Livermush, Cheerwine and sweet potatoes: North Carolina food words

Three foods turn up again and again when people talk about eating in North Carolina: a pork-and-cornmeal loaf called livermush, a cherry soda called Cheerwine and the sweet potato, which the state grows more than any other. Each has a town, a story and a way to order it. Here is each one in plain terms, with the festivals to look for.

What is livermush?

Livermush is a loaf made from pork liver, parts of the pig's head, cornmeal and spices, cooked, cooled and sliced. You fry a slice until the edges are crisp and serve it for breakfast with eggs, grits or on a biscuit or a sandwich with mustard or ketchup. The texture is soft inside, crisp outside, and the taste is mild, savory and rich. It is related to scrapple in Pennsylvania. It is especially associated with Shelby and Cleveland County, and with the foothills around Morganton and Marion.

Cooks disagree about how it should be eaten. Some insist on a thick slice fried hard, others like it thin and crumbly. In Shelby you may meet a livermush sandwich with mustard and onion, and in other places with a slice of tomato or a fried egg. Brands differ in texture and seasoning, so try more than one if you can. If you are curious but cautious, order it as a side with a full breakfast so you can taste it beside eggs and grits.

Where can you try livermush, and when is the festival?

Livermush is sold in grocery stores in the foothills and in some supermarkets across the state, and breakfast restaurants and diners serve it on request. Shelby holds a livermush festival in October, with live music and a dog event under the name Mush Music and Mutts. If you only want to taste it, order it on a breakfast biscuit.

What is Cheerwine?

Cheerwine is a cherry-flavored soda created in 1917 in Salisbury by L.D. Peeler, in a time when sugar was scarce. It is deep red, sweeter than a cola and tastes of wild cherry, with a hint of spice. The company is based in Salisbury. Many North Carolinians drink it with barbecue or pour it over ice cream for a float, and you will find it in grocery stores and restaurants across the state. Salisbury holds a Cheerwine festival each spring.

How do you drink Cheerwine?

Cold, from a glass bottle or a can, with a salty meal. A Cheerwine float is a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass of soda. Bakers use it in cakes, and cooks use it in barbecue glazes. Sugar content is high, so read the label if you track sugar. Diet and zero-sugar versions are sold in some stores.

Why is North Carolina the sweet potato state?

North Carolina has led the nation in sweet potato production since 1971, according to a state proclamation in 2025, and counties in the east, such as Sampson, Nash, Wilson and Johnston, grow the most. The state's sweet potato commission is based in Benson, and North Carolina State University carries out research on the crop. The sweet potato is a root, not a potato, and it is sweeter and denser. Cooks bake it whole, mash it, fry it in fries, put it in casseroles with marshmallows or pecans, and turn it into pie, biscuits and pancakes.

How do you eat sweet potatoes in North Carolina?

Look for a baked sweet potato with butter at barbecue and meat-and-three restaurants, sweet potato biscuits at breakfast, sweet potato pie at holidays and sweet potato fries on many menus. At a farm stand in the fall, buy fresh potatoes and cure them in a warm room for a week to improve the sweetness. February is marked as sweet potato month by the state. Festivals in the east celebrate the harvest, so check the local town's calendar.

Farm stands in the fall often sell sweet potatoes by the peck or the bushel, and many vendors will tell you which variety is best for baking and which for mashing. Look for firm roots without soft spots, and store them in a cool, dark, dry place, not in the refrigerator. Cook them whole in the oven until they leak sugar, then split and top with butter, cinnamon or a spoonful of pecans. The skin is edible, and scrubbing it well is all the preparation it needs.

What dietary issues should you know about, and how do you build a road trip around these three?

Livermush contains pork and organ meat, so it is not suitable for vegetarians, and it contains cornmeal, which is often gluten-free but may be processed with wheat. Cheerwine contains no meat but is high in sugar. Sweet potato dishes can contain butter, brown sugar, nuts and marshmallow, which contain gelatin. Ask about ingredients if you have allergies or restrictions.

Start in Salisbury for a Cheerwine and a walk downtown. Drive west to Shelby for a livermush biscuit, then head east in the fall to the sweet potato counties around Wilson and Benson. The route covers the Piedmont, the foothills and the coastal plain in a few days, with plenty of barbecue stops between them.

How do you keep track of North Carolina's signature foods?

Livermush on a biscuit, a cold Cheerwine and a baked sweet potato are the kind of regional firsts you want on record. Mosey is a food app for finding, rating and sharing places to eat, and it rates by the dish, so each of the three gets a score from you and a tag for where you ate it.

Make a list called "North Carolina firsts", share its invite link with visiting friends and follow the people who grew up with these foods. Mosey also runs seasonal food votes, and a state with a sweet potato month has plenty to vote on.

Rate your first livermush biscuit in the Mosey app.

More guides to read next:

• Where to eat in Chapel Hill and Carrboro: Franklin Street and the market
• Restaurants open on Thanksgiving and Christmas in North Carolina (2026)
• North Carolina seasonal food calendar: what to eat in each month

More in the US food guides and the ranked lists of places.