When an online reviewer called out Hot Stuff chef Nate Barfield for serving canned green beans, he was tickled pink. “Yep, they’re canned,” says the chef, who grew up in rural Monroeville, Alabama.

They call it a meat and three and that fits the place to a t, but that is more serving suggestion than strict formula. It could be a meat and one, or two meats or no meat at all. Or you could do what ...