Does KY have a signature food? (Harlan, Lynch: camps, restaurant, areas)

[deeders65]

Pinto beans and cornbread! Fried green tomatoes!
Cornbeef gray with cat headbiscuits(biscuits as big as a cats head)LOL

[nalabama]

I noticed that KY educational TV has a program on the history of burgoo scheduled (KETKY) to run today (1/28/2009) at 3:00 p.m. EST. If you've been marooned by the ice storm and still have TV reception, I can't imagine a better opportunity to catch this presentation.

[blue_eyedgirl]

I don't know if this is a signature dish or not but my Grandma used to make a Jam cake with her homemade blackberry preserves and it had a brown sugar icing. The only place I have ever found a recipe similar to hers was in my Kentucky cookbook I got at the Cracker Barrel in E-Town.

Another dish popular in my region of Kentucky is cooking fresh green beans with new potatoes. My Grandma would cook the potatoes on top of the beans until tender then she would brown them in the droppings of her fried tenderloin or porkchops. It is sooooo good and the potatoes have the best flavor. My mom does this too and she always fixes it for me when I visit. I've tried it myself but for the life or me it just doesn't taste the same.

[Digger57]

My Dad was a Kentucky boy. I had never heard of burgoo until I was in my late teens & me and a bunch of friends had planned a big Christmas party at Dad's cabin on Cheaha mountain in Alabama. By the time we got there he had been working in a big iron kettle of burgoo for most of the day. I still don't know what all was in there, but it sure was good over some of his home made biscuits!
I now wish that I had paid more attention to his recipes back then. He made the best smothered/fried rabbit and bacon wrapped quail you've ever tasted!
All I did was go out & shoot 'em, he did all the rest.

Dig~

[Kilted_Son]

Ahh...I feel the love. Where I live we have poor & rich. Obese & Thin. Educated & Uneducated. My father is from Mayfield. He grew up in the depression. His Mama made soup, sometimes pinto, limas, great white northern beans with hamhocks.
They were grateful for whatever they had & could get. He told me of Ho-Cake, a fried bread dough.
I love a lot of regional signature recipes & culinary delights whether they be of down home dirt poor to high falootin gourmet fancy. I can't wait to try when I get there. Some thought should be given to how the Scot-Irish settlers influenced how y'all eat down there. I am interested in that area of culinary exploration. I am especially curious about the BBQ Mutton in Bardstown. I, like the rest of you like greens, neckbones, hushpuppies, chicken livers in gravy on biscuits, fried gizzards, cheesey grits & hot sauce...I just want to come out there & enjoy the food, the whisky, the culture the people & meet nice women who like to share in the delight of a great Kentuckiy Dining, whether simple or fancy! Nuff Said

Kilted_Son, Out.

[Spotted1]

I haven't read through this whole thread yet, but I wanna reply anyway. lol Applebutter and Apple butter stack cake have always been a thing around where I'm at, as well as Sorghum. Leatherbritches, too (Green beans strung up on thread and hung to dry out. Then soaked in water and cooked in bacon grease with new (red?) potatoes) ...

[censusdata]

Everyone I've met from outside the US (like Jamaica or The Philippines) associates the state of Kentucky with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Fried Chicken is a popular home cooked meal all over the Southeast but the most popular national chain serving it is named KY Fried Chicken (not Alabama or Tennessee Fried Chicken) so it sticks to us as a staple food.

[ArcticPhoenix]

Kentucky does have a signature jelly.....

[Eastern Roamer]

Does bourbon count? Bourbon, by definition, is from Kentucky... and is delicious.

[blue_eyedgirl]

Originally Posted by Kilted_Son

Ahh...I feel the love. Where I live we have poor & rich. Obese & Thin. Educated & Uneducated. My father is from Mayfield. He grew up in the depression. His Mama made soup, sometimes pinto, limas, great white northern beans with hamhocks.
They were grateful for whatever they had & could get. He told me of Ho-Cake, a fried bread dough.
I love a lot of regional signature recipes & culinary delights whether they be of down home dirt poor to high falootin gourmet fancy. I can't wait to try when I get there. Some thought should be given to how the Scot-Irish settlers influenced how y'all eat down there. I am interested in that area of culinary exploration. I am especially curious about the BBQ Mutton in Bardstown. I, like the rest of you like greens, neckbones, hushpuppies, chicken livers in gravy on biscuits, fried gizzards, cheesey grits & hot sauce...I just want to come out there & enjoy the food, the whisky, the culture the people & meet nice women who like to share in the delight of a great Kentuckiy Dining, whether simple or fancy! Nuff Said

Kilted_Son, Out.

OMG, speaking of hushpuppies. The hubby and I ventured out to a restaurant the other night and they had "hushpuppies" on the menu and dear lord they were gross. I was stumped because how in the world you screw up hushpuppies is beyond me. They are the easiest thing in the world to cook. The worst part was that they were served with honeybutter . Sometimes people up North should not attempt southern cooking.