Southern Cooking Tips Every Person Can Learn

Some people call it soul food. Yet others call it down-home country cooking. However, some call it just good ole comfort food!

Down-home southern cooking is more than a recipe. Southern cooking tips are all about making meals from the heart to share with friends and loved ones.

For it to be good, you have to learn to put your love and soul into it. These ideas for cooking will bring you simplicity in the kitchen so you can enjoy the best of what Southern cuisine has to offer!

Among the best things about southern cooking is that there is always something new to try. When trying a unique combination of ingredients or practicing a technique, there is usually a new cooking secret to be uncovered.

We’ve assembled this collection of southern cooking tips every cook or chef should know to help make every cooking experience as pleasant as possible. Even if you know your way around the kitchen, you might just find a new cooking tip that will make your life that much easier.

Enjoy this down-home wisdom and a heaping helping of tricks and tips for country cooking recipes. Southerners take great joy in their cooking, with almost-sacred recipes are given from one generation to the next.

However, that cooking joy also continues to help out those northerners trying their hand at Southern dishes. Call it Southern hospitality, with cooks, share cooking tricks, tips, and secrets from Southern kitchens. Here are some to consider.

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Cooking Tips Each Southern Cook Should Know

1. Cast-Iron Skillets

They create their cast-iron skillets last over a lifetime. For Southern chefs, handing down their prized cast-iron skillet is a rite of passage. Seasoned overages of cooking, the skillets are positively valued.

2. They make use of anything available

Summer is the best time to make fresh-from-the-vine legume dishes. Though what about the rest of the year? Black-eyed peas or fresh butter beans freeze for up to six months. Shell and wash them. Subsequently, the trick: Blanch them for 2 minutes in boiling water. Transfer the beans into freezer cases, push the air out, close and refrigerate. Use them directly from the freezer in recipes requiring canned beans or peas, like black-eyed pea sausage stew.

3. Presentation is key

When planning meals, make sure you’ll have several colors on the dish. Southern chefs would never pair green beans with another green veggie.

4. They could keep any fried food from becoming mush

If you are frying vegetables with high water content, such as zucchini, quickly dip in flour to extract some moisture before moving them into the batter. They won’t come out mushy.

5. They always save bacon grease

Allow the grease cool in the pan. It’ll harden to a cloudy mass. Then just use a spatula to scour the puttylike grease into an airtight box and keep it in the fridge for up to a month. You can carefully drain the fat while it’s still warm, running it through a sieve. But then you would not get all those small, crisp bacon pieces. When cooking side meals such as Southern okra, add a bit of the fat into the pan for a smoky, bacony flavor.

6. They keep ham bones, also

If you are planning a holiday ham dinner, save the bone and reuse it when cooking bean dishes. Put the bone in a simmering pot of beans to give a rich taste to them.

7. The low-tech secret for making banana pudding.

Southern cooks say nothing beats a wooden spoon when it comes to determining custards’ perfect consistency. Coat the spoon with the mix, then run your finger across the back of the spoon. Your custard is in the ideal thickness if it leaves a trail with a thin film underneath.

8. Coca-Cola is more than a beverage

Add a splash to your gumbo when it is simmering to add a touch of sweetness to this thick stew. Or put it into cake batter for an additional fluffy dessert.

9. Potato salad turns into a make-ahead meal.

It turns out you can keep it in an airtight vessel in the refrigerator for up to three days. It has a tendency to dry out, so you can spoon in a little bit of yogurt or mayonnaise to bring it back to the right consistency.

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10. They have mastered the biscuit

Use the cold dough to make sure that cookies are soft and fluffy. Additionally, after kneading the dough, make it a rectangle, and fold it over toward the center. Flatten it into a rectangle and again fold it over. Repeat a couple of times to get flaky biscuits. They take butter above and beyond.

11. Elevate cornbread by placing Cajun butter on top.

 It gives a sweet warmth to the taste of cornbread and complements the rich aspects of Southern food.

12. Don’t be scared of heat

Searing meats, mainly steak, is a terrific way to add extra flavor. But this method will produce smoke, but do not be alarmed!

13. The simplest way to cut in butter

Use a grater on frosted butter! Grated butter will quickly make those perfect, pea-sized crumbles that are required to any biscuit dough.

14. The easiest way to peel potatoes

When whole potatoes are boiled, move them to an ice bath. Then, the peel will quickly come out.

15. The simplest way to make whipped cream

Whipped cream is an excellent addition to any Southern dessert. There is the conventional way of making whipped cream using a mixer, but it can also be made in a bottle! Just add heavy whipping cream to a pot, screw on the lid, and shake it for few minutes. In no time at all, and you will have flavorful whipped cream with minimal cleanup. You can also add in vanilla and sugar for extra sweetness.

16. Take a towel to dry salad greens

After rinsing your salad greens with water, cover them in a clean kitchen towel. Hold the towel through the ends and shake or spin in a circle until the greens are dry (may want to do this outside). This is an excellent alternative to some salad spinner since they take up plenty of cabinet space. To store the clean greens, place them in a resealable bag or container with a paper towel.

17. Do not be afraid to cook with salt

While it is never great to use any seasoning in surplus, salt is critical for each Southern cook. The more salt will be required to help the tastes stand out if a recipe has a lot of fat in it. It’s also necessary to taste and season your food while you’re cooking.

18. The simplest way to slice meat

Shortly freezing meat will make it easier to slice it. That way, you’ll receive pieces of meat evenly for stews and other recipes.

19. The simplest way to grate cheese

To get finely shredded cheese, spray your cheese grater with nonstick spray. This will avoid the cheese from sticking to the grater and creating a mess.

20. Getting more juice from limes and lemons

Placing limes and lemons in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds will release more juice.