Books in the Savor the South Cookbooks series

While the hindquarters of swine have been preserved in salt the world over for thousands of years, there are only a few places on earth where ham is as celebrated or integral to the cuisine as it is in the American South. To begin to understand the place that this iconic food holds in the hearts of southerners, Damon Lee Fowler writes, one has only to step into the historic smokehouse of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and take a deep breath. More than a century after the last hams were hung to smoke in that chamber, the aroma of salt, smoke, and air-dried pork still permeates the rough masonry walls and clay floor, filling the air with its earthy perfume. Even after centuries of culinary transformations throughout the South, that fragrance lingers in kitchens throughout the region. Ham's 55 recipes bring home the love in just about every waybrine- or dry-cured, smoked or not, boiled, baked, glazed, honey-baked and spiral cut, thin-sliced and piled into biscuits and sandwiches, fried up with eggs, with grits, with redeye gravy, added for savor to soups, casseroles, poultry, seafood, and, yes, the vegetable pot. Fowler also includes recipes inspired by Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish dishes, and provides a guide to basic terminology and cooking methods.

Fruit collects a dozen of the South's bountiful locally sourced fruits in a cook's basket of fifty-four luscious dishes, savory and sweet. Demand for these edible jewels is growing among those keen to feast on the South's natural pleasures, whether gathered in the wild or cultivated with care. Indigenous fruits here include blackberries, mayhaws, muscadine and scuppernong grapes, pawpaws, persimmons, and strawberries. From old-school Grape Hull Pie to Mayhaw JellyGlazed Shrimp, McDermott's recipes for these less common fruits are of remarkable interest--and incredibly tasty. The non-native fruits in the volume were eagerly adopted long ago by southern cooks, and they include damson plums, figs, peaches, cantaloupes, quince, and watermelons. McDermott gives them a delicious twist in recipes such as Fresh Fig Pie and Thai-Inspired Watermelon-Pineapple Salad.McDermott also illuminates how the South--from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Lowcountry, from the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast--encompasses diverse subregional culinary traditions when it comes to fruit. Her recipes, including a favorite piecrust, provide a treasury of ways to relish southern fruits at their ephemeral peak and to preserve them for enjoyment throughout the year.

Without corn, Tema Flanagan writes, the South would cease to taste like the South. Her treasury of fifty-one recipes demonstrates deliciously just how important the remarkable Zea mays is to southern culture and cuisine. Corn's recipes emphasize seasonality. High summer calls for fresh corn eaten on the cob or shaved into salads, sautes, and soups. When fall and winter come, it is time to make cornmeal biscuits, muffins, cobblers, and hotcakes, along with silky spoonbread and sausage-studded cornbread stuffing. And the heaviest hitters, cornbread and grits, are mainstays all year round.Flanagan also surveys corn's culinary history--its place in Native American culture, its traditional role on the southerner's table, and the new and exciting ways it is enjoyed in southern kitchens today. Appreciating how this oversized grass is capable of providing sustenance in an astonishing array of forms, Flanagan organizes the book to reflect corn's versatility. Sections feature corn in its full glory: fresh on and off the cob, dried and ground, nixtamalized (soaked in an alkaline solution and hulled to make hominy) and popped, and mashed and fermented. From Sweet Corn and Poblano Chowder to Southern Skillet Cornbread, from Fresh Corn Tortillas to Classic Cheese Grits, and from Molasses Caramel Corn with Candied Bacon, Peanuts, and Sesame to New Orleans Bourbon Milk Punch, the dishes range from classic southern to contemporary to globally influenced.

From the earliest days of European settlement in the South, as in many rural economies around the globe, cured pork became a main source of sustenance, and the cheaper, lower-on-the-hog cuts--notably, bacon--became some of the most important traditional southern foodstuffs. In this cookbook, Fred Thompson captures a humble ingredient's regional culinary history and outsized contributions to the table. Delicious, of course, straight out of the skillet, bacon is also special in its ability to lend a unique savory smokiness to an enormous range of other foods.Today, for regular eaters and high-flying southern chefs alike, bacon has achieved a culinary profile so popular as to approach baconmania. But Thompson sagely notes that bacon will survive the silliness. Describing the many kinds of bacon that are available, Thompson provides key choices for cooking and seasoning appropriately. The book's fifty-six recipes invariably highlight and maximize that beloved bacon factor, so appreciated throughout the South and beyond (by Thompson's count, fifty different styles of bacon exist worldwide). Dishes range from southern regional to international, from appetizers to main courses, and even to a very southern beverage. Also included are Thompson's do-it-yourself recipes for making bacon from fresh pork belly in five different styles.

While fried chicken may be the South's iconic dish, when it comes to southern foodways, there are a lot of ways to love America's most popular fowl. Preparations range from Country Captain to Carolina Chicken Bog to Chicken and Parslied Dumplings and more. Here, Cynthia Graubart celebrates the bird in all its glory, southern style and beyond. This little cookbook packs all the know-how that cooks need to make irresistible chicken dishes for everyday and special occasions, from shopping and selecting to cutting up, frying, braising, roasting, and much more. Ranging in style from traditional southern to contemporary to international, fifty-three recipes are organized to help easily match the cut of chicken to the perfect recipe. Be assured that Graubart includes instructions for making the best fried chicken ever--seven different ways. Graubart also brings together the chicken's culinary history with the popular culture and lore that surrounds chicken cookery in the South. She notes that the special Sunday Sabbath dinner was often built around a chicken--in fact, prior to the 1940s, chicken was sometimes more expensive than beef or pork. Today, the southern states lead the country in annual poultry production, and Kentucky Fried Chicken features throughout the American landscape. But you won't need take-out when you have Chicken in your kitchen.

Greens--collard, turnip, mustard, and more--are a defining staple of southern food culture. Seemingly always a part of the southern plate, these cruciferous vegetables have been crucial in the nourishing of generations of southerners. Having already been celebrated in operatic terms--composer Price Walden's "e;Leaves of Green"e; includes this lyrical note: "e;From age to age the South has hollered / The praises of the toothsome collard--greens now get their leafy culinary due in Thomas Head's Savor the South(R) cookbook. Head provides a fascinating culinary and natural history of greens in the South, as well as an overview of the many varieties of edible greens that are popular in the region. Including practical information about cultivation, selection, and preparation, Head also shows how greens are embraced around the world for their taste and healthfulness. The fifty-three recipes run from classic southern "e;potlikker"e; styles to new southern and global favorites. From Basic Southern Greens to Turnip Green Tarts to Greens Punjabi-Style, cooks will find plenty of inspiration to go green.

Robust and delicious, beans and field peas have graced the tables of southerners for generations, making daily appearances on vegetable plates, sideboards, and lunch counters throughout the region. Indeed, all over the world, people rich, poor, or in between rely on legumes, the comforting "e;culinary equalizer,"e; as Sandra A. Gutierrez succinctly puts it. Her collection of fifty-one recipes shines a fresh light on this sustaining and infinitely varied staple of ordinary life, featuring classic southern, contemporary, and international dishes. Gutierrez, who delights with culinary history, cultural nuance, and entertaining stories, observes that what has long been a way of life for so many is now trendy. As the farm-to-fork movement has taken off, food lovers are revisiting the heirloom varieties of beans and peas, which are becoming the nutrition-packed darlings of regional farmers, chefs, and home cooks. Celebrating all manner of southern beans and field peas--and explaining the difference between the two--Gutierrez showcases their goodness in dishes as simple as Red Beans and Rice, as contemporary as Mean Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayo, and as globally influenced as Butter Bean Risotto.

Recalling childhood visits to her grandmother's house in New Orleans, where she would feast on shrimp and okra gumbo, Dale Curry offers fifty recipes--for gumbos, jambalayas, and those little something extras known as lagniappe--that will put Louisiana taste and hospitality on your table. "e;Gumbo"e; calls to mind the diverse culinary traditions of Louisiana that, like gumbo itself, are simmered from elements of the many cultures circulating in the state. Drawing historically from French, African, Caribbean, Native American, Spanish, Italian, and other culinary sources, the Creole and Cajun cooking featured in Gumbo embraces the best of local shellfish, sausages, poultry, and game. The heart of Louisiana home cooking--and now showcased by of chefs across the South and beyond--gumbo, jambalaya, and lagniappe traditionally drew from the state's waterways and estuaries rich with crustaceans, swamps exploding with waterfowl and alligators, and forests full of game. From the land came rice and peppers, two leading ingredients in gumbo and jambalaya. Recipes include classic and traditional dishes, as well as specialties offered by star chefs Bart Bell, Leah Chase, Emeril Lagasse, Donald Link, and Tory McPhail. With Curry's easy-to-follow instructions at hand, home cooks will be ready to let the good times roll at every meal.

Bridgette A. Lacy offers an ode to a meal that, notably in the Sabbath-minding South, is more than a meal. Sunday dinner, Lacy observes, is "e;a state of mind. It is about taking the time to be with the people who matter to you."e; Describing her own childhood Sunday dinners, in which her beloved, culinary-minded grandfather played an indelible role, Lacy explores and celebrates the rhythms of Sunday food traditions. But Lacy knows that, today, many who grew up eating Sunday dinner surrounded by kin now dine alone in front of the television. Her Sunday Dinner provides remedy and delicious inspiration any day of the week. Sure to reward those gathered around the table, Lacy's fifty-one recipes range from classic southern favorites, including Sunday Yeast Rolls, Grandma's Fried Chicken, and Papa's Nilla Wafer Brown Pound Cake, to contemporary, lighter twists such as Roasted Vegetable Medley and Summer Fruit Salad. Lacy's tips for styling meals with an eye to color, texture, and a simple beauty embody her own Sunday dinner recollection that "e;anything you needed was already on the table."e;

While many fish, from bream and crappie to bass, trout, and shad, are popular in the South, none of them has settled as thoroughly in southern culture as the humble, bewhiskered, bottom-dwelling catfish. For Memphis natives Paul and Angela Knipple, enjoying "e;that steamy sweet white meat encased in golden crisp cornmeal was just a part of our childhoods."e; In this Savor the South(R) cookbook, the Knipples share their family memories of catching and eating this favored southern food. Painting a portrait of catfish's culinary and natural history, along with its place in southern foodways and the Delta fishing industry, the Knipples also provide clear instructions for how to select, prepare, and cook the fish.Showcased are fifty-six recipes highlighting catfish's remarkable versatility--from such southern classics as Catfish Po'Boys and Catfish Gumbo to the global flavors of Catfish Banh Mi and Nigerian Catfish Stew. Worth the price of admission are the recipes for fried catfish five ways, along with recipes for all the traditional sides, including slaw, hushpuppies, and tartar sauce--all you'll need to cook a plate worthy of a real southern fish shack.

Recalling boyhood shrimping expeditions with his father and summoning up the aromas and flavors of a southern shrimp boil or shrimp fry, chef Jay Pierce brings America's favorite shellfish to center stage with fifty recipes for southern classics, contemporary dishes, and international delicacies. Pierce's lively introduction focuses on the South's fishing and culinary connections with shrimp, which are abundant in the estuaries and bays that line southern shores.Shrimp, he notes, are one of the last truly wild creatures that Americans consume in significant quantities. Pierce encourages today's cooks to support local shrimp fisheries in order to help ensure that future generations will continue to enjoy American-sourced shrimp in abundance, and he explains how to procure the freshest shrimp throughout the cycle of seasons. While shrimp is popular throughout the region for entertaining a backyard crowd, it is also a go-to ingredient for the special-occasion menu. Demystifying fancier dishes and offering everyday cooks step-by-step instructions for all stages of preparation, Pierce highlights just how deliciously versatile shrimp can be.

Debbie Moose's Southern Holidays is a cook's celebration of the richly diverse holiday traditions of today's South. Covering big traditional holidays such as Christmas and Mardi Gras, this must-have addition to the Savor the South(R) cookbook collection also branches out into regional and cultural holidays that honor newer southern traditions, including recipes from real cooks hailing from a range of ethnic traditions and histories. The cooks' stories accompanying the recipes show how holiday foods not only hold cherished personal family memories but also often have roots in a common past that ties families together in a shared southern history. The cookbook's inclusive culinary vision is organized by the four seasons to mark the progress of the year. Featuring seventeen holidays and fifty recipes, it includes such classics as Coconut King Cake for Mardi Gras and Smoky Red Rice for Juneteenth, as well as southern twists on time-honored delicacies, from Cajun-Style Rice Dressing for Thanksgiving to Sweet Potato Latkes for Hanukkah. Southern Holidays also highlights how international holiday dishes have been adopted in the region over time, from Moravian Sugar Cake for Christmas to Vietnamese Spring Rolls for the coastal South's Blessing of the Fleet.

Passionate okra lovers crave this bright green, heat-loving vegetable, whether fried, grilled, steamed, roasted, boiled, broiled, pickled, raw, whole, sliced, or julienned. With Okra, Virginia Willis provides "e;the key that unlocks the door of okra desire"e; to okra addicts and newcomers to the pod alike.Topping eight feet, with gorgeous butter-yellow flowers that ripen into the plant's signature seed-filled pods, okra has a long association with foodways in the American South. But as Willis shows, okra is also an important ingredient in cuisines across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Featuring gardening tips, a discussion of heirloom varieties, and expert cooking directions (including a list of "e;top ten slime-busting tips"e;), Okra brilliantly showcases fifty delectable recipes: twenty-six southern dishes, ranging from Southern-Style Fried Okra to Gulf Coast Seafood Gumbo, and twenty-four authentic global dishes, from Moroccan Lamb and Okra Tagine with Preserved Lemons to Cuban Pork with Yellow Rice, Okra, and Annatto Oil.

Andrea Weigl defines the year by her canning sessions. In the winter, she makes bright yellow Jerusalem Artichoke Relish from her backyard crop. In the spring, she conjures up sweet red Strawberry Preserves. In the summer, it's savory Yellow Squash Pickles and peaches, pickled, brandied, or as a thick butter. And in the fall, she folds her Fig Preserves into a cake famous on North Carolina's Outer Banks.Today's revival of pickling and preserving, which became widely popular in the South only after the Civil War, when sugar was easier to obtain, is part of the booming interest in do-it-yourself kitchen craft, farmers' markets, and gardening. Blogs are devoted to canning, cooking schools offer classes, and canning jar manufacturers report surging sales. With complete, easy-to-follow instructions and troubleshooting tips, Pickles and Preserves highlights the regional flair that southern cooks bestow on this traditional art of survival in preserving the South's bountiful harvest. The fifty classic and inventive recipes--from Dilly Beans and Pickled Okra to Muscadine Jam and Habanero Gold Pepper Jelly--will have beginners and veterans alike rolling up their sleeves.

For fifteen years, food writer Belinda Ellis traveled around the country for the White Lily(R) flour company, teaching people to make biscuits and listening to their stories. "e;I learned that deep in the soul of a biscuit, there's more than the flour, fat, and milk. A hot biscuit embodies a memory of place and family,"e; she writes. Ellis's heartfelt tribute to the biscuit celebrates the many possible flavors and uses for this classic southern bread. The first recipe in the book is a master recipe with step-by-step photographs showing how to make the perfect biscuit.In an evocative and enlightening introduction, Ellis delights readers with biscuit history and its intimate connections with southern culture and foodways. The book's 55 recipes range from traditional to inventive offering a biscuit for every occasion: Flaky Butter Biscuits; John Egerton's Beaten Biscuits; Pancetta, Rosemary, and Olive Oil Biscuits; and The Southern Reuben.

In Tomatoes, Miriam Rubin gives this staple of southern gardens the passionate portrait it deserves, exploring the tomato's rich history in southern culture and inspiring home cooks to fully enjoy these summer fruits in all their glorious variety. Rubin, a prominent food writer and tomato connoisseur, provides fifty vibrant recipes as well as wisdom about how to choose tomatoes and which tomato is right for which dish.Tomatoes includes recipes that celebrate the down-home, inventive, and contemporary, such as Stand-over-the-Sink Tomato Sandwiches, Spiced Green Tomato Crumb Cake, Green Tomato and Pork Tenderloin Biscuit Pie, and Tomato and Golden Raisin Chutney. Rubin also offers useful cooking tips, lively lessons on history, cultivation, and preserving, and variations for year-round enjoyment of the tomato.

Most southern cooks will agree with Debbie Moose when she writes, "e;Like a full moon on a warm southern night, buttermilk makes something special happen."e; Buttermilk explores the rich possibilities of this beloved ingredient and offers remarkably wide-ranging recipes for its use in cooking and baking--and drinking, including The Vanderbilt Fugitive, a buttermilk-based cocktail. Buttermilk includes fifty recipes--most of which are uniquely southern, with some decidedly cosmopolitan additions--from Fiery Fried Chicken to Lavender Ice Cream to Mango-Spice Lassi. For each recipe, Moose includes background information, snappy anecdotes, and preparation tips. Replete with helpful hints and advice for finding the best quality buttermilk available, this cookbook is indispensable for anyone who wants to learn more about this tangy cooking staple.

Show me a recipe with pecans, and I have to try it."e; Attributing her own love of this American nut to the state of her birth--Georgia is the nation's leader in growing pecans--and to the happy fact that her mother "e;hardly made a cookie, candy, or pan of Sunday dressing without them,"e; Kathleen Purvis teaches readers how to find, store, cook, and completely enjoy this southern delicacy. Pecans includes fifty-two recipes, ranging from traditional to inventive, from uniquely southern to distinctly international, including Bourbon-Orange Pecans, Buttermilk-Pecan Chicken, Pecan Pralines, and Leche Quemada.In addition to the recipes, Purvis delights readers with the pecan's culinary history and its intimate connections with southern culture and foodways. Headnotes for the recipes offer humorous personal stories as well as preparation tips such as how to choose accompanying cheeses.

Crabs and oysters take center stage as Chef Bill Smith conveys his passion for preparing these sumptuous shellfish. Smith's sensibilities as a North Carolinian born and raised down east are vibrantly on display as he recalls the joy of growing up catching crabs and shucking oysters.