Southern

In chef Matty Matheson’s riff on the Nashville hot fish sandwich, crispy golden fish fillets get smothered in a smoky chile butter and layered with onions, pickles, and cheese.

A popular Southern dessert said to originate in England, chess pie consists of staple ingredients: eggs, butter, and sugar, bound with cornmeal, flour, or both. While some recipes rely on tangy buttermilk to offset the rich custard, this version uses lemon juice and barely cooked cranberries instead.

Adding egg to praline topping is a modern twist. Unlike the crumbly topping that might crown a sweet potato casserole, this treatment creates a smooth layer that melts onto the custard.

This cheesecake is silky, tangy, and mousselike, thanks to Creole cream cheese. (You can sub a mix of sour cream and buttermilk.) The tart-and-sweet apple topping makes it perfect for fall.

Creole cream cheese is Louisiana's answer to ricotta or burrata cheese. Traditionally, it’s eaten with cream, sugar, and fruit spooned over the top or used as a substitute for yogurt.

Canning and preserving have long been an essential tactic of survival, and chowchow is a condiment born of both ingenuity and necessity. Here, green tomatoes not yet ripe enough to eat are transformed into a bright pickled expression of the first days of summer. It has been said that chowchow began as a collection of remnant produce that couldn’t be used in other dishes, so it became its own reclaimed relish. As you chop each vegetable, consider that origin: making the most from the least, creating abundance from scarcity. You can use four heatproof glass pint jars for this, though I prefer eight 8-ounce jars instead so I can share it around. Using pickling salt, such as Morton Canning & Pickling Salt, helps the liquid stay clear and keeps the cabbage from turning brown.

This Caesar salad works in flavors from the African American kitchens in the Lowcountry. That means fresh tomatoes, fried okra, cornbread croutons, and a zesty red bell pepper dressing that ties it all together.

Down South, we call this a sitting salad. It can sit on the summer picnic table without wilting, so it’s the perfect potluck dish.

No cookout in the South is complete without baked beans. This is a simple recipe that combines sweet and smoky ingredients for a thick, rich, and perfect side dish.

Mark our words: This is the easiest pie you’ll make all summer. The graham cracker crust gets filled with a simple mixture of sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, and it gets topped with a golden-brown crown of meringue.

This dish is the embodiment of a chowder-style Southern fish stew, packed with shrimp, scallops, potatoes, corn, and more.

No cocoa means this red velvet cake is a vibrant magenta. To finish: a classic cream cheese frosting and a scattering of chopped pecans.

A family recipe that will never get old.

Hibiscus punch with ground ginger, roasted pineapple, and fresh lime. Rum optional.

These fried green tomatoes from Nicole A. Taylor are the star of her Juneteenth menu.

Marinate shrimp in a sweet-spicy mixture of apricot preserves, lime, habanero, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger—then throw them on the grill for dinner in 15 minutes.

These tender, fluffy cornbread muffins skip the butter and call for creamy whipped corn instead. A side of homemade jalapeño pepper jelly adds some spice.

The key here is using cornstarch and rice flour. Cutting the okra in half from top to bottom, the seeds cling to the rice flour and cornstarch so the batter isn’t going anywhere.