Appalachian Home Cooking

Mark F. Sohn’s classic book, Mountain Country Cooking, was a James Beard Award nominee in 1997. In Appalachian Home Cooking, Sohn expands and improves upon his earlier work by using his extensive knowledge of cooking to uncover the romantic secrets of Appalachian food, both within and beyond the kitchen. The foods of Appalachia are the medium for the history of a creative culture and a proud people. This is the story of pigs and chickens, corn and beans, and apples and peaches as they reflect the culture that has grown from the region’s topography, climate, and soil. Sohn unfolds the ways of a table that blends Native American, Eastern European, Scotch–Irish, black, and Hispanic influences to become something new—and uniquely American. Sohn shows how food traditions in Appalachia have developed over two centuries from dinner on the grounds, church picnics, school lunches, and family reunions as he celebrates regional signatures such as dumplings, moonshine, and country ham. Food and folkways go hand in hand as he examines wild plants, cast-iron cookware, and the nature of the Appalachian homeplace. Appalachian Home Cooking celebrates mountain food at its best. In addition to a thorough discussion of Appalachian food history and culture, Sohn offers over eighty classic recipes, as well as mail-order sources, information on Appalachian food festivals, photographs, poetry, a glossary of Appalachian and cooking terms, menus for holidays and seasons, and a list of the top 100 Appalachian foods.

Winner of the James Beard Foundation Book of the Year Award and Best Book, American Cooking, Victuals is an exploration of the foodways, people, and places of Appalachia. Written by Ronni Lundy, regarded as the most engaging authority on the region, Victuals guides us through the surprisingly diverse history--and vibrant present--of food in the Mountain South. Victuals explores the diverse and complex food scene of the Mountain South through recipes, stories, traditions, and innovations. Each chapter explores a specific defining food or tradition of the region--such as salt, beans, corn (and corn liquor). The essays introduce readers to their rich histories and the farmers, curers, hunters, and chefs who define the region's contemporary landscape. Sitting at a diverse intersection of cuisines, Appalachia offers a wide range of ingredients and products that can be transformed using traditional methods and contemporary applications. Through 80 recipes and stories gathered on her travels in the region, Lundy shares dishes that distill the story and flavors of the Mountain South. – Epicurious: Best Cookbooks of 2016

More than 100 recipes from Southern Appalachia's culinary renaissance The southern Appalachian Mountains are rich with produce, including wild ramps, corn, berries, and black walnuts. Drawing from these natural resources and fusing traditions of Native Americans and Scots-Irish settlers, the people of the region have developed a unique way of cooking. These foodways run in John Tullock’s blood. As a child growing up on an East Tennessee farm, Tullock helped his grandmother make biscuits and can pickles, and walked to town with his grandfather to trade fresh eggs for coffee. In Appalachian Cooking, he shares these memories and recipes passed down over generations, as well as modern takes on classic dishes. Recipes include: Sweet Onion Upside-Down Corn Bread Fried Green Tomatoes Skillet Braised Pork Chops Blackberry Crumble Vibrant watercolor illustrations throughout remind us that beautiful produce is often the best culinary inspiration.

“Inventive, sumptuous recipes” from the writer of the award-winning food blog Harvest and Honey, a Saveur Best Blog finalist (Sonja Overhiser, author of Pretty Simple Cooking). Showcasing the flavors and modern cooking techniques of Appalachia and the Blue Ridge Mountains: With over seventy delectable recipes and eighty stunning photographs organized by seasons, Smoke, Roots, Mountain, Harvest is an evocative cookbook rooted in Appalachian ingredients and flavors that takes readers and cooks deep into the heart and soul of America. Lauren McDuffie uses modern cooking techniques to transform traditional comfort food with a mountain sensibility into inspired meals and menus for anyone. Each chapter opens with storytelling that echoes the folklore and tall tales of the region. Beautiful color photographs capture mouthwatering dishes for all occasions—from morning beverages to a show-stopping berry buckle—as well as the tools, fruits, flowers, and scenery of life in the Mountain South. From the mountains of southwestern Virginia, Lauren McDuffie is a writer, food stylist, photographer, and creator of the blog Harvest and Honey. Menu suggestions and wine pairings encompass a variety of meal occasions, from small plates to soups, salads, mains, sides, drinks, dessert, along with tips and techniques on canning, pickling, and preserving. Mouthwatering recipes include Shaved Summer Squash Salad with Pickled Pepper Vinaigrette, Slow-Roasted Onion and Golden Apple Soup, Baked Pork Chops with Cran-Apple Moonshine Compote, Drunken Short Ribs with Smoky Gouda Grits and Mountain Gremolata, Pan-Seared Carrots with Bourbon-Maple Glaze, Triple Orange Cake with Honey-Lavender Buttercream, and many more. “[An] intimate and charmingly rendered collection of inspiring recipes.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Recipes for breads, beverages, meat dishes, preserves, vegetables, and other foods from Appalachia are accompanied by a discussion of the region's culture

From springhouse to smokehouse, from hearth to garden, Southern Appalachian foodways are celebrated afresh in this newly revised edition of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. First published in 1984—one of the wildly popular Foxfire books drawn from a wealth of material gathered by Foxfire students in Rabun Gap, Georgia—the volume combines hundreds of unpretentious, delectable recipes with the practical knowledge, wisdom, and riveting stories of those who have cooked this way for generations. A tremendous resource for all interested in the region's culinary culture, it is now reimagined with today's heightened interest in cultural-specific cooking and food-lovers culture in mind. This edition features new documentation, photographs, and recipes drawn from Foxfire's extensive archives while maintaining all the reminiscences and sharp humor of the amazing people originally interviewed. Appalachian-born chef Sean Brock contributes a passionate foreword to this edition, witnessing to the book's spellbinding influence on him and its continued relevance. T. J. Smith, editor of the revised edition, provides a fascinating perspective on the book's original creation and this revision. They invite you to join Foxfire for the first time or once again for a journey into the delicious world of wild foods, traditional favorites, and tastes found only in Southern Appalachia.

First published in 1972, The Foxfire Book was a surprise bestseller that brought Appalachia's philosophy of simple living to hundreds of thousands of readers. Whether you wanted to hunt game, bake the old-fashioned way, or learn the art of successful moonshining, The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center had a contact who could teach you how with clear, step-by-step instructions. This classic debut volume of the acclaimed series covers a diverse array of crafts and practical skills, including log cabin building, hog dressing, basketmaking, cooking, fencemaking, crop planting, hunting, and moonshining, as well as a look at the history of local traditions like snake lore and faith healing.

Part cookbook and part memoir, Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking blends staples of farm-fresh, Appalachian cuisine with stories of life on a large farm in East Tennessee, where homemade biscuits and harvest vegetables were the fruits of hard work and meager earnings. Robert G. Netherland begins with the family farm: a sprawling sixty acres of fertile, rolling hills located in the small town of Surgoinsville, Tennessee, situated between bends in the Holston River. From there, Netherland guides the reader through threshing wheat, churning butter, sharecroppers and country doctors, hunting and hog killing, and all the while sharing updated versions of his family’s recipes for authentic farm-to-table food. From biscuits to cornbread, freshly shelled beans to red-ripe tomatoes, and savory meats to the sweetest cherry pies, Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking provides the home cook with recipes and historical asides to turn any trip to the farmer’s market into a delicious family affair. In sharing his experiences, Netherland reminds us of a time when prepackaged and plastic-wrapped food didn’t line our counters and fill our cabinets, but in its place were baskets of seasonal fruit, canned vegetables, fresh baked breads, and hot-from-the-oven cobblers. Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking is more than just a nostalgic memoir of farming and food, it’s also filled with healthy, simple, everyday eats for the modern cook.