Good Southern Cookbooks

[Montanablue]

I have a friend who is getting married and moving to the South (where her fiance is from). I would like to get her a really good Southern cookbook - but I have no idea which ones are good and which aren't. Does anyone have suggestions? It would be better for this to have somewhat simple recipes in it - they are both doctors, so I don't know that she'll be spending 3 hours slaving over the stove. She does like to cook though, so things could be a little more complicated - she's not a novice.

 

[LawrenceU]

Good for you and her! Is she looking for traditional Southern fare? What part of the South is he from? There are some huge variations in cooking down here. We are not one big block

Some of the best for good food and not too difficult to cook recipes are Paula Deen's cook books. She does a pretty good job of putting a good variety of styles in her books. Another excellent cookbook is, Miss Daisy Celebrated Tennessee. It obviously deals with cooking in Tennessee. There are a lot of good basic and some pretty exciting recipes in the book. It also demonstrates how varied the states cooking traditions are.

My wife is a cook book junkie. I'll check with her as well.

 

[Montanablue]

Thanks! So, he is from South Carolina, and they are moving to Charleston. I think she would like something with traditional food. I should also mention that they both do try to eat healthfully, so while I know they're not adverse to some fattening recipes, it would be nice if it also had some healthier options. (I have the vague impression that southern food has a tendency to incorporate a lot of cream, butter etc.)

I looked up the Miss Daisy cookbook...yum...I'm hungry already. Maybe I'll just buy that one for myself!

 

[LawrenceU]

If he is from Charleston the she will love the first two Paula Deen books. They are very much a Charleston/Savannah oriented set. If you can find it, a great book for understanding where a lot of Southern cooking comes from is The Old Virginia Cookbook. It is long out of print. Our copy was my grandmother's. It is a facsimile imprinting done in the 1940's of the original which is from the 1860's. It is quite a treat.

You'd love the Miss Daisy cookbook. It is one of my wife's favourites. You actually learn the secret to Beaten Biscuits.

 

[Edward]

I would recommend looking for Junior League cookbooks from the areas of interest. For coastal South Carolina, those from Charleston, Savannah, or Jacksonville might be most appropriate. I turned up this site on Bing: Junior League Cookbooks

Looks like 4 from Charleston, 2 from Savannah.

There should be some good seafood recipes from the cities mentioned. I've got a JL cookbook from Jacksonville.

Or, if it is meat or vegetable, batter and fry it preferably in lard; if it is fruit, add brown sugar and bourbon and bake.

Editing to add this link for Deep Fried Butter:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/paulas-fried-butter-balls-recipe/index.html

 

[kvanlaan]

Back issues of "Taste of Home" are good too if you come across them (from a few years ago, before all the ads...)

 

[SolaScriptura]

She doesn't need a cookbook... she just needs to remember to fry everything in lard. That's Southern cooking.

 

[LawrenceU]

Hey, not everything we eat is fried! Just a lot of it

If you are going to deep fry learn to do it right. If done correctly there is actually very little added fat. The key is learning to use the right temperature for the fat and the meat item. And, yes, use lard. It handles the heat better, seals the meat better, and is actually much more healthy than the processed oils. (You really don't want to know what chemistry is used to extract that stuff and what happens when you body tries to metabloise that unnatural compound.)

 

[jwright82]

A shrimp and crab boil is southern right? Thats not fried it's just good!!!!! Actually traditionally you place the boiled seafood and veggies on newspaper, I objected to this because of the ink getting on the food but was repremanded for being to "liberal" about tradition, being a good conservetave I shut my mouth and ate. Ink or no ink it was good, I would gladly eat ink covered shrimp and stuff if it tastes that good. Not to get off track here but that is a good southern recipe, at least I was told it was southern.

 

[Montanablue]

I have gone a Charleston Junior League Cookbook and a Paula Deen cookbook. Thank you for the suggestions, all.