The subject of my latest chef dinner at Chateau Ste. Michelle has quickly become my latest culinary obsession -- Southern food. My knowledge of Southern food was pretty general, so I did what I always do: purchased a dozen cookbooks; ordered some authentic ingredients; and tested, tasted, tested, tasted. The result is, besides being unbelievably full, I am head-over-heels in love with everything Suthun’!
The more research I did, the more I became completely enamored & beguiled with the South. It just buttered my biscuit, so to speak. From the shellfish of the low country’s coastal regions, to the amazing varieties of field peas & legumes of the inland territories; from the one true grit (the stone-ground variety) to the highly debated barbeque feuds between each state, region, county & city.
I’ve always believed that culinary ingenuity is born of the hardship & make-do attitude of poor peasants. The glories of Southern cooking not only has that resourcefulness, but it takes the best from its diverse melting pot to create not a homogenous jumble, but a truly varied cuisine that brilliantly works together while remaining true to each of the players.
Bill Neal said it best: “...In the South the history of the region is all pervasive and embraces the cuisine. Southern food is not just food cooked south of the Mason-Dixon line. It is a product of time and people as well as place... The cooking, like the society it reflected, was never homogenous, but it was a synthesis of the major forces behind it.”
Favorite Southern Cookbooks (thus far...)
The Taste of Country Cooking
Edna Lewis
Edna Lewis is the quintessential grand dame of Southern cooking. This book, in particular, reminded me of my grandmother, not only in its uncomplicated, sweet writing style, but the similarities in food, farm and family.
The Edna Lewis Cookbook
Edna Lewis & Evangeline Peterson
The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook
Matt & Ted Lee
Chock full of traditional recipes, excellent resources, and whimsical anecdotes -- a great read, even if you don’t cook anything.
Bill Neal’s Southern Cooking
Bill Neal
It’s perfect -- not overly complicated, informative, beautifully written.
Biscuits, Spoonbread & Sweet Potato Pie
Bill Neal
Good Old Grits Cookbook
Bill Neal & David Perry
Holy Smoke: the Big Book of North Carolina Barbeque
John Shelton Reed & Dale Volberg Reed
A great read with excellent photos -- full of information, history and all the heresies committed against North Carolina Barbeque.
Kansas City Barbeque Society Cookbook
Kansas City BBQ Society
A well-rounded collection of the society’s recipes. The Kansas City Basting Sauce is delicious.
Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking
Craig Claiborne
Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South
Sheila Ferguson
Ms. Ferguson’s collection of family photos, recipes & stories. As soon as I get me a squirrel, I’ll brew up somethin’ from the “If you see it, shoot it” chapter.
Louisiana Real & Rustic
Emeril Lagasse
The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes & Revelations from Two Great American Cook
Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock
Screen Doors & Sweet Tea: Recipes & Tales from a Southern Cook
Martha Hall Foose
The New Low-Country Cooking: Recipes for Coastal Southern Cooking with Innovative Style
Marvin Woods
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