9 Old-School North Carolina Breakfasts We Miss And 9 That Should Stay In The Past
Growing up in North Carolina meant starting the day with breakfast traditions that shaped not only our mornings, but also our sense of home and family.
I can still close my eyes and smell the country ham crackling on grandma’s cast-iron skillet, hear the biscuits rising in the oven, and see molasses being drizzled over hot cornbread. These flavors carried stories of the South, passed down through generations.
Yet, not every dish from those kitchens deserves a comeback—some are better left as faded memories. Here’s my personal roundup of the beloved breakfast staples worth reviving and the ones best forgotten.
1. We Miss: Country Ham with Red-Eye Gravy
Nothing beats the salty, smoky perfection of a thin slice of country ham fried crisp around the edges. My grandfather would save the drippings, add a splash of black coffee, and create that magical concoction we call red-eye gravy.
The ham’s pink meat against the deep brown sauce made breakfast feel special, even on ordinary days. We’d sop it up with biscuits until the plate was clean.
Modern breakfast meats just don’t compare to this Carolina classic. The slight sweetness from the coffee balances the salt in a way that makes your taste buds dance with delight.
2. We Miss: Cathead Biscuits
Mammoth-sized and fluffy as clouds, cathead biscuits earned their name by being as big as a cat’s head. My grandmother never measured ingredients – just dipped her hands into the flour bin and worked magic.
These weren’t your dainty tea biscuits. They stood tall with crisp exteriors and tender, layered insides that pulled apart with the slightest tug. Perfect vehicles for sorghum, gravy, or simply melted butter.
Sunday mornings meant watching those golden-topped beauties emerge from the oven. The heavenly aroma would fill our farmhouse kitchen, announcing that breakfast would be something special.
3. We Miss: Livermush
Folks outside North Carolina might wrinkle their noses, but livermush holds a special place in our breakfast history. This spiced pork liver loaf, sliced and fried until crispy outside while staying soft inside, creates texture heaven.
My daddy would serve it with eggs and grits, making the perfect savory trio. Some relatives preferred it on white bread with mustard or grape jelly – don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
Western North Carolina claims this as their signature breakfast meat. The combination of sage, black pepper, and cornmeal gives livermush its distinctive flavor that store-bought sausage can’t touch.
4. We Miss: Grits with Butter and Salt
Sometimes the simplest dishes carry the most nostalgia. Plain grits – the slow-cooked stone-ground kind – topped with a generous pat of butter and sprinkle of salt represent Carolina breakfast at its purest.
My mama would stand at the stove stirring them for what felt like forever. The reward was creamy perfection without a single lump. We’d make little wells in our bowls where the butter would melt into golden pools.
Modern breakfasts with their fancy add-ins often miss the point. Good grits need nothing more than quality butter and salt to shine, creating a canvas that complements everything from eggs to country ham.
5. We Miss: Streak O’ Lean (Fatback Bacon)
Streak o’ lean – that glorious strip of salt-cured pork fat with just a whisper of meat running through it – might make modern nutritionists faint. Sliced thin and fried until crisp, it creates the most magnificent breakfast meat known to Carolina kitchens.
My uncle would dredge slices in flour before frying, giving them a delicate crust that shattered between your teeth. The rich flavor would linger pleasantly all morning.
Unlike regular bacon, streak o’ lean delivers an intensity that transforms humble eggs into a feast. That crackling texture and deep pork flavor simply can’t be replicated by today’s leaner alternatives.
6. We Miss: Sorghum Molasses on Biscuits
Sweet amber sorghum slowly drizzled over a hot split biscuit creates breakfast perfection. Unlike today’s overly processed syrups, sorghum offers complex flavor notes – grassy sweetness with a mineral finish that honey can’t match.
Grandpa kept a special tin just for this liquid gold. We’d watch in anticipation as the thick molasses formed lazy ribbons over butter-slathered biscuits. The warm biscuit would soak up the sorghum, creating pockets of sweetness in every bite.
Fall sorghum-making was a community event in rural Carolina. Farmers would bring their harvests to the mill, where the sweet juice was extracted and slowly boiled down into the syrup that graced our breakfast tables.
7. We Miss: Fried Apples
Autumn breakfasts meant fried apples – not the overly sweetened restaurant version, but proper Carolina-style with just enough sugar to enhance the fruit’s natural tartness. Granny Smith slices cooked down in a cast iron skillet with butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
My grandmother would save the crispy edge pieces for me. Those caramelized bits carried concentrated apple flavor that made ordinary mornings feel special.
The apples would cook until just soft enough to yield to a fork while maintaining their shape. Served alongside fatback or country ham, they provided the perfect sweet counterpoint to salt – a balance that modern breakfast menus often forget.
8. We Miss: Hoop Cheese Omelet
Bright orange hoop cheese – that firm, tangy farmers’ cheese once sold from wooden barrels in country stores – made the most extraordinary omelets. Unlike processed cheeses, it melted into glorious pockets of sharp, creamy goodness.
My aunt would grate it coarsely so some pieces would fully melt while others remained in satisfying chunks. She’d fold it into farm-fresh eggs with just a sprinkle of black pepper and maybe some green onion if they were growing in the garden.
Finding real hoop cheese nowadays requires a special trip to old-fashioned markets. The distinctive flavor carried hints of cheddar but with a texture all its own that modern cheese simply can’t duplicate.
9. We Miss: Fried Bologna Biscuit
The humble fried bologna biscuit deserves recognition as a true Carolina breakfast masterpiece. A thick-cut slice of bologna fried until the edges curl up, creating a perfect meat “bowl” that collects its own savory juices.
Dad would score the edges to prevent curling if he was feeling fancy. Sometimes he’d add a fried egg on top, letting the yolk create a silky sauce that soaked into the waiting biscuit below.
Gas stations across rural North Carolina still serve these simple sandwiches. The combination of soft biscuit, crispy-edged meat, and optional egg creates a portable breakfast that sustained generations of farmers and factory workers through long mornings.
10. Should Stay in the Past: Canned Vienna Sausages
Those pale, spongy cylinders floating in gelatinous goo somehow made their way onto breakfast plates across rural Carolina. The metallic taste from the can clung to each bite, no matter how you prepared them.
My cousin would slice them lengthwise and fry them, claiming it improved the flavor. It didn’t. The strange texture – neither solid meat nor proper sausage – created an uncanny valley of breakfast proteins.
While they offered convenient protein during hard times, we now have better options. The mysterious meat blend and chemical preservatives make these little tubes relics of a time when convenience trumped flavor and nutrition.
11. Should Stay in the Past: Powdered Eggs
Depression-era necessity turned wartime staple, powdered eggs represent breakfast at its most desperate. Reconstituted with water, they formed a pale yellow substance that only vaguely resembled scrambled eggs.
My great-uncle spoke of these with a thousand-yard stare from his military days. No amount of salt, pepper, or hot sauce could disguise their artificial flavor and grainy texture that coated your tongue unpleasantly.
School cafeterias and hunting camps kept this tradition alive longer than necessary. With fresh eggs readily available year-round, there’s simply no reason to subject ourselves to this sad imitation of one of breakfast’s perfect foods.
12. Should Stay in the Past: Boxed Instant Grits
The sacrilege of instant grits cannot be overstated. Those dusty packets producing bland, textureless mush bear no resemblance to proper stone-ground Carolina grits that require patience and attention.
My grandmother would visibly wince when anyone mentioned using them. “Those aren’t grits,” she’d declare. “Those are just sad little pieces of corn pretending.”
The convenience came at too high a cost – sacrificing the creamy texture and nutty corn flavor that makes real grits worth eating. The instant version’s uniform, almost powdery consistency and lack of character make them a breakfast tradition best forgotten.
13. Should Stay in the Past: Fried Lard Sandwiches
During particularly lean times, some Carolina families resorted to fried lard sandwiches – literally spoonfuls of pork fat fried in itself and placed between bread slices. My grandfather recalled these from his childhood with a mixture of nostalgia and horror.
The sandwich delivered pure calories when nothing else was available. A sprinkle of salt or sugar might be added depending on whether you wanted a savory or sweet version of this artery-clogging creation.
While understanding their historical importance during hard times, we can be grateful that economic necessity no longer forces such extreme measures. Modern nutritional knowledge alone should keep this particular tradition firmly in the history books.
14. Should Stay in the Past: Spam and Eggs
The distinctive pink brick of mystery meat known as Spam found its way onto many Carolina breakfast tables during wartime rationing. Sliced and fried until crispy-edged, it sat alongside eggs like an alien impersonating proper breakfast meat.
Uncle Joe would dice it into his scrambled eggs, claiming it was “just as good as ham.” It wasn’t. The gelatinous texture and overwhelming saltiness dominated every bite.
While Spam has its place in culinary history and remains popular in some cultures, its processed nature and ingredient list full of preservatives make it a breakfast meat we’re better off leaving behind. Our arteries and taste buds deserve the real thing.
15. Should Stay in the Past: Sugar-Soaked Cereal Bowls
Those neon-colored cereals that turned milk into rainbow chemical soup captivated kids but horrified grandparents. My childhood bowls contained more sugar than a dessert, all disguised as acceptable breakfast fare.
Saturday mornings meant cartoon-watching with a bowl of something that promised prizes inside but delivered mainly empty calories. The initial sugar rush gave way to inevitable crashes before lunchtime.
While convenient for busy parents, these cereals represented a sharp departure from traditional Carolina breakfasts built around protein and whole grains. The artificial colors, flavors, and astronomical sugar content make these a breakfast tradition that nutrition-conscious families are rightly leaving behind.
16. Should Stay in the Past: Sardines with Crackers for Breakfast
Opening a tin of oily fish first thing in the morning once seemed perfectly reasonable to certain Carolina households. Grandpa would carefully arrange sardines on saltine crackers, sprinkling them with hot sauce before consuming this pungent breakfast.
The entire kitchen would smell of fish for hours afterward. Attempts to mask the aroma with coffee only created an even stranger olfactory experience that clung to clothing all day.
While sardines offer impressive nutrition, their strong flavor profile and lingering scent make them better suited for lunches or snacks. Some morning traditions deservedly fade away, and this fishy breakfast is one we can happily leave in the past.
17. Should Stay in the Past: Souse Meat with Eggs
Souse meat – that mysterious gelatinous loaf of boiled, spiced, and congealed pig parts – occasionally appeared on breakfast tables across eastern Carolina. Sliced thin and served alongside eggs, the head cheese-like creation featured visible bits of meat suspended in aspic.
My great-aunt claimed it provided “staying power” for farm work. The vinegary, peppery flavor and uniquely jiggly texture created a breakfast experience few modern diners would appreciate.
While representing resourceful nose-to-tail cooking, souse meat’s combination of textures and visible mystery ingredients make it a hard sell for contemporary breakfasts. Some culinary traditions deserve respectful retirement, and this may be one of them.
18. Should Stay in the Past: Canned Hash
Those mysterious tins of processed meat and potatoes mashed into an indistinguishable brown paste somehow became breakfast staples during leaner times. Fried until crispy on the bottom, canned hash developed a cult following despite its questionable appearance.
My neighbor would crack eggs directly into wells made in the hash, creating a one-pan breakfast that prioritized convenience over flavor. The tinny undertaste never quite disappeared no matter how long you cooked it.
Fresh hash made from leftover roast and potatoes represents everything wonderful about resourceful cooking. Its canned counterpart, however, with its high sodium, preservatives, and mushy texture, deserves permanent retirement from our breakfast tables.