A recent list including the best Southern foods includes several of Tennessee’s best exports.
Southern Living asked readers to choose their favorite foods, drinks and snacks that originated in the South. These items were compiled into the Southern Food Hall of Fame, with 50 products in total.
Only six items came from Tennessee, as Southern Living cited Sun Drop as being from St. Louis, despite being produced in Pulaski, Tennessee. After Louisiana and Texas, Tennessee had the third-highest number of products on the list, tied with North Carolina.
Here are the products from Tennessee that made the list.
Bush’s Baked Beans
The Bush’s Baked Beans Visitor Center in Chestnut Hill, Tenn., on Jan. 23, 2026.
Bush Brothers Beans, the parent company of Bush’s Baked Beans, began in 1908 in Chestnut Hill, but is headquartered in Knoxville. According to a report from Forbes earlier this year, Bush’s sells 80% of America’s canned baked beans and offers 13 different kinds of baked beans, not to mention dozens of other canned bean options.
Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams
Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams was started in 1947 by Albert H. Hicks before Allan Benton bought it and turned it into the Southern staple it is today. It was founded in Madisonville and is still headquartered there today. The company produces slow-cured hams that are typically aged 9 to 10 months, though hams one year and older are also available.
White Lily Flour
Created in Knoxville in 1883, White Lily flour is the oldest Tennessee product included in the ranking. The flour is milled from 100% soft red winter wheat, which has a lower protein content and a finer texture than conventional all-purpose flours.
In 2006, J.M. Smucker purchased the company, and two years later it closed the Knoxville plant before moving production to the Midwest. The brand was sold to Hometown Food Company in 2018.
Goo Goo Cluster Candy
A couple of Standard Candy Company employees are packing wrapped Goo Goo clusters into boxes to get ready for loading and shipping on April 7, 1976. An upwards of 12 million Goo Goo clusters are eaten in over thirty states.
Goo Goo Cluster candies have been a staple in the Nashville dessert scene since 1912, when Howard Campbell created it at the Standard Candy Company. It was one of the first items to be sold at the Grand Ole Opry when it was formed in 1925, 13 years after Goo Goo Clusters were made.
The famous candy features a roundish mound of caramel, marshmallow nougat, fresh roasted peanuts and real milk chocolate, making it the first candy bar to be manufactured with ingredients other than chocolate, caramel or taffy.
MoonPie
The MoonPie, one of America’s most iconic desserts, was invented at the Chattanooga Bakery in 1917, and is still produced there over 100 years later. The dessert includes a marshmallow filling between two graham crackers, all dipped in chocolate. The product has become so popular that the Chattanooga Bakery produces over one million MoonPies each day.
Little Debbie Snack Cakes
The final Tennessee product on the list was Little Debbie snack cakes, which began production in 1960, when the founders of McKee Foods, the dessert’s parent company, decided to name a product after one of their grandchildren. Debbie McKee-Fowler, after whom the product was named, currently serves as Chairman of the McKee Foods Board of Directors.
More than 75 varieties are available, and some of the most famous Little Debbie products include Cosmic Brownies, Nutty Buddies, Oatmeal Cream Pies, Swiss Cake Rolls and Zebra Cakes.
Jordan Green covers trending news for The Commercial Appeal and Tennessee. She can be reached at jordan.green@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Southern Living names 6 Tennessee favorites to its Food Hall of Fame
