GLOSSARY OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FOOD TERMS

Both of us use—conversationally in general and especially when talking of cooking—traditional food terms that lie outside the normal vocabulary of cookbooks and cuisine. Provided below is a glossary of some of the more common usages from the region, many of them encountered in these pages.

arsh tater—Irish potato.

bait—A mess or ample quantity, often preceded by the word big. “We had us a big bait of turnip greens and cornbread for supper.”

bile, biled—Boil, boiled.

blinked—Milk that has spoiled. “You need to check on that milk to be sure it isn’t blinked.”

butter—A sweet fruit preparation, as opposed to the dairy product, made with either molasses or sugar and often used to spread on biscuits or loaf bread.

cannery—An outbuilding used to store canned goods and, often, cured pork.

cathead biscuit—A large biscuit, equivalent in size to the head of a cat; a biscuit cut from dough using the open end of a tin can.

cowcumber—A colloquialism for cucumber.

cracklings—Crisp tidbits left when pork fat is rendered into lard.

cushaw (or kushaw)—A large winter squash with a taste resembling that of pumpkin.

dash—A synonym for pinch; a tiny addition to a recipe.

dinner—The meal eaten at midday.

dope—A soda pop or carbonated beverage. The word likely derives from the fact that cocaine was used in the original Coca-Cola.

drib (also dribs and drabs)—A small portion; a little bit. “She added melted butter to the batter in dribs and drabs.”

drop—Seldom used in the literal sense; instead, a drop in a recipe means the addition of a small amount.

dusting—A small amount, usually associated with some foodstuff that is fine or powdery. For example, you might top a cake with a dusting of powdered sugar.

fatback—Salted meat, widely used in Appalachian cooking for seasoning. Synonyms or near synonyms, although the meat might come from different sections of a hog, include streaked meat, middling meat, streak o’ lean, salt pork, pork belly, seasoning meat and others.

flumlolly—A small biscuit made from the dough remaining after full-size biscuits have been cut out. Also known as a baby biscuit.

fruit—Apples loom so large in importance as a foodstuff that they are sometimes simply called fruit.

glob—A considerable quantity. “She always added a glob of butter to her cobblers.”

grabble—To dig out new potatoes gently without disturbing the entire hill.

greasy beans—A particular type of green bean, so named because of its slick appearance.

hickory chickens—Morel mushrooms.

hint—An expression for a minute quantity. “What made that pot likker was just a hint of red pepper.”

hoecake—Fried cornbread.

June apples—Any of a number of varieties of apples that ripen in midsummer rather than autumn.

kilt—Killed; primarily used to describe the result of pouring hot grease over fresh lettuce or other greens as a dressing.

larrup (or larruping)—Exceptionally tasty; sometimes used with the main ingredient: i.e., berry larrup.

leather—Dried version of a variety of fruits.

leather britches—Dried green beans.

little hominy—Grits.

long sweetening—Honey, molasses or sorghum syrup.

look—To check a foodstuff, such as dried beans, carefully to remove unwanted particles.

lump—A word normally used in connection with some specification of size. “At this point, add a lump of lard the size of a banty’s egg.”

made—Usually applied to a crop that has matured or reached the harvest stage.

mangos—Sweet peppers.

maypops—Fruit of the passionflower; also known as wild apricots.

merkels (miracles)—Morel mushrooms.

mess—A hearty serving or servings. An adequate quantity for a meal. “We had a mess of turnip greens and pone of cornbread for supper.”

mite—A quantitative expression usually connected with overdoing some ingredient or failing to include enough of it. “There’s a mite too much pepper in this stew for my taste,” or “A mite more sugar would have made that rhubarb pie better.”

molasses—Colloquial term widely used to describe sorghum syrup, as opposed to true molasses made from sugarcane.

nubbin—Literally, a small cob of corn; in a food context, a small amount.

okry—A common pronunciation of the word okra.

partridge (also pottige)—A colloquialism for ruffed grouse.

passel—A large quantity. “It took a passel of taters to feed that hungry bunch.”

pinch—A small amount. See also scrimption, scootch, skiver, smattering, smidgen and tetch.

poke—A wild vegetable eaten when its sprouts first appear in the spring.

pole beans—Any type of climbing bean.

pone—Cornbread cooked in a round skillet.

pot likker—The broth from cooking cabbage, greens or other vegetables.

put up—To preserve food for later use; usually, though not always, refers to canning.

redeye gravy—Grease left after frying ham, usually mixed with water or coffee and used as gravy.

roasting ears—Fresh corn.

run—A single batch of canned goods, kraut or the like. “We canned a run of green beans this morning.”

saucered (or sassered)—Coffee or hot tea poured in a saucer to cool before drinking.

sawmill gravy (or, rarely, sawdust gravy). A hearty gravy using cornmeal, lard or grease from streaked meat and water. It was common fare in logging camps, hence the name.

scootch—A tiny amount.

scrimption (or skimption)—A small amount.

short sweetening—Brown or white sugar.

skiver—A small portion of something; often used for snow but also for cooking ingredients.

smattering—A small or inadequate amount. “There was just a smattering of cracklin’s in that cornbread.”

smidgen—A small amount; synonym for pinch.

smokehouse—A building used to store and smoke pork as a part of the curing process.

soodlin—An indeterminate portion; usually with a helping of food. “Would you care for a soodlin more preserves?”

soup beans—A general term for dried beans most commonly applied to pintos, October beans and navy beans.

sugar—In addition to a sweetening agent, often used to describe a kiss.

supper—The evening meal.

sweet milk—Whole milk.

tad—A small amount.

taste—Enough of an ingredient for its flavor to be discernible. “I like to add just a taste of allspice to my pumpkin pie.”

tetch—A touch or very small amount. “That stew needs just a tetch more salt.”

tommytoes—Small tomatoes sometimes known as cherry tomatoes.

vittles—Victuals or foodstuffs.

work off—Allow kraut or pickles to ferment; also used to describe the process of making hard cider or moonshine.

yard birds—Any free-ranging domestic fowl, although most commonly applied to chickens.