No meal has a plainer name and few meals can be so baroque. Used through much of the South, but especially in Nashville, the term meat and three quite simply refers to a menu template that lists two to five entrees and one or two dozen side dishes. From these lists, a diner picks one entree and three sides. Among the sides will be vegetables, but also congealed salads, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and rice. Corn bread, hoecakes, and biscuits or dinner rolls are always provided on the side. Sweet tea usually costs extra. Variations include meat and two or meat and three without the meat, meaning an all-vegetable plate of three or four selections. While it is possible for a meat and three meal to be simplicity itself—meat loaf with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and butter beans—the list of side dishes likely includes a number of souped-up vegetable casseroles or soufflés in which squash, broccoli, or spinach is transformed into a luxurious indulgence by use of butter or margarine and bread crumbs. Greens and cabbage tend to be enriched by massive infusions of pig, in the form of fatback, country ham, or neck bones.
Meat and three without the meat: A four-vegetable plate at the Loveless Cafe.
There are no extraneous adjectives on this meat and three menu, but it will make a plate-lunch lover’s pulse quicken in anticipation.