANT FOOD STYLIST/RECIPE DEVELOPER Anita Simpson Spain CONTRIBUTING FOOD STYLISTS/ RECIPE DEVELOPERS Ashley Jones, Jade Sinacori DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING DIRECTOR Tricia Wagner Williams MARKETING COORDINATOR Vicky Lewis SENIOR ONLINE EDITOR Courtney duQuesnay DIGITAL DESIGNER Stephanie Lambert ADMINISTRATIVE HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR Judy Brown Lazenby IT DIRECTOR Matthew Scott…

serenity by the sea

Nestled just between Charleston and Myrtle Beach and hidden from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the picturesque oceanside community of Pawleys Island creates the perfect opportunity to reconnect with loved ones while giving yourself a much-needed reboot. One of the oldest seaside destinations in the country, the four-mile-long island is completely uncommercialized and feels like a true step back in time. Lined with understated vacation homes, there are no grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, or hotels, aside from two classic inns—the Sea View Inn and the Pelican Inn. The Sea View Inn features rustic rooms with relaxed décor and ocean views. All meals are included for those who don’t want to worry about cooking or driving, and the quaint atmosphere includes plenty of rocking chairs, a library, and a cozy…

editor’s letter

Biscuits are the first food I remember making as a child. From an early age, I had a love for tender, flaky biscuits, but the thought of pairing them with gravy didn’t come until later in life. Thankfully, one of my wife’s weekend specialties is warm biscuits topped with spicy sausage gravy. We eat it year-round, but even more so once the summer’s heat begins to fade. With all the delicious riffs on biscuits and gravy in this issue, I will certainly be mixing a few of those into our normal repertoire. While I’m always a sucker for a classic buttermilk biscuit (page 59), I can’t wait to bake up a few batches of Sweet Potato Angel Biscuits and the super-simple Cornmeal Cathead Biscuits (both on page 60). These twists on…

editor’s picks

Soup Beans and Herb-Pecan Cornbread My wife, who grew up in West Virginia, introduced me to this classic Appalachian dish, and now it’s one of my favorite things to cook once the weather gets chillier. Tomato-Shrimp Gravy and Cornmeal Cathead Biscuits Oxford, Mississippi, Chef John Currence serves a similar version of this dish at his Big Bad Breakfast restaurants, though his calls for grits instead of biscuits. Fennel Chicken and Dumplings Parsnips and fennel jazz up this traditional chicken and dumplings. This version can be made ahead and frozen for an easy weeknight meal. Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake There are basically two types of people when it comes to chocolate mayonnaise cakes: those who love them, and those who haven’t tried them yet.…

dishing with

Matthew McClure is the award-winning executive chef behind The Hive, one of Bentonville’s premier restaurants for refined country cuisine. He is also one of Arkansas’ chefs kick-starting a revival of “high South” cuisine, a style that originated in the northwestern part of the state. What was once a dying art is seeing a resurgence that Matthew believes is long overdue. Can you tell us a little more about what high South cuisine is? It all goes back to the subsistence farmers who have dotted the Ozark Plateau region for generations. They’ve grown and collected our area’s unique crops, like Arkansas Black apples and morel mushrooms, and combined those flavors with traditional Southern dishes in ways you can only find here. How would you describe Arkansas’ role in the Southern food landscape? This state…

prep + provisions

1 CAPTAIN RODNEY'S BOATSWAIN'S BREW COFFEE BARBECUE SAUCE This rich and tangy Tennessee-made sauce combines roasted coffee and a hint of balsamic vinegar to strike the perfect balance between bold and sweet. So if you can’t make it to one of our favorite barbecue spots across the South (we list 10 of them starting on page 89), grab a bottle and make your own at home. The only problem you’ll face is keeping yourself from using it all too quickly. $12.99; bellbucklecompanystore.com 2 SRSLY CHOCOLATE TEXAS MESQUITE BAR Local Austin-area ingredients make their way into each bar of this Texas company’s chocolate. But the base of this particular bar isn’t just any everyday white chocolate. This is SRSLY’s “Dirty White Chocolate,” made with unfiltered cacao butter and flavored with mesquite pods, giving it…