Cast-iron skillet
The fryer that is also the serving platter.
American cuisine · The table
The American table
An American meal is a Sunday fryer or an all-day brisket — mac and cheese can sit with the chicken; it is not a side for the smoke.
Southern fried chicken wants biscuits, slaw, greens, maybe mac and cheese. Texas brisket wants white bread, pickles, onion, sauce on the side. Apple pie can close the Sunday table. It does not sit on the cutting board with the brisket as a 'combo.'
The inherited table is a cast-iron skillet or a smoker in the yard.
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How it looks
The Sunday skillet
Fried chicken, slaw, biscuits, a casserole of mac and cheese.
The inherited Sunday is a platter of chicken. Biscuits. Slaw. Greens. Mac and cheese if the house does that. Pie later.
How it looks
The brisket board
Sliced beef, white bread, pickles, onion. The fryer is cold.
The newer or Texan table is the cutting board. Sauce on the side. No fried chicken. No pie on the butcher paper.
How it is served
The order of the room
Skillet and sides, or smoke and pickles. Pie after the Sunday, not on the brisket board.
Do not serve fried chicken and brisket as two mains. The fryer is Sunday lunch. The smoker is a different clock.
Mac and cheese belongs with the chicken table as a side. On a barbecue plate it is a restaurant habit, not required.
Bring it home
What this table needs
Objects you can read about here, then find on Amazon — search links, not a single SKU that goes stale.
Smoker
The all-day hearth.
Dutch oven
Greens, beans, cobbler.
Apple cider vinegar
In the slaw and the sauce.
Sage
In the holiday bird of another night.
Keep cooking
The American pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to American cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
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