Breakfast Foods: Early South

In the southern colonies, the settlers added tea and coffee to their cornmeal breakfasts, rounding them out more luxuriously than their northern cousins with eggs, meats, fruit, breads, and cheese. As slavery and the plantation system grew, the difference between northern and southern eating habits grew as well. The southern plantation owner would rise early to survey his holdings, perhaps breaking his fast with a julep—because the drink was supposed to protect against malaria—but his first real meal would be eaten later in the morning. With servants or slaves to help with the cooking, the southern kitchen became famous for its breakfasts: grits lavishly dappled with butter, succulent pieces of fried ham and redeye gravy, spoon bread or hominy soufflé, eggs and toast, grilled chicken or game, fried shrimps or oysters, and as many different types of sweet breads as the cook could imagine. When chocolate became known in the late 1700s, the expensive hot drink became another part of the sumptuous feast.