Southern Food

This lively, handsomely illustrated, first-of-its-kind book celebrates the food of the American South in all its glorious variety—yesterday, today, at home, on the road, in history. It brings us the story of Southern cooking; a guide for more than 200 restaurants in eleven Southern states; a compilation of more than 150 time-honored Southern foods; a wonderfully useful annotated bibliography of more than 250 Southern cookbooks; and a collection of more than 200 opinionated, funny, nostalgic, or mouth-watering short selections (from George Washington Carver on sweet potatoes to Flannery O’Connor on collard greens). Here, in sum, is the flavor and feel of what it has meant for Southerners, over the generations, to gather at the table—in a book that’s for reading, for cooking, for eating (in or out), for referring to, for browsing in, and, above all, for enjoying.

2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award, Reference and Scholarship Honor Book for Nonfiction, Black Caucus of the American Library Association In this insightful and eclectic history, Adrian Miller delves into the influences, ingredients, and innovations that make up the soul food tradition. Focusing each chapter on the culinary and social history of one dish--such as fried chicken, chitlins, yams, greens, and "red drinks--Miller uncovers how it got on the soul food plate and what it means for African American culture and identity. Miller argues that the story is more complex and surprising than commonly thought. Four centuries in the making, and fusing European, Native American, and West African cuisines, soul food--in all its fried, pork-infused, and sugary glory--is but one aspect of African American culinary heritage. Miller discusses how soul food has become incorporated into American culture and explores its connections to identity politics, bad health raps, and healthier alternatives. This refreshing look at one of America's most celebrated, mythologized, and maligned cuisines is enriched by spirited sidebars, photographs, and twenty-two recipes.

From grits to deep-fried okra, from barbecue to corn bread, Southern food stirs greater loyalty and passion than any American cuisine. Yet as the crops that once defined it have disappeared, much of the flavor has leeched out of Southern cookery until today. Thanks to a community of devoted chefs and farmers, and one indefatigable historian, Southern heirloom greens and grains and with them America s greatest cuisine--are being revived. Searching the archives for evidence of how nineteenth-century farmers bred their enormous variety of vegetables and grains, and of their contemporaries tastes and cooking practices, David S. Shields has become a key figure in the effort to reboot Southern cuisine. "Southern Provisions" draws on ten years of research and activism to tell the story of a quintessentially American cuisine that was all but forgotten, and the lessons that its restoration holds for the revival of regional cuisines across the country. Shields vividly evokes the connections between plants, plantations, growers, seed brokers, markets, vendors, cooks, and consumers. He shows how the distinctiveness of local ingredients arose from historical circumstances and a confluence of English, French Huguenot, West African, and Native American foodways. Shields emphasizes the Southern Lowcountry, from the peanut patches of Wilmington, North Carolina; to the Truck Farms of the Charleston Neck, South Carolina; to the sugar cane fields of the Georgia Sea Islands; to the citrus groves of Amelia Island, Florida. But the book also takes up the cuisine of New Orleans and other areas of the South and the nation, and even the West Indies. Offering a fascinating panorama of America s culinary past, "Southern Provisions" also shows how the renovation of traditional southern ingredients will enable cooks to take regional cuisine into the future."

Fried chicken, rice and gravy, sweet potatoes, collard greens and spoon bread - all good old fashioned, down-home southern foods, right? Wrong. The fried chicken and collard greens are African, the rice is from Madagascar, the sweet potatoes came to Virginia from the Peruvian Andes via Spain, and the spoon bread is a marriage of Native American corn with the French soufflé technique thought up by skilled African American cooks. Food historian Rick McDaniel takes 150 of the South's best-loved and most delicious recipes and tells how to make them and the history behind them. From fried chicken to gumbo to Robert E. Lee Cake, it's a history lesson that will make your mouth water. What southerners today consider traditional southern cooking was really one of the world's first international cuisines, a mélange of European, Native American and African foods and influences brought together to form one of the world's most unique and recognizable cuisines.

More than thirteen hundred individual recipes, as well as suggested menus for various occasions and holidays, are collected in a new edition of this classic cookbook, first published in 1928, that is the starting place for anyone in search of authentic dishes done in the traditional style.

Nourishment, nostalgia, Native ingredients and global influences. Southern Cultures's debut "best of" collection gets straight to the heart of the matter: food. For those of us who've debated mayonnaise brand, hushpuppy condiment, or barbecue style—including, in some quarters, whether the latter is a noun or a verb (bless your heart)—we present here a collection equal to our passions. Culled from our best food writing, 2008–2014, this special volume serves up tomatoes, turtles, molasses, Mother Corn and the Dixie Pig, bourbon, gravy, cakes, jams, jellies, pickles, and chocolate pie. Dig in! And stay tuned for more "best of" collections to come.

“The one food book you must read this year." —Southern Living One of Christopher Kimball’s Six Favorite Books About Food A people’s history that reveals how Southerners shaped American culinary identity and how race relations impacted Southern food culture over six revolutionary decades Like great provincial dishes around the world, potlikker is a salvage food. During the antebellum era, slave owners ate the greens from the pot and set aside the leftover potlikker broth for the enslaved, unaware that the broth, not the greens, was nutrient rich. After slavery, potlikker sustained the working poor, both black and white. In the South of today, potlikker has taken on new meanings as chefs have reclaimed it. Potlikker is a quintessential Southern dish, and The Potlikker Papers is a people’s history of the modern South, told through its food. Beginning with the pivotal role cooks and waiters played in the civil rights movement, noted authority John T. Edge narrates the South’s fitful journey from a hive of racism to a hotbed of American immigration. He shows why working-class Southern food has become a vital driver of contemporary American cuisine. Food access was a battleground issue during the 1950s and 1960s. Ownership of culinary traditions has remained a central contention on the long march toward equality. The Potlikker Papers tracks pivotal moments in Southern history, from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s to the rise of fast and convenience foods modeled on rural staples. Edge narrates the gentrification that gained traction in the restaurants of the 1980s and the artisanal renaissance that began to reconnect farmers and cooks in the 1990s. He reports as a newer South came into focus in the 2000s and 2010s, enriched by the arrival of immigrants from Mexico to Vietnam and many points in between. Along the way, Edge profiles extraordinary figures in Southern food, including Fannie Lou Hamer, Colonel Sanders, Mahalia Jackson, Edna Lewis, Paul Prudhomme, Craig Claiborne, and Sean Brock. Over the last three generations, wrenching changes have transformed the South. The Potlikker Papers tells the story of that dynamism—and reveals how Southern food has become a shared culinary language for the nation.

Every culture has its own unique flavor profile woven into the fabric of its history and traditions. Deep in the South, food is the focal point of our memories, the centerpiece of every occasion. What began as a humble means of nourishment has evolved into a cultural art form embraced throughout the country. Born-and-bred Southern belle Devon O'Day reminisces her way through this rich collection of the region's signature dishes. From Sunday dinner to Christmas morning brunch, My Southern Food chronicles the moments of life that happen anyplace you can balance a plate on your knees. This collection isn't just a catalog of recipes; it's an album of memories you're sure to recognize. In My Southern Food, you’ll find dishes including: Cathead Cheese Biscuits Gumbo Chicken and Dumpings Sweet Potato Casserole Country Ham The recipes in My Southern Food reflect a lifetime of the places, people, and occasions that define Southern living. Devon journeys through this compilation of recipes with stories and anecdotes that enrich the experience of recreating her most treasured meals. You don't have to be a Southerner to enjoy this cuisine. The appeal of these satisfying flavors is rooted in their simplicity.