Southern Sweet Tooths (was Re: SC - Miracle Whip OOP (was Re: Sweet and Savory))

[Catherine Deville]

> I know that, as a child, I had a very sensitive palate and had a problem
> with that slightly sulfurous, egg-yolk taste mayonnaise can have (a
> taste lemon juice can mask, and vinegar often doesn't), and wouldn't eat
> the stuff for years. Could another aspect that causes some to favor the
> Kraft Product be the sweetness?

Yes... I know that my own particular preference for MW is because it is
sweet-tart and (to me!) has more flavor than mayo, which is bland.

My mother brought me up on Hellman's *Real* Mayonaisse and the fact that it
contained lemon juice was important to her preference of it, so I didn't
actually have Miracle Whip until I was an adult, and then found that I
liked it better, especially for such things as BLTs, sweet salads (such as
those like "Ambrosia", which you obliquely refer to below) and in things
like potato salad and tuna salad where I prefer the sweetness of MW and
sweet pickle relish to the tart or dill versions of the same. There *are*
cases, like on turkey or ham where the sweetness is less importan to me and
therefore mayo is more acceptable as a substitute if I must use it.

> I'm noticing that there seems to be a
> geographical division among the people who either can't stand the stuff
> or are dedicated fans. With exceptions, as always, the majority of MW
> fans seem to be South of the Mason-Dixon Line, where sweetened iced tea
> (and religious adherence thereto) and salads containing pineapple,
> Jell-O, and little marshmallows seem to be somewhat prevalent. Does the
> South have a sweet tooth (cornbread excepted, perhaps)?

yes, we do, but don't except Cornbread.  one of the great culinary debates
is over whether *real* Southern corn bread includes flour and sugar or not.
*Texas* cornbread does not, but there are many regional versions to
Southern corn bread and many of them include sugar.

Southerner's take many things about their regional cooking very seriously,
but after living in several different places in the South I have found that
there are sub-regional variations on almost everything and everyone seems
to consider *their* sub-regional variation the only *real* *true* (tm)
"Southern" way to do it.  Some will claim that *real* Southern corn bread
has not sugar.  My grandmother (from Cathy's Creek, Lewis County, TN) would
disagree with them and in Tennessee and Georgia almost every Southern
restaurant sells cornbread that is at least mildly sweetened (heck!  they
even boil corn on the cob with a dash of sugar down here if it's not the
"sweet"est variety.) Other folks will argue that *real* Southern BBQ is the
stuff that you get that's rubbed, smoked and sliced and served with the
sauce (hot and vinegary!) on the side, while others insist that only
country style *pulled* BBQ (cooked *in* the sauce) is *real* Southern BBQ.

Of course, the other great culinary debate in the South is whether to use
MW or *real* mayo in everything <g>...  In fact, I found it terribly ironic
that the same debate seems to be going on here as is going on on the
"grits" website.

I remain, in service to Meridies,
Lady Celia des L'archier