Cuisine of Kentucky

Pioneer and missionary author Timothy Flint wrote that the Kentuckians ate persimon, venison, wild turkey, sweet potato and "pies smoked on the table" washed down with maple beer and Madeira wine when game with plentiful, and "hog and homily" in lean times.

Food prices were low and money hard to come by in the intervening years between settlement and admission to the Union. Salt was quite costly, but sweeteners like honey and maple were more commonly available. Prices for staple foodstuffs such as beef, mutton, pork, geese, chicken, turkey, butter and flour are known from Gilbert Imlay's account.[8]

Homes in the frontier lands of Kentucky were often unfloored, the shelters ranged between humble lean-tos and more sturdy cabins. Only in the better cabins were hearths made with stone. Daniel Drake, a Cincinnati born physician, described his 18th century Kentucky home:[8]

"I know of no scene in civilized life more primitive than such a cabin hearth as that of my mother. In the morning, a buckeye backlog & hickory forestick resting on stone andirons, with a Jonny cake on a clean ash board, set before it to bake, a frying pan with its long handle resting on a split bottomed turner's chair, sending out its peculiar music, and the tea kettle swng from a wooden 'lug pole' with myself setting the table, or turning the meat, or watching the Jonny cake..."

Thomas Ashe mentions salt bacon, squirrel broth and homily in his report of a Kentucky dinner. According to Ashe the Kentucky pioneers rarely ate vegetables or fresh meat: "The Kentuckyan ate nothing but bacon, which indeed is the favourite diet of all the inhabitants of the State, and drank nothing but whiskey, which soon made him more than two thirds drunk."[8]

Kentucky burgoo served with mashed potatoes

Bourbon balls

• Ale-8-One, a ginger-flavored soft drink bottled in Winchester
• Mingua beef jerky, made and packaged in Bourbon County
• Burgoo, a thick stew made from vegetables and mutton, or lamb, or other game meats
• Mint julep, a potent potable that is made with bourbon and crushed mint and is the 'official' drink of the Kentucky Derby[9]
• Goetta, a northern Kentucky delicacy composed primarily of ground meat, steel-cut oats and seasoned with bay leaves, rosemary, salt, pepper and thyme
• Henry Bain sauce, a potent sauce for serving with game
• Brains and eggs, known mostly as an English dish; this was served in Frankfort restaurants until BSE scares
• Mock turtle soup, Welsh and English settlers brought this recipe with them when they settled in Clay County
• Frog legs, often breaded and deep-fried
• Derby pie, a chocolate and walnut pie named for the Kentucky Derby
• Benedictine, a cucumber and cream cheese spread with green food coloring made popular by Louisville caterer and cookbook author Jennie C. Benedict
• Hot Brown, a layered dish of bread, bacon, and turkey, topped with a Mornay sauce[10]
• Stack cake, an Appalachian layered cake with apple preserves spread between each layer
• Johnny cake, also known in some regions of the state as spider cornbread, is a flat corn bread cooked by direct heat.
• Bourbon balls, crushed cookies mixed with chocolate and bourbon, then coated in powdered sugar, first produced in Frankfort during Prohibition
• Beer cheese, a cheese spread made with beer, Cheddar cheese, and spices
• Modjeska, a gooey caramel candy with a marshmallow center named for a 19th-century Polish actress who once visited Louisville[11]
• Spoonbread is a sweet, moist cornmeal-based dish
• Louisville-style chili, a stew-like chili that varies greatly from family to family, but usually consists of meat (usually beef, sometimes pork, lamb, mutton, or venison), sauce, beans, garlic, onions, spaghetti and a wide variety of other vegetables and ingredients, which served as a way for families to stretch a little bit of meat throughout the week
• Lamb fries, lamb testicles served breaded and fried, often with cream gravy, a traditional dish served in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky[12]
• Rolled oyster, a seafood dish served in and around Louisville
• Kentucky Common, a regional beer style historically served around the Louisville area
• Chow-Chow, a regionally diverse dish of chilled pickled vegetables found throughout Appalachia
• Ski, a citrus soda made from orange and lemon juices manufactured by the Double Cola Company prevalent in the Southern part of the state.
• Biscuit and gravy, a flour biscuit usually covered in white gravy (sometimes the gravy has much ground black pepper)[13]
• Fried Catfish, catfish native to Kentucky Lakes and rivers, are sometimes tossed in batter and then fried a crispy golden brown [14]

The Ohio River region of western Kentucky, Daviess, Henderson and Union counties (the area centering on Owensboro and Henderson) has developed a unique style of pit barbecue, featuring a heavy dose of vinegar-based sauces, often served with pickles, onions, potato salad and coleslaw. The three main meats used are chicken, pork and mutton. Burgoo is a specialty. Owensboro is home to the International Bar-B-Q Festival, which is a sanctioned barbecue competition.

Farther to the west, in the Purchase area, pit barbecue is primarily pork shoulder, with the unmodified word "barbecue" referring specifically to that meat. The other meats used in the Owensboro–Henderson area are generally available as well. Sauces are essentially identical in the two regions.

• Kentucky wine
• Kentucky Common Beer

• Domine, David. 111 Fabulous Food Finds: Best Bites in the Bluegrass. McClanahan Publishing House, 2011. ISBN 978-1-934898-12-3.
• Domine, David. Adventures in New Kentucky Cooking with the Bluegrass Peasant. McClanahan Publishing House, 2007. ISBN 0-913383-97-X.
• Domine, David. A Feast for the Eyes. McClanahan Publishing House, 2010. ISBN 978-1934898093.
• Domine, David. Insiders' Guide to Louisville (Insiders' Guide Series). Globe Pequot, 2010. ISBN 978-0762756957.
• Domine, David. Splash of Bourbon, Kentucky's Spirit. McClanahan Publishing House, 2010. ISBN 978-1-934898-06-2.

• Kentucky Recipes for the Henry Bain Sauce Recipe