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50 free Southern Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Southern cooking is what happened when Native American corn, European livestock and flour, and West African okra, rice and black-eyed peas met in the same kitchen, usually with an enslaved cook at the stove. The result ranges from Lowcountry rice and Appalachian ramps to Nashville hot chicken, Memphis dry rub, Kentucky's Hot Brown and Florida's Key lime pie, and it is the one region where McDonald's breakfast menu maps the biscuit belt. These 50 questions cover the roots, from the Three Sisters and nixtamalized hominy to the Scottish and West African ancestors of fried chicken; the staples, from grits, cornbread and hushpuppies to country ham, red-eye gravy and Hoppin' John; the four recognised barbecue sauces and which state has them all; the sweets, from chess pie and peach cobbler to the Georgia grits law and Florida's official pie; and the regions, from Smithfield ham and Brunswick stew to pepperoni rolls, Country Captain, pimento cheese at the Masters and the mint julep at Churchill Downs. Every answer is cited to the page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Grits are a porridge made from which grain?
Corn
The coarsely ground, nixtamalized maize is also called hominy.
Q 02Which Native American crop trio was known as the Three Sisters?
Beans, maize and squash
The three were grown together in rotation as dietary staples.
Q 03Which of these vegetables did enslaved West Africans introduce to the South?
Okra
Black-eyed peas, sesame, sorghum and melons came the same way.
Q 04Which Lowcountry people made rice prominent because they already knew the crop?
The Gullah
Planters sought enslaved Africans from rice-growing regions for their irrigation skills.
Q 05Fried chicken in the South traces partly to frying traditions from which European country?
Scotland
West Africans added their own seasoning and palm-oil frying techniques.
Q 06The Southern biscuit evolved from which British baked good?
The scone
Scones travelled well on ships; Southerners made them fluffier and poured gravy on them.
Q 07Chicken and dumplings is said to descend from which German food?
Spaetzle
German settlers reached Jamestown as early as 1608.
Q 08What did Confederate soldiers eat instead of wheat hardtack?
Cornbread
Wheat was grown in few Southern states beyond Georgia and Virginia.
Q 09Who self-published the earliest known African-American cookbook, in 1866?
Malinda Russell
It was a pamphlet called A Domestic Cookbook.
Q 10What are ashcakes?
Cornbread cooked on hearth coals
Cornbread remains the staple bread of the Appalachian mountains.
Q 11Which three states were outside McDonald's 'biscuit zone' when it first mapped the South?
Virginia, Maryland and Florida
Everywhere else in the South got biscuits instead of Egg McMuffins.
Q 12Which Atlanta restaurant did Martin Luther King Jr use to 'eat, meet, rest, plan, and strategize'?
Paschal's
Georgia Gilmore's eatery in Montgomery played a similar role.
Q 13Alabama's 'white barbecue sauce' is based on what?
Mayonnaise
It is usually served with smoked chicken.
Q 21Hoppin' John combines rice with which legume?
Black-eyed peas
Onion, pepper and bacon or salt pork complete the Lowcountry dish.
Q 22Which sandwich did Garden & Gun call 'the south's most beloved'?
Tomato
Tomato, mayo and white bread; the New York Times said Southerners wait for it all year.
Q 23Boiled peanuts are linked to which 1866 song about Civil War rations?
Goober Peas
The practice of boiling peanuts was adapted from West African culture.
Q 24Country Captain is a Southern dish of rice and chicken flavoured how?
Q 14Yellow barbecue sauce, unique to one Southern state, has which base?
Mustard
It is a legacy of mass German immigration in the mid-1700s.
Q 15Which is the only state that traditionally features all four recognised barbecue sauces?
South Carolina
Mustard, vinegar, and light and heavy tomato.
Q 16Eastern North Carolina barbecue uses which kind of sauce?
Vinegar-based
Lexington style in the centre of the state adds ketchup; the west goes heavier still.
Q 17Memphis barbecue is distinctive for what?
A dry rub with no sauce while cooking
Flavour comes from the rub; sauce is served on the side.
Q 18Which city is known for hot chicken from places like Prince's Hot Chicken Shack?
Nashville
Bolton's, Hattie B's and Biscuit Love are other local names.
Q 19What is a 'pig pickin''?
A whole-hog grilling event
Whole-hog barbecue gatherings are a tradition in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Q 20A Southern 'beans and greens' meal typically uses the greens of which vegetable?
Turnip
They are stewed with a little diced turnip and a piece of fatback.
With curry
George Patton asked to be met at the train with a bucket of it.
Q 25A cook in Columbus made Country Captain famous by serving it to which president?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Patton became another famous devotee.
Q 26Chess pie is traditionally made with eggs, butter and what?
Sugar or molasses
Lemon chess is a fruity variation; the mixture came to Virginia from England.
Q 27Which species is farmed in the Mississippi Delta and fried in cornmeal?
Channel catfish
Fried in cornmeal, it is served with hot sauce, fries and slaw.
Q 28Which wild onion is an Appalachian spring staple with its own festivals?
Ramps
Appalachia also uses butter heavily but little cheese.
Q 29Which state is the top rice producer in the nation?
Arkansas
Riceland rice and sweet corn are staples of the state's southeast.
Q 30Which state is home to Key lime pie and 'swamp cabbage'?
Florida
Its Caribbean-influenced fusion cooking is called Floribbean.