JTC 25: Biscuits and Family

OXFORD, Miss. – Warm, flaky, tender buttermilk biscuits are the inspiration for Bay Merrell's undergraduate thesis, as well as the reason for her grandmother's internet fame.

Merrell, a senior Southern studies major in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi, took Annemarie Anderson's SST 401 course last fall and completed her capstone project about food traditions within her own family.

Specifically, her thesis is about Southern women who run online kitchens.

"I'm looking at Carlena Davis, an African-American woman from North Carolina, and my own grandmother, Brenda Gantt," Merrell said. "I'm looking at how online kitchen spaces have turned into a place where women can come together and share recipes and memories and skills they have in the kitchen.

According to her website, Davis is a "culinary content creator, foodie, cookbook author, children's book author, jam and biscuit maker all rolled into one," who started the food blog "Spilling the Sweet Tea."

"So rather than the kitchen being such an isolating place like it has been in history, it's a way for women to connect and not feel so alone, and a way for them to make relationships and form connections through the kitchen," Merrell said.

Gantt started her online kitchen in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she wasn't able to feed her friends and neighbors. After being hounded for her biscuit recipe, she decided to put a short video on Facebook so people could see how simple cooking could be.

Today, Gantt has 3.9 million Facebook followers, 264,000 followers on Instagram and a YouTube channel with 146,000 subscribers.

"She didn't know much about Facebook or social media or anything like that, but she's figured it out every time, and now she even has a little tripod she uses," Merrell said. "It's been really good for her because during COVID, I think she felt isolated just because you hear that sometimes after your spouse dies, it's hard to find purpose and keep going."

"But for her, this has been a really good way to continue being able to share her story, and her recipes and food."

Last fall, Gantt even featured her granddaughter in a video while they made zucchini lasagna in the kitchen together, as Merrell explained her interdisciplinary Southern studies degree to the ever-expanding audience.

"She was so honored when I asked to interview her for my thesis; she was just thrilled," Merrell said. "She was truly excited to be a part of the experience and I think she was really excited that I was focusing on family and family foodways in the south and putting an emphasis on that."

The famous biscuit recipe has been passed down from Gantt's mother, then to her daughters and grandchildren.

"Family foodways and the South are very important to her and this project really honed in all that," Merrell said.

Conducing oral histories and being intentional about conversations are skills she learned in SST 401, thanks to Anderson.

"I think one thing that stuck with me – something she reiterated and it made me realize how important it is – when you are talking to people you have to be willing to listen to them and hear what they have to say and build that interview off of what they are saying to you rather than just following a script," Merrell said.

Merrell's curious and fresh approach to her capstone research project impressed Anderson.

"Bay truly wanted to understand how history and informed contemporary food media influencers in the South, and she tells a complex story through her research," said Anderson, assistant professor of practice and lead oral historian for the Southern Foodways Alliance.

For Merrell, family time extends to the outdoors as well. After a kayaking trip on the Buffalo River when she was 12, Merrell and her dad decided to stop in Oxford to check out the Ole Miss campus on their way home to Andalusia, Alabama. They wandered the Grove and sat on the balcony at Square Books.

"It was just something I never forgot," Merrell said. "I just knew this is where I wanted to be. It's actually the only place I even applied to. There is just something about it.

"It feels like home now, but it felt like home then in a sense, just because of the community here and how friendly everyone was."

As an Alabama native, coming to school at Ole Miss would mean the financial challenge of out-of-state tuition. As Merrell and her mom were researching programs, they discovered the Southern studies program is part of the Academic Common Market, which is a tuition-savings program for students in certain states who want to pursue degrees that are not offered by public institutions in their home state.

"I adore the South, and I've loved growing up here, so it worked out perfectly and I am so glad I came here," Merrell said.

Besides her schoolwork, Merrell also keeps busy with a new interest, repurposing and reimagining denim by hand-sewing vintage patches, fabrics and buttons, another skill her grandmother taught her.

"It's called Old Soul Denim and I haven't been doing it long, but it's something I've really been enjoying," Merrell said. "I also started embroidering on the jeans, and that is something my grandmother taught me when I was young.

"She would get old bed sheets and she would give us the embroidery thread and we would all sit around it and work on it."

Next fall when she enrolls in the accelerated, one-year program MBA program at the College of Charleston, she hopes to combine all of her interests.

"I'm hoping that getting my MBA will be a way to expand on my business," Merrell said.

But the real question is: Can Merrell make those famous biscuits? She smiles widely and nods.

"I can make the biscuits," she said.

Top: Bay Merrell explored Southern identity, family, and tradition in her senior thesis on women who run online kitchens, drawing inspiration from her grandmother and other culinary storytellers. The Alabama native, who graduates Saturday (May 10) from the university, found a home at Ole Miss through the Southern studies program and the Honors College. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

See more photos from Bay Merrell's Journey to Commencement