Matt R. Moore - Southern Living a Southern Gentlemans Kitchen: Adventures in Cooking, Eating, and Living in the New South

Southern Living

Adventures in Cooking, Eating, and Living in the New South

FOREWORD

Good food, good drink, and good conversation served as the three pillars of Southern hospitality for hundreds of years, and Matt Moore has helped bring these classic elements into the 21st century. Matt knows the manners of the warm and welcoming gentleman never go out of style and that still todayperhaps especially todaynothing makes a guest feel more at ease than a cold drink, a belly full of warm food, and an engaging yarn.

Matts ability to be inspired by his Southern heritage while updating its traditions has made him the perfect contributing food editor for my blog, The Art of Manliness, which makes its aim to wed the best of the past with the best of the present. In A Southern Gentlemans Kitchen , Matt doesnt just write recipes, but shares the stories that go with each one. You hang out in the kitchen with him, you join him on the sidelines of his high school football games, for a Sunday supper with his family, on a wild boar hunt, and more. With his recipes, Matt invites you to pull up a chair at his table, relax, and check out whats simmering on the stove.

Matts ability for putting you at ease doesnt end with his stories, either; he has a way of making cooking approachable, and yes, even manly. The recipes are simple and tasty, and his directions for making them are friendly and accessible. Hell put his arm around you, guide you through the process, and let you know You can do this.

Finally, Matt helps you understand why you ought to give this cooking business a try in the first place. He never tires of illuminating the ways that cooking is a gentlemanly skillhow it fosters autonomy, keeps you healthier, impresses the ladies, and provides tasty sustenance to others. Matt helps the average guy be able to see himself in the kitchen. And his way of evocatively painting the benefits of breaking bread with friends and family inspires you to serve home-cooked meals to those you love.

Matt has helped hundreds of thousands of Art of Manliness readers slow down, discover their inner Southern gentleman, and with A Southern Gentlemans Kitchen you, too, will discover this plus the satisfaction of fresh food shared with good friends. Hospitality never goes out of style, and neither will this cookbook.

Brett McKay,

Creator and editor of The Art of Manliness

artofmanliness.com

FROM A SOUTHERN GENTLEMANS KITCHEN

To write a book on Southern cuisine is no easy endeavor. Honestly, its taken many handles of bourbon, late nights, endless miles, damn good food, repeat tracks from The Marshall Tucker Band, and passionate collaboration with family, friends, and strangers to put this book in your hands. This is my lifestyle. This is my South.

The difficulty of writing such a book lies in the fact that our beloved cuisine is not easily defined, for it varies greatly by region, culture, and experience. Try to get ten Southerners to agree on the proper way to smoke a pork shoulder, and youre likely to receive ten different, fiercely-debated responses. As it is with such tried-and-true dishes, down here everyone has an opinion or two on the best way to go about such things. In the end, and regardless of the recipe that makes the final cut, Im willing to wager that all ten plates of smoked pulled pork will be eagerly devoured, appropriately sopped up with white bread, and served with a smattering of dill pickles and a bottle or three of cold beer. Naturally, the conversation and fellowship around the table will be just as lively and spirited as the savory meal because thats the very heart of Southern cuisine and culturecooking and sharing our food and having a damn good time doing it. Cooking has always been an important tradition in my family. Some might go so far as to call it an obsession. I recall my mamas mama, Sitty, as she was known, frying chicken early Sunday morning before hurrying off to dress and head for church. Practically ravenous, we would all return homefamily, friends, preachers, and anyone else who wanted to jointo find a bounty of food that seemed like it stretched the length of the Mississippifried chicken, cornbread, turnip greens, roasted beets, snap beans, pole beans, purple hulled peas, mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, and macaroni and cheese.

Better yet, since my grandfather, Giddy, was the local butcher and market proprietor in Valdosta, Georgia, there were always a few select butcher cuts of beef reserved for the gentlemans table. Apparently, it was this Southern splendor of Sunday foods that inspired Daddy to ask for Mamas hand in marriage, which is now four decades strong, I might add. To this day, Ive never eaten a better piece of fried chicken than my Sittys. Its juicy, tender meat is perfectly surrounded with a light, crispy crust. And now you have this well-guarded . Who knowslove might even follow.

ENTERPRISE, MISSISSIPPI

The South Georgia secret, Sittys Fried Chicken

Some 450 miles down the road from Valdosta, Daddys parents raised cattle and kids in the small town of Enterprise, Mississippi. On this farm, Daddy first taught me the Xs and Os of cattle breeding, firing a shotgun, cane-pole catfish fishing, and the sting of a spanking that resulted from stealing Papas chewing tobacco. Nannie and Papas farm and their quiet, country town were quite a departure from our suburban Atlanta upbringing, yet the time I spent in those beautiful fields and the dark, serene pines built an enduring foundation for my youth. Memories like watching my sister, Ashley, learning how to drive a straight shift truck through a cow pastureor aiming rounds at old Dr Pepper 10 2 4 glass bottles are some of my fondest.

For Daddys family, food was much less of a cultural experience than Mamas. My father considers himself a meat and potatoes kind of guy. That being said, Nannie had a trick or two up her culinary sleeve, including her scrumptious . Whenever I prepare these recipes, it reminds me of her grace and generositysomething I think all of us can draw upon whenever our grandmas recipes make an appearance in our own kitchens.

As it is, I learned to cook the old-fashioned way in the best of all kitchens Mamas. I remember nightly routines of coming home from football practice, throwing my clothes in the laundry (she taught me that, too), and standing side by side with Mama prepping, chopping, cooking, and stirring. That nightly ritual of preparing the family meal with Mama allowed me to learn the traditions and techniques passed down by the generations that came before us. Yall will see in this book that my cuisine is steeped in Southern tradition, yet undeniably influenced by my Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ancestry. Although such cooking influences are now all the rage amongst the culinary scenesters, Im pretty sure my family was the first to discover the unbelievably awesome pairing of fried chicken with tabbouleh!