Flour

The South is blessed with any number of soft winter wheat flours for baked goods and other uses. All you have to do to test the superiority of Southern flour over the hard-wheat flours found in most other areas of the country is make two batches of biscuits, muffins, pancakes, or hush puppies, side by side, using the Southern flour and a competing type of flour, and observe the differences in height and fluffiness. The main reason for this is that Southern flour contains less gluten-forming proteins than most flours, making it less dense. Markets in the South are full of White Lily, Martha White, Red Band, Melrose, and other such local flours, but if you live outside the region, the only solution is to order the all-purpose flours from the two producers who ship them in 5-pound bags: