Put ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until puffed and golden. Remove from oven, and let stand for 5 minutes. With a flexible spatula, remove strata to
Each month, Our State senior editor — and resident soundtrack maker — Mark Kemp, a former music editor of Rolling Stone, curates a one-of-a-kind Spotify playlist featuring North Carolina songs and musicians.
Each month, Our State senior editor — and resident soundtrack maker — Mark Kemp, a former music editor of Rolling Stone, curates a one-of-a-kind Spotify playlist featuring North Carolina songs and musicians.
An Our State Playlist: Cornbread & Butterbeans — A Culinary Collection
You might work up an appetite when you listen to our curated Spotify playlist featuring 20 songs by North Carolina artists about some of our favorite Southern foods.
Each month, Our State senior editor — and resident soundtrack maker — Mark Kemp, a former music editor of Rolling Stone, curates a one-of-a-kind Spotify playlist featuring North Carolina songs and musicians.
Here in North Carolina, when we sing about food, a couple of recurring themes come up — cornbread and collard greens. Both play a big role in several of the 20 songs here by North Carolina artists about the food that we Southerners love.
The Durham trio The Carolina Chocolate Drops (who even named themselves for a food item) sing about cornbread and butter beans, while R&B singers Anthony Hamilton of Charlotte and Fantasia Barrino of High Point both sing about cornbread and collard greens; blues man Sonny Terry of Greensboro sings about cornbread, peas, and black molasses; and Johnston County blues singer Algia Mae Hinton tells you to cook cornbread for your husband.
But those aren’t the only items on our menu: One-time Chapel Hill resident James Taylor sings about sweet potato pie in one song and chili dogs in another, the Chapel Hill band Southern Culture on the Skids sings about fried chicken, and funk man George Clinton of Kannapolis considers whether fries go with a shake.
Speaking of drinks, Gaston County singer Sunny Ledfurd suggests that everything should be washed down with a bottle of Cheerwine, of course, although Joe Thompson of Mebane prefers good old corn liquor.
And what’s for dessert? Aside from Taylor’s sweet potato pie, we have Tryon legend Nina Simone letting us know that she likes a little sugar in her bowl, and Winston-Salem’s George Hamilton IV making up with his girlfriend by sending her a rose and a Baby Ruth.
In the old days, artists like Flatt and Scruggs (whose Scruggs was from Flint Hill) performed radio shows in which they were required to promote food products like Martha White flour in the form of jingles. In the version on this playlist, the famous bluegrass duo played their Martha White jingle live after it got so popular on radio that people were requesting it at their concerts.
Oh, and about North Carolina’s most famous food item? Yeah, we’ve got barbecue covered, too — by the comedy duo Rhett and Link, who first met and began performing during elementary school in Buies Creek. Their verdict: Well, North Carolina barbecue is the best, of course.
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To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
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Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
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