10 Things Every Alabamian Keeps in the Kitchen

Open the pantry in an Alabama kitchen, and you’ll often find a few local favorites.

Some are family standbys passed down for generations, and others are finds Alabamians keep going back to the store for.

Here are the staples that earn a permanent spot in many kitchens.

1. Conecuh Sausage

Conecuh Sausage goes from package to your kitchen skillet in less than 10 minutes, the company says.

Its cast-iron recipe browns the links for about 3 minutes per side.

Its recipe collection also puts the sausage in cornbread, red beans and rice, and macaroni and cheese.

You can order links from the company’s online shop or find a store through its Store Locator.

2. White Barbecue Sauce

White barbecue sauce goes in your kitchen as an all-purpose sauce, according to the website of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q.

You can use it as a baste for chicken and turkey, spoon it over salad, or stir it into slaw or potato salad.

Bob Gibson opened the restaurant in Decatur in 1925.

He mixed mayonnaise, vinegar, and black pepper to smother his smoked chickens.

There’s nothing red about it.

The website sells single bottles, 6-packs, and 12-packs, so you can stock up without a trip to Decatur.

3. Lane Cake

Lane cake is a make-ahead bake in your kitchen, since Emma Rylander Lane advised making it a day or so before you serve it.

She printed the recipe in her 1898 cookbook, Some Good Things to Eat.

If you follow that recipe, you bake the layers in medium pie tins lined on the bottom with ungreased brown paper instead of cake pans.

The filling is a mixture of egg yolks, butter, sugar, raisins, and whiskey.

Coconut, dried fruit, and nuts are common additions, so the cake on your table may not match the original.

4. Wickles Pickles

Wickles Pickles reached the shelves at Bruno’s, a Birmingham-based grocery chain, by 2000.

Piggly Wiggly and other stores followed.

You can pick up slices, banana pepper rings, jalapeño slices, or relish, and the line also includes a spicy red sandwich spread.

The company’s website shows you dill pickle cream cheese, dill pickle hummus, and baked brie with jalapeños and fig jam.

The recipe came from the founders’ family, which had a 70-year history with it before it reached a jar.

5. Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts start with raw green peanuts, which the Alabama Peanut Producers Association says are sold from August through November.

The Alabama Farmers Federation’s slow-cooker recipe cooks 2 pounds of them with salt, garlic, hot sauce, Creole seasoning, and water.

When the batch is done, you discard the liquid and store the peanuts in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

If you’d rather skip the pot, the association points you to a Sweet Grown Alabama directory of local green and boiled peanuts.

6. Pecans

Pecans turned up in chess pie, crusted chicken, and haystacks in the reader recipes Alabama Living magazine ran in 2022.

If you make the haystacks, the recipe says to store them in the refrigerator.

Lee Priester built a pecan business in Fort Deposit in 1935, selling paper-shell pecans from his Texaco service station.

He hired local women to crack, shell, and box the nuts on his back porch.

If you order a pecan log from the Priester’s website, you get a chewy nougat center wrapped in caramel and rolled in pecan pieces, as the company describes it.

By 1954 the company was making divinity, pecan logs, and pralines from scratch in huge copper pots.

7. Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes keep in a cool, dark place, and Alabama Extension says to use them within 3 to 5 weeks.

Don’t wash them before you store them because moisture can cause early spoilage.

Store them apart from avocados, bananas, and pears.

If you have more than you’ll use, you can freeze them for up to 10 to 12 months.

Serve them mashed, baked into fries, or added to soups and casseroles.

8. Peaches

Peaches stay on your counter until they’re ripe, and then Alabama Extension says to refrigerate them and use them within 5 days.

Freeze them, and they keep for 12 months.

You can slice them into salsa, salad, or a baked dessert, and a tomato peach salsa recipe is included.

Marvin Durbin set up a roadside peach market in 1961 that drew travelers.

9. Farm-Raised Catfish

Farm-raised catfish reaches your store as flash-frozen fillets, according to the Alabama Farmers Federation.

The fillets ship in boxes with the U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish logo to grocery stores, mom-and-pop shops, and wholesale distributors.

If you freeze fillets at home, wrap them tightly in heavy-duty foil or freezer wrap, and the Alabama Extension food storage chart gives catfish 3 months.

Baking and grilling work too.

A catfish-farming family the federation profiled fries fillets by splitting them, dipping them in egg or buttermilk, and coating them with seasoned cornmeal.

The family cooks the fillets a minute or two after the fish floats.

10. Gulf Shrimp

Gulf shrimp come in three commercially harvested varieties in Alabama.

Brown shrimp have a strong flavor that suits gumbo and jambalaya, according to Sweet Grown Alabama.

White shrimp are milder and naturally sweet, so they take on sauce when you boil or sauté them.

Pink shrimp are sweet and mild and pair well with shrimp and grits or the grill.