Southern cuisine

Columbia residents Irene Tyson and Reba Campbell met nearly 40 years ago while living in Washington D.C., where regular gatherings at a small supper club evolved into a lifelong friendship.

With every growing season, the South is in danger of losing an ingredient that’s shaped our state’s flavor, history, and culture. This week, we will be talking with Chef Kevin Mitchell and food historian David Shields, hosts of the SCETV and PBS series The Savers of Flavor about their ongoing search for the vanishing ingredients of Southern cuisine. Over the course of four episodes David and Kevin embark on a quest to seek out and rescue those ingredients before they are lost forever.

“C” is for Cornbread. Cornbread has been the most common daily bread in South Carolina since its founding.

“C” is for Cornbread. Cornbread has been the most common daily bread in South Carolina since its founding.

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century.

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century.

“C” is for Chicken bog. While anecdotal evidence exists that the name chicken bog was related to the “boggy” nature of is home, the Pee Dee, culinary historians agree on one thing: that a “bog (unlike a pilau) is any stew that includes wet, soggy rice.”

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century.

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century.

“H” is for Hoppin' John. Hoppin' John is a pilaf made with beans and rice that The recipe came directly to America from West Africa.