Southern

Louisiana, and in particular the city of New Orleans, is known for its amazing food. One technique that the local chefs there have mastered is blackening, a method by which a piece of chicken, fish, or steak is coated in a peppery crust and quickly cooked over very high heat to—well—blacken the exterior. The Louisiana burger applies this method to a burger. (If you don’t want to take it all the way to black, you can do something called “bronzing,” which follows the same principle as blackening but does so to a lesser degree of darkness.) Blackening is best done in a cast-iron pan. I based the condiment for this burger on the classic New Orleans rémoulade sauce; it incorporates so many of the things that I use on my burgers—such as mustard, hot sauce, mayonnaise, and pickles (sour cornichons, here)—into one delicious spread.

Just mention the Carolinas and I immediately think of pulled pork sandwiches, dripping with barbecue sauce and topped with creamy coleslaw. Take the pulled pork out of the equation, add the rest to a burger, and you’ve got the Carolina Burger. It’s all about finding a great home for those sweet, vinegary, and spicy flavors that go so well with coleslaw.

If you like gumbo, you will like this one-dish beef meal. This recipe lends itself well to experimentation, so try different vegetables and beans for variety. To stretch the number of servings, ladle the mixture over steamed brown rice.

This mildly seasoned fish with its medley of Creole veggies is wonderful over steamed brown rice.

Gina: This is Pat’s “feel like a king” dish, and if you are married to a meat-and-potatoes man like I am, this dish will make him feel—you guessed it, girl—like a king. The secret to this sauce is two ingredients: bacon and beer. There isn’t a man anywhere in Memphis who would turn up his nose at a steak lacquered with both of those. We like to serve this steak sliced on the diagonal, with plenty of extra sauce on the side. When Pat takes a bite of this and gives me one of his sly winks, honey, I know it’s a slam dunk!

Pat: In Memphis, barbecued meats are ordered either “dry” or “wet. “Dry” meats are coated with a dry spice rub before they’re cooked, and often sprinkled with those seasonings when they come off the grill. “Wet” meats are slathered with barbecue sauce. Folks who crave a double dose of flavor, like me, order foods “wet and dry,” meaning that the meat is sprinkled with dry rub before being cooked, then slathered with sauce afterward. This Memphis pit tradition has found its way into the repertoire of home cooks as well. The application of a dry rub works for meats cooked on the grill or, as our mothers are fond of doing, in the oven. In this recipe, we douse our chicken with a dry rub and then bake it in barbecue sauce. The result is moist, flavorful, falling-off-the-bone tender chicken. We serve this saucy chicken with steamed rice or hot buttered rolls to soak up all the tomatoey goodness, and the accompanying vegetables on the side. It’s no wonder the Neely boys became so good with the grill when Momma was feeding us dishes like this from her kitchen oven.

Pat: All it takes is a spoon and a wedge of warm buttered cornbread to turn these sweet Southern baked beans, made with chunks of chopped pork, into a meal. Tangy baked beans are a Memphis trademark—we serve them sweeter than other regions around the country do. At our restaurants and at home, we flavor the beans with molasses, brown sugar, and our famous Neely’s Barbecue Sauce—as well as plenty of chopped pork. The hickory flavor from chunks of smoked pork gives this dish some toothy tang.

Because the berries are simmered whole and not strained, this sauce has a chunky texture.

You can use regular lemonade to make this Southern refresher, but we like to use the tart Italian Limonata made by San Pellegrino (it’s available in most grocery stores).

The grand lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis is called “the living room of the South,” for good reason. It’s the best spot in town to sink into a comfy lounge chair, sip a cocktail, and watch people, or the occasional parade of ducks, come and go. Their bracing mint julep is justifiably famous.

Gina: I don’t know if any of you have an appetizer before breakfast, but that’s what we sometimes do in our house, and it sure is fun. ’Course, when we do, the only appetizer we make is Nana’s Caramel Pecan Rolls. Nana was my godmother, who lived across the street from us while we were growing up. Nana is one of the best cooks in our family, and one of our most cherished matriarchs. She took care of me from the time I was six months old until I started school. Later, Nana took care of Shelbi when she was a baby. Nana always made the best caramel pecan rolls, and when we didn’t want to make them ourselves, we’d call her and request a batch for a special Sunday breakfast. After making these, you’ll know why.