A Southern Picnic

Iced tea. Southerners are most particular about how they make it; John Martin Taylor initiates non-southerners in Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking (1992).

Fried chicken. The definitive recipe is by the late Edna Lewis, was perfected by Scott Peacock in The Gift of Southern Cooking (2003), and requires a cast-iron pan, buttermilk, butter, lard, and country ham.

Biscuits. Buy the buttermilk biscuit mix from White Lily Flour, at www.whitelily.com—probably the best solution for anyone not born in the South with ...