Cornbread, beans, and tea. Sugar or no?

In the "Blasphemy , I know" thread http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1459&whichpage=1
Adjudicator posted:

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

Now, to a TRUE southerner, there is NOTHING more sacred than white acre peas and white cornbread with no sweetner (aka sugar) involved in the process. BACON FAT RULES!!!!

A TRUE Southerner? There were four (4) of Mom's family from Delta County, Texas, riding with the Texas Confederate Cavalry in the war for Southern Independence. The Dad was originally from Kentucky. One of the sons was killed. Mom's family, including her, have raised and picked more cotton than most folks in the south ever looked at.
Mom used a spoon of sugar in her cornbread. She added sugar to a pot of pintos, field peas, or black eyes, and she always added it to our iced tea while it was still hot. I did the same until my fifties, when I finally learned to drink unsweetened tea. My only explanation is we expended so much energy on labor we needed the extra sugar.
Two questions to our posters:
1. Do you or have you used sugar in these foods?
2. Do you consider yourself a TRUE Southerner?

The war for Southern Independence ((!!!!)) For those about to ROCK, we SALUTE YOU!

Born and raised in eastern North Carolina..... and to answer your question:

Cornbread: no sugar
Beans: a dash helps
Tea: Hell yeah, there beter be REAL sugar.

Just my 2 cents


Dennis in Cary

Hell Yea, Y'all....Sounds like fighten words have been raised. Think I'll set this thread out.

Sugar.. Smackulated only.
Tea, haft & haft

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

The war for Southern Independence ((!!!!)) For those about to ROCK, we SALUTE YOU!

Thank you, thank you. Another acceptable term for that war, of course, is the war against Northern Aggression, and as you know, the Southern States had every legal right to secede if they wished.

quote:

Originally posted by DLnWPBrown

Born and raised in eastern North Carolina..... and to answer your question:

Cornbread: no sugar
Beans: a dash helps
Tea: Hell yeah, there beter be REAL sugar.

Just my 2 cents


Dennis in Cary

I agree a dash of sugar in the beans prevents any slight bitterness they may have. I have always prefered them that way, anyhow! Yeppers, sweet tea had to have sugar added while hot. There is an actual chemical reaction that occurs that makes it taste sweeter.

quote:

Originally posted by edwmax

Hell Yea, Y'all....Sounds like fighten words have been raised. Think I'll set this thread out.

Sugar.. Smackulated only.
Tea, haft & haft

Not fighting, but some food discussion. I've always prefered yellow cornbread, too! There, I've said it, and I am proud as a Southerner to eat my sweetened, yellow cornbread in my sweetened pinto beans!

Dick

You like Suger use it. Just make sure it good Southern Cane Suger and not that beet suger stuff.

Along time ago, I eat at a diner in Mobile Al. The "Tiny Dinnie on US90" They had a real good sweet cornbread muffin. I don't know if they just added sugar or maybe used some cake mix in the cornmeal. I tried making some cornbread nuffins a few weeks ago useing a little cake mix, they were a little too sweet.

quote:

Originally posted by edwmax

Dick

You like Suger use it. Just make sure it good Southern Cane Suger and not that beet suger stuff.

Along time ago, I eat at a diner in Mobile Al. The "Tiny Dinnie on US90" They had a real good sweet cornbread muffin. I don't know if they just added sugar or maybe used some cake mix in the cornmeal. I tried making some cornbread nuffins a few weeks ago useing a little cake mix, they were a little too sweet.

I don't use a lot of sugar in my cornbread, but I like at least one table spoon to a batch. I am liberal with my usage of eggs, too. I can see where adding cake mix could make it too sweet.

Most or some recipes use some flour. I just used hafted the amout of flour and made up the difference with plane cake mix and buttermilk for the liquid. It was just little on the sweet side for my taste but I thought it was good.. I'll just gut the amout of cake mix next time.
My Dad liked it, my mom thought it was sweet and my wife didn't.

Max

I don't like sugar in my cornbread but make it that way sometimes because my dh's family liked it that way. I'd rather eat white bread if cornbread has sugar in it. My folks are from Tennessee, Virginia, the Carolinas and Alabama. Dh's folks are from the Carolinas and Georgia. I don't like cake textured cornbread either and I really only use flour to hold the blessed thing together lol

I only add sugar to butterbeans, right before I serve them. The rest of my beans are flavored with salt and meat. I have a low tolerance of sweets in my food.

My tea isn't as sweet as most either. Too much makes my stomach hurt. Not to mention they are empty calories I don't need.

quote:

Originally posted by edwmax

Most or some recipes use some flour. I just used hafted the amout of flour and made up the difference with plane cake mix and buttermilk for the liquid. It was just little on the sweet side for my taste but I thought it was good.. I'll just gut the amout of cake mix next time.
My Dad liked it, my mom thought it was sweet and my wife didn't.

Max

I hear you, Pard. I always use the recipe on the yellow cornmeal bag, except when I'm experimenting, but I do add the sugar. I once cooked a batch of cornbread every day for a week or so, experimenting with adding greens, sausage, corn, etcetera. My dogs loved me extra that week. They got the leftovers.

quote:

Originally posted by BhamBabe

I don't like sugar in my cornbread but make it that way sometimes because my dh's family liked it that way. I'd rather eat white bread if cornbread has sugar in it. My folks are from Tennessee, Virginia, the Carolinas and Alabama. Dh's folks are from the Carolinas and Georgia. I don't like cake textured cornbread either and I really only use flour to hold the blessed thing together lol

I only add sugar to butterbeans, right before I serve them. The rest of my beans are flavored with salt and meat. I have a low tolerance of sweets in my food.

My tea isn't as sweet as most either. Too much makes my stomach hurt. Not to mention they are empty calories I don't need.

So that's votes each way from the "Old South". Thanks, BhamBabe. I'm sure I'd love your cooking, whichever way you went that day. Oh, I do love a good mess of them butterbeans, too.

Dennis in Cary got ot right. Sugar in cornbread-Never!

No flour either. Just cornmeal (self rising), egg, buttermilk and bacon drippins'.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim in NC

Dennis in Cary got ot right. Sugar in cornbread-Never!

No flour either. Just cornmeal (self rising), egg, buttermilk and bacon drippins'.

A cornmeal purist, huh? Okay, is that white or yellow cornmeal? The white always seemed anemic somehow to me.

A bit of sugar in my cornbread, yellow cornmeal please.

No sugar in my tea, I'll add the new Splenda to my own taste. Don't like it real sweet.

No sugar in beans, have never tried it that way.

As to being Southern all my kin came out of the south, Arkansas & Texas. They just happened to be living in Calif at the time.

MikeS.

Hmmmm...do I consider myself a southerner??? That is a question I've always wondered about...My parents are from Whitesburg,Kentucky area...they always said they were briars...sooooo I guess I am a briar...but Kentucky is south of Ohio(where I live now)...soooo I might be Southerner too....hahahaha
My personal favorite is no-sugar cornbread with food...my family...they like the sweet...(what do they know hahahaha)
I've not tried sugar in beans, but do like my tea sweet.
Pam

quote:

Originally posted by MikeS.

A bit of sugar in my cornbread, yellow cornmeal please.
No sugar in my tea, I'll add the new Splenda to my own taste. Don't like it real sweet.
No sugar in beans, have never tried it that way.
As to being Southern all my kin came out of the south, Arkansas & Texas. They just happened to be living in Calif at the time.
MikeS.

Yep, white cornbread just don't seem right to me.
Your Dad's folks in Texas could not have lived far from Mom's Simpson clan in Delta County, Texas. They had come from Kentucky and Tennessee by way of Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Our mutual kin's ancestor in Arkansas who was an early settler there was born in the Carolinas. There are thousands of our kin in the South East then others here in Texas who came here from the Arkansas branch of the family.

quote:

Originally posted by pamelakrest

Hmmmm...do I consider myself a southerner??? That is a question I've always wondered about...My parents are from Whitesburg,Kentucky area...they always said they were briars...sooooo I guess I am a briar...but Kentucky is south of Ohio(where I live now)...soooo I might be Southerner too....hahahaha
My personal favorite is no-sugar cornbread with food...my family...they like the sweet...(what do they know hahahaha)
I've not tried sugar in beans, but do like my tea sweet.
Pam

We'll put you down for another mixed vote on cornbread. Kentucky was a Confederate state, for sure. Southern is a state of mind. If you feel southern you probably qualify.

White or yellow cornmeal as long as it's high quality stone ground. If I'm adding something like jalapenos, white is fine. Yellow is more visually appealing and has a very slightly more pronounced corn flavor.

Here's how it worked out in my family:

The Grandmother from Southern Alabama (100% Choctaw, so there's a couple of generations of South there too) used little to no sugar and added bacon grease.

My Grandmother from Madison, Jojuh added enough sugar to call it sweetened, but not cake sweet. They've both been gone some 10 years now, but I still won't speak or scribe which recipe I favored. They'd git me.

From the south of California, aka Northern Mexico, I now bow out Ort style.

Born and raised in Texas, but have lived in a lot of other places both north and south. Still cling to a lot of the Southern traditions when it comes to eating (and drinking).

Cornbread - no sugar, and yellow cornmeal ONLY.
Beans - no sugar except in baked beans ... then I use brown sugar.
Tea - Have to have iced tea with almost every dinner. But NO sugar, just a tad of Sweet 'n Low.

quote:

Originally posted by dickestep

Kentucky was a Confederate state, for sure.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state.

As an 11th generation Alabamian ,I must say :
1.Cornbread with no sugar and definitely bacon grease,I prefer hoecakes.
2.White Acre peas and greens of all kinds with bacon grease.And,I use a trick from Reconstruction days when folks didn't have white sugar,a dash of home made sugar cane syrup (not sorghum or molasses)in vegetables.
3.Tea with sugar,always !

Born and raised in TN. Yellow cornmeal and NO sugar in my mama's recipe for cornbread, plenty of sugar in that sweet tea, and no sugar in my beans. Only some kind of pork, and bacon grease in the cornbread. "American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God"

While not a Confederate state, culturally Kentucky is a Southern state.

Forgot the other questions:

1. A little sugar in beans and black eyes. Sweet tea sugared when hot. I've been drinking that with lots of fresh lemon ever since I can remember

2. No, I consider myself a true, native born, beach culture Southern Californian, albeit one who was raised within walking distance of two true Southern Grandmothers. Plus I was raised by two Southern Californians who were in turn raised by Southern mothers. In fact, my Mom was born in Alabama, but came out here an an infant. Something had to have worn off onto me, and I do think some things did. For instance, when I started kindergarten I was the only kid in class saying "yes mamm" and "no mamm" to the teacher. And I do mean the only one.
And I eat rice instead of potatoes. I could go on.......

Southern New Yorker.

Cornbread with sugar and maybe even vanilla.
Beans latin style, no sugar.

I drink many different types of tea, but if you mean Lipton orange pekoe, I'll take it sweet with or without milk, does'nt matter.
Iced tea sweet.
With lemon only if I'm not feeling well.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim in NC

White or yellow cornmeal as long as it's high quality stone ground. If I'm adding something like jalapenos, white is fine. Yellow is more visually appealing and has a very slightly more pronounced corn flavor.

Yeppers, I like the yellow color better, too. It does look much prettier with colored peppers in Mexican style, too.

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Here's how it worked out in my family:
The Grandmother from Southern Alabama (100% Choctaw, so there's a couple of generations of South there too) used little to no sugar and added bacon grease.
My Grandmother from Madison, Jojuh added enough sugar to call it sweetened, but not cake sweet. They've both been gone some 10 years now, but I still won't speak or scribe which recipe I favored. They'd git me.
From the south of California, aka Northern Mexico, I now bow out Ort style.

Yep, the Mother of three of those Simpson Texas Cavalry troops was half Cherokee from Tennesee. That got my ancestor John Boyd (Bullet) Simpson kicked off a wagon train going west for marrying her.
Oh, your Granny's from Georgia (Like Adjudicator), but... but... She used sugar? Well, I'll swanny!

quote:

Originally posted by BunglingBill

Born and raised in Texas, but have lived in a lot of other places both north and south. Still cling to a lot of the Southern traditions when it comes to eating (and drinking).
Cornbread - no sugar, and yellow cornmeal ONLY.
Beans - no sugar except in baked beans ... then I use brown sugar.
Tea - Have to have iced tea with almost every dinner. But NO sugar, just a tad of Sweet 'n Low.

Hoo, Buddy! I like me a handfull of that brown sugar in them baked beans, and about half a pound of bacon, and lots of onions! Mmm!

quote:

Originally posted by C Turner Joy

quote:

Originally posted by dickestep
Kentucky was a Confederate state, for sure.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state? Don't tell any of the Kentucky Colonels that! That would have shocked the bejesus out of the men who wrote up the Ordinance of Secession of Kentucky in 1861. They may have tried to be neutral, but the Confederate Army had a Kentucky Division.
http://www.csawardept.com/documents/secession/KY/index.html

quote:

Originally posted by iqdiva

As an 11th generation Alabamian ,I must say :
1.Cornbread with no sugar and definitely bacon grease,I prefer hoecakes.
2.White Acre peas and greens of all kinds with bacon grease.And,I use a trick from Reconstruction days when folks didn't have white sugar,a dash of home made sugar cane syrup (not sorghum or molasses)in vegetables.
3.Tea with sugar,always !

You use sugar cane syrup in vegetables. I've done that a lot, too, when needed.

quote:

Originally posted by southern_belle

Born and raised in TN. Yellow cornmeal and NO sugar in my mama's recipe for cornbread, plenty of sugar in that sweet tea, and no sugar in my beans. Only some kind of pork, and bacon grease in the cornbread. "American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God"

Yellow cornmeal? You use that yellow cornmeal like my Mama who was raised camping out under the cotton wagons? Well, hush my mouth, Child! Hee hee hee!

quote:

Originally posted by Jim in NC

While not a Confederate state, culturally Kentucky is a Southern state.

Yep.

December 10, 1861 • Kentucky becomes the 13th state admitted to the Confederacy with its capital at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and George W. Johnson acting as governor.
http://www.answers.com/topic/timeline-of-kentucky-in-the-civil-war

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Forgot the other questions:
1. A little sugar in beans and black eyes. Sweet tea sugared when hot. I've been drinking that with lots of fresh lemon ever since I can remember
2. No, I consider myself a true, native born, beach culture Southern Californian, albeit one who was raised within walking distance of two true Southern Grandmothers. Plus I was raised by two Southern Californians who were in turn raised by Southern mothers. In fact, my Mom was born in Alabama, but came out here an an infant. Something had to have worn off onto me, and I do think some things did. For instance, when I started kindergarten I was the only kid in class saying "yes mamm" and "no mamm" to the teacher. And I do mean the only one.
And I eat rice instead of potatoes. I could go on.......

Sugar in your beans and black eyes. Sweet tea sugared when hot. I'll go with that, too, when I can get it. I still say "Yes, Ma'am" to women folk less than half my age.

quote:

Originally posted by fabulousoyster

Southern New Yorker.

Cornbread with sugar and maybe even vanilla.
Beans latin style, no sugar.

I drink many different types of tea, but if you mean Lipton orange pekoe, I'll take it sweet with or without milk, does'nt matter.
Iced tea sweet.
With lemon only if I'm not feeling well.

You're a Southern New Yorker. I like that! Cornbread with sugar, too! Yee haw!

quote:

Originally posted by dickestep

quote:

Originally posted by C Turner Joy

quote:

Originally posted by dickestep
Kentucky was a Confederate state, for sure.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state? Don't tell any of the Kentucky Colonels that!

I have to imagine that the Colonels are somewhat past caring. That aside...

"Kentucky did not secede; for a time, it declared itself neutral. However, the Confederates broke the neutrality by seizing Columbus, Kentucky in September 1861. That turned opinion against the Confederacy, and the state reaffirmed its loyal status, while trying to maintain slavery. During a brief invasion by Confederate forces, Confederate sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. The rebel government soon went into exile and never controlled the state."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War


And:

"According to official records, over 75,000 Kentuckians fought for the Union during the Civil War. This figure does not include the estimated 12,000 men who saw active service with Kentucky's state forces, nor the hundreds who belonged to irregular units such as self-styled "Home Guards" or "Independent Scouts."

http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/civilwar.htm

http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/kyconfedcongress.htm

Oh, and I like cornbread either sweet or not, can't stand tea, and never considered sugar in beans.

C Turner Joy, you're just no fun, for us who wanted Kentucky to hold with the South! You're not a sweet bean sympathizer, either, but at least you like your cornbread whether it's sweet or not. This is a partial victory in the Great Sugar- No Sugar Debate. Oh, do you side with the white or yellow cornmeal factions?

Dickestep,down here in south east Alabama,when we use our home made sugar cane syrup in cooking,we call it long sweetenin'.In the fall , when the sugar cane is harvested and ground,we drink the fresh cane juice,chilled, and children chew pieces of sweet sugar cane.The cane juice is then boiled in large vats to make our syrup.

quote:

Originally posted by dickestep

C Turner Joy, you're just no fun, for us who wanted Kentucky to hold with the South! You're not a sweet bean sympathizer, either, but at least you like your cornbread whether it's sweet or not. This is a partial victory in the Great Sugar- No Sugar Debate. Oh, do you side with the white or yellow cornmeal factions?

And you, sir, made me laugh. Thanks.

As far as the beans go, I just don't think I've ever thought about sugar in them. Not that it sounds bad now that I consider it. Depends on the beans, I guess.

I like my cornbread like I like my women: yellow and coarse.

quote:

Originally posted by iqdiva

and children chew pieces of sweet sugar cane.

I haven't had that in years!

As to the other little debate, being from the south didn't make you Confederate. Read about the Free State of Winston in Alabama. If the State said they could leave, this county said it could leave from the State. And they weren't just Union sympathizers, they were Union Soldiers. And they didn't like sugar in their cornbread :-)

quote:

Originally posted by iqdiva

Dickestep,down here in south east Alabama,when we use our home made sugar cane syrup in cooking,we call it long sweetenin'.In the fall , when the sugar cane is harvested and ground,we drink the fresh cane juice,chilled, and children chew pieces of sweet sugar cane.The cane juice is then boiled in large vats to make our syrup.

That's interesting, Iqdiva. We had a big Sugar Refinery near here in Sugarland, Texas for years. I think I heard it's shut down now, though. I've never drunk the pure juice but when I was a kid there was one man in the neighborhood who had a grove of cane and would give stalks to us kids for halloween and such. We sure liked whittling and chewing it.

quote:

Originally posted by C Turner Joy

And you, sir, made me laugh. Thanks.
As far as the beans go, I just don't think I've ever thought about sugar in them. Not that it sounds bad now that I consider it. Depends on the beans, I guess.
I like my cornbread like I like my women: yellow and coarse.

Ha ha ha ha! Very good, now we're getting somewhere. I'll mark up another one on the Yellow Cornmeal militia, and uh, try a spoon of sugar in your next batch of beans or peas. It sure does smooth out the flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by BhamBabe

And they didn't like sugar in their cornbread :-)

Ha ha ha ha ha! That's a great one, BhamBabe!

I have lived in Georgia all of my 49 years, and this Georgia peach never adds sugar to cornbread, I like white cornmeal. I have yet to add it to beans when cooking them (bsked bean-another story), and as far as iced tea goes, I love it a bit sweet, not cloyingly so, with a slice of lemon and prefer Lipton regular or decaffinated orange pekoe.

quote:

Originally posted by speechpeach

I have lived in Georgia all of my 49 years, and this Georgia peach never adds sugar to cornbread, I like white cornmeal. I have yet to add it to beans when cooking them (bsked bean-another story), and as far as iced tea goes, I love it a bit sweet, not cloyingly so, with a slice of lemon and prefer Lipton regular or decaffinated orange pekoe.

Your handle is interesting. Are U a speech therapist, perhaps?

Cornbread: yes, brown sugar.
Iced Tea: no, sweet n' low (sugar IS poison ya know)

Oh, and I'm not a Southerner...I'm a TEXAN!!! The Civil War did nothing for Texas but but push back the frontier and impoverish its citizens. Since the Texas Secession Convention was so hell-bent on leaving the Union, they would have been better served by re-establishing Texas independence. But alas, they ignored Sam Houston's position and joined the Confederacy. So much for the alternative history. And yes, my ancestors fought for the South.

quote:

Originally posted by Grillmeister

Cornbread: yes, brown sugar.
Iced Tea: no, sweet n' low (sugar IS poison ya know)

Oh, and I'm not a Southerner...I'm a TEXAN!!! The Civil War did nothing for Texas but but push back the frontier and impoverish its citizens. Since the Texas Secession Convention was so hell-bent on leaving the Union, they would have been better served by re-establishing Texas independence. But alas, they ignored Sam Houston's position and joined the Confederacy. So much for the alternative history. And yes, my ancestors fought for the South.

And if history had followed that course, the rest of the country wouldn't have had George Dub-ya to pick on....

Born and raised in North Carolina. No sugar in the white cornbread, no sugar in the pintos- but plenty of onion cut up on the side, sugar added to the tea while still hot.

As for the beans, we use either veggie oil or a little bit of bacon fat to season then now. But when I was growing up, (in the 50s), everybody I knew back then seasoned pintos and green beans with fatback. Did other people do this too, or was my family just extremely redneck, lol?

quote:

And if history had followed that course, the rest of the country wouldn't have had George Dub-ya to pick on....

Grillmeister, although I have lived in many different places, I was born and raised (well, at least mostly raised ... for twelve years) in Texas.

So, I STILL consider my blood to be Texas blood.

AND, as such, I get really rankled when someone speaks bad about Texas or about Texans.

For your info, George Dub-ya is about as much "Texan" as I am a "Martian"!

Dub-ya and his "parents" MIGRATED to the wonderful State of Texas from points up NAWTH! ... WAY up nawth!

My rant has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything . . . other than my personal disdain for the cowboy wannabe.

Definately no sugar in my white cornmeal or pintos! Just finished cooking a pot (complete with fatback and couple pieces of bacon) and a pone of cornbread! Going to feast on that shortly along with the fresh turnips I cooked yesterday...Just a plain ole KY country gal transplanted in VA. Barney

Cornbread - No sugar, but yes on honey
Beans - No white sugar, but yes on brown or moleasses
Tea - Before being a Diabetic, Hell yes on sugar, now no sugar I will add Sweet & low

As to my heritage, Yankee by birth, Southerner by the grace of God.

I just love going back to eastern KY and having the waitress say,

"SWEETENED OR UNSWEETENED TEA?"

and I reply,

"SWEETENED TEA, PLEASE!"

As to cornbread, they don't even ask. It's unsweetened, white.

Yes to all three. I was born in Virginia, my parents in Tennessee. My mother made the white, non-sweet cornbread. That was okay until I tasted some real sweet cornpone--dense, rich and fattening, but worth every calorie. Having been raised on Campbell's pork and beans I guess I expect them to be sweet, I always add a little brown sugar to my own, and sweet tea is something I can't get enough of.

Speaking as the Yankee Oppressor, I like a dash of sweetness in my yellow cornbread, maple syrup in my baked beans, my iced tea w/o sugar and my hot tea with a scant spoonful.
In my defense, I was the only six-year old in my class drawing pictures of Stonewall Jackson.
P. S. Sorry 'bout Atlanta. Why the HELL did you rebuild?

baked beans - brown sugar or maple syrup
cornbread - white cornmeal no sugar if Mom's recipe, but I'll eat it just about any way I can get it, yellow and cake like, hushpuppies have to have a smidge of sugar and onions, yellow and no sugar, corn dogs you name it!
iced tea needs to be sweetened with sugar while hot. But when counting calories, Equal & Splenda are God sends!
Other peas and beans, cook with pork, but no sugar served over white, unsweetened cornbread with chopped raw Vidailia onion to garnish

Beans = Brown Sugar in my recipe
Cornbread = Sugar in my recipe
Ice Tea = No sugar for me please!

Coming from Florida, I am an odd critter here in South Carolina.
I had a mother from Texas and a father from Virginia...Everyone but me liked their tea sweet, including my brother.. I was the odd woman out at home.
At least most places offer both choices for Tea anymore.

I from SOUTHERN PA (4 miles from the Mason Dixon line)...married to a Chicagoan whose parents are from near Hazard, KY.

Here's our consensus...
CORNBREAD - NOT IN THE BATTER (its not dessert). I use honey on top if I wish. For breakfast (cold crumbled in the bowl) with milk and white table sugar.

TEA - Hot and cold, yes to sugar or Splenda. If I can I get sweet tea (darn hard to do living in Minnesota).

BEANS - Green beans - no; pinto - no; navy bean soup - sort of I use King Syrup.

Well, I guess I'll have to try cornbread from scratch, I'm the only one eating the stuff, so I just buy the $.59 Jiffy boxes, which DO have sugar in there, right before the lard. I load up the batter with so much (roasted serranos, onion, garlic, cumin, etc), that I think the sugar is overwhelmed. I add two eggs instead of one, and a little more milk than the box calls for, too.
Beans? My Mom had a great baked bean recipe with brown sugar and molasses. Lots on bacon on top.
As for iced tea... well, I'm from Texas, and we don't do that sweet tea thing. Let me tell you, it can be a real shock when you visit an area where it comes to the table already sweet, and you blithely add what you think is the only sugar involved. Woof. The Japanese places here in Los Angeles bring you a "simple sugar" syrup with your iced tea. Does not need much stirring. Here's what I'm doing: I throw a gallon sized bag (from Smart & Final) in a pitcher with hot water from the tap. I kick the bag around after an hour or so. In two or three hours, I get the stuff brewed to about where I want it, with minimal bitterness. Then I stir in a couple teaspoons of "Zulka" brand unrefined Mexican sugar ($2 for 4 lbs), at room temperature. It dissolves just fine. I go through the whole pitcher in 24 hours, so I don't bother to refrigerate the stuff.
As for true Southerners... Eh... Being from Texas, I feel a little left out sometimes. Texas joining the CSA somehow doesn't seem to count. Yet I think Texas was pretty important as a supplier of food, and other items in the War of Northern Agression. It's a complicated subject. H.L. Mencken considered Maryland part of the South. Certainly we need to look at Louisiana as part of the South, but again, I think a lot of folks look askance at New Orleans, and its culture, you know? Like the folks there are the sinful poor relations of the South. I guess Oklahoma and Arkansas are back of the bus Southerners, too. But Texas is so big that it's all over (literally) the map. El Paso? Not the South. Dallas? Kinda the South. Brownsville? TOO FAR SOUTH. Ha.
-Scott Lindgren