Today, on what would be Thomas Jefferson’s 270th birthday, you are sure to see our third president remembered as the voracious intellectual who drafted the Declaration of Independence and founded the University of Virginia. In the world of Southern food, however, Jefferson boasts another, lesser-known accomplishment: He played a major role in bringing macaroni and cheese to the American dinner table.

Ever drop a handful of roasted peanuts into an ice-cold Coca-Cola? The sweet and salty pairing, rare above the Mason-Dixon line and vanishing below, conjures vivid memories from Southerners of a certain age