Southern

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. These bite-sized cookie balls are made of all the best things: ground vanilla wafers, ground pecans, confectioner's sugar, white Karo syrup, and good bourbon whiskey.

Are you flush with folate? Too-low levels are linked with osteoporosis, depression and more. Black-eyed peas are a top source of the vitamin.

Use John Currence's classic Southern gravy for smothering biscuits , with or without the fried chicken.

At Peels in New York City, chefs Preston and Ginger Madson tweak this Low Country favorite with two secret ingredients: a little Budweiser and a lot of tasso, a Cajun-spiced ham, which you'll find at specialty foods stores and cajungrocer.com. You can sub in andouille sausage if tasso is not available.

"Really good fried chicken and really good biscuits—together, they're like Wonder Twin powers," says chef John Currence, owner of Big Bad Breakfast in Oxford, MS. For a no-fry, old-school treat, split biscuits and smother with Sausage Gravy . Trust us, you'll be full.

This is a very old recipe found in many books, including the 1964 edition of Joy of Cooking. It is a snap to make, uncomplicated with few ingredients, yet producing a stunningly tender and fluffy biscuit. There are two Rachels in our lives—my husband’s granddaughter, Rachel Bass, and co-author Cynthia’s daughter, Rachel Graubart. Novices, we asked them to test recipes we hope will be easy for anyone. Both gave these flying colors for both ease and taste. Here's what Gena Berry said about her similar adaptation of this recipe: A respectable homemade biscuit is an essential part of the Southern table, and this scandalously simple recipe makes turning out the perfect biscuit a snap. This recipe breaks all the rules of southern biscuit-making; there’s no shortening to cut in, and you don't even roll out the dough. The results are remarkable and even a novice can turn out fluffy, perfect biscuits in minutes. Would a respectable Southern lady bend the rules, defy convention and use sneaky shortcuts all in the name of turning out a hot, homemade biscuit? You better believe it!

These skillet-fried biscuits are a little sturdier than many other biscuits in order to hold the fresh berries intact. The butter bumps up the flavor as well. When they are fried, they remind me of the blueberries we picked early one morning as Girl Scouts and made into pancakes—a culinary highlight of my childhood. But they are very special baked as well. Either way, they’re a winner.

The method of making biscuits in a traditional wooden bowl, without a recipe, was traditionally practiced by home cooks all over the South. A sack of flour was emptied into the bowl, a well was made in the flour, and then the number of biscuits desired was miraculously shaped by the additon of fat and liquid. The remaining flour mixture was then sifted and returned to the bowl, covered with a tea towl or flour sack, or to the sack itself until the biscuits were made again later in the day. Alas, this process is so intimidating to novice cooks, until they get the "feel," that I have to caution the novice to try another recipe first. Please come back and try these after practicing with easier versions, because this version makes biscuits the way they are supposed to be—meltingly light, tantalizingly tender, flaky, moist—and unforgettable. I have never had a better biscuit than Kate's.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been cooking chicken in oven bags, those oven-safe plastic bags. So when I recently started roasting chicken in a brown paper bag, I felt sort of like I was going back to my roots. It works great because the paper bag traps just enough steam to make the chicken supermoist and tender, while at the same time letting enough steam escape to allow the skin to get golden brown. It always amazes me that the bag doesn’t catch on fire—so much so that I think of this as half recipe and half magic trick. Just make sure your broiler is turned off and the bag is not touching the top of the oven.

This is a very simple traditional recipe, just the thing when you want to whip up something quick, easy, and comforting. It's an odd dessert that seems to be made up of parts from other desserts. The filling is gooey, like pecan pie with bits of apple. The outer edge is bubbly and chewy, like pralines. The top forms a thin, crisp crust that is like a sticky meringue or macaroon. In other words, this is not pudding-cup pudding but pudding in the English sense of the word, meaning dessert in general. There is a strong similarity between Ozark pudding and the Huguenot tortes made around Charleston. I've read all sorts of stories about the provenance of this dessert. One account says that Bess Truman invented it to cheer up homesick Harry in the White House. Another tale reports that French Huguenots fleeing persecution brought this recipe over. Another story is that a Charleston cook tasted Ozark pudding on a trip to the Midwest, brought the recipe home, and prepared it to serve in the Huguenot tavern where she worked. No matter which version you believe, it's obvious that good recipes get around.

Humble rice pudding gets a serious makeover with the addition of flavorful, fat-grained Carolina Gold rice and a glassy, sugared brûlée crust.

This is my cornbread, the one I offer up as what real cornbread ought to be: skillet-born, sugar-free, and bacon-blessed. Heating the bacon drippings in a cast-iron skillet is important. When the batter hits the hot fat, it sizzles and starts forming a deeply browned, crispy bottom crust that tastes like a good hushpuppy. Some people omit flour from their cornbread, but I find that it helps hold the cornbread together when it's cut, particularly when I use coarse stone-ground cornmeal. My sweet daddy and I grind our own cornmeal on a 1923 Meadows Mill that my great-grandfather, Papa Will Reece, bought new. The mill is considered portable, but it weighs several hundred pounds and must be hauled on a stout trailer. It's powered by a hit-or-miss engine, one of the first machines used in farming. Daddy hauls the mill and engine to heritage festivals and such all over the country. The whole operation is really something to see. For your cornbread, seek out the best whole-grain stone-ground cornmeal available in your community or order it from ansonmills.com. Fresh whole-grain meal is quite perishable, so store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

A frosty glass of refreshing iced tea is the inspiration for this sorbet. Iced tea flavored with peaches has nearly outpaced tea with lemon in recent years. Bottles of tasty peach tea are available in most stores, but you can also brew your own with peach tea bags. If you use bottled tea in this recipe, make sure it isn't diet. This sorbet is a good way to use peaches so dead-ripe that they cannot be eaten whole or sliced because any small brown soft spots disappear into the tea. The vodka improves the texture of the sorbet, as does the corn syrup. Use tea-flavored vodka if you have it, although plain vodka works fine. Pouring a splash of the sweet tea vodka or bourbon over the soft sorbet makes an excellent slushy for grown-ups.

“The Valley” is what we, in Texas, call the Rio Grande Valley. It’s located on the southernmost tip of the state, bordering Mexico, and it’s where Sandy grew up. The Valley is a melting pot of American and Mexican cultures, and is known for its festivals, architecture, and cuisine. So when Sandy talks about comfort food, she thinks of dishes that are often heavily influenced by traditional Mexican flavors. Arroz con Pollo (rice with chicken) is one of her favorites. Many Spanish-speaking countries claim this dish, so there are many different ways to prepare it. This particular recipe is served up Valley style and is uniquely Texan.

The paper-thin crust and pillowy crumb of a New Orleans—style French roll is essential to this classic sandwich—as is Crystal hot sauce.

This recipe appears at just about every occasion in Cajun Country. Whether it's a holiday, funeral, family reunion, or potluck dinner, you can bet there will be at least one form of dirty rice or rice dressing. At the Link family reunion in Robert's Cove, I counted six versions, all different. The essential ingredients are few, but flavor and texture vary greatly. The main difference between dirty rice and rice dressing is that rice dressing is generally made with ground beef or pork, whereas dirty rice is made with pork and chicken livers. Many people think they don't like liver, but when it's balanced with other flavors, the liver taste is not overpowering. I've served this deeply flavored rice to many people who claim they hate liver, only to have them love it.

Room temperature ingredients make all the difference in this cake. You can get more loft from non-chilled egg whites, and room-temperature butter is easier to cream (beat together) with sugar than the straight- from-the-fridge stuff. The fluffy egg whites and properly creamed butter and sugar mean tender, light cake. And room-temp butter and cream cheese will translate to creamy, smooth frosting instead of a sticky mess filled with lumps.