Traditional Southern cooking in the US makes use of a lot of local ingredients: shrimp, corn, okra, crawfish, catfish, sweet potatoes, collard greens, pork chittlins, etc. But what do we know about the cultural influences that went into Southern cuisine? Did French and Spanish cooking influence much beyond their colonies in Louisiana and Florida? Did Native American and African cooking styles inform what Southerners ate and how?
All of the above! I would wholeheartedly recommend Michael Twitty’s book “The Cooking Gene” for more information about the different influences, West African, European, and Native, that created what is known today as Southern food.