Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History (Chapel Hill Books)

This is a true classic of Southern food. Part of the book covers restaurants in the South, and that part is necessarily dated. No restaruant lasts forever. Few are universally good over a significant number of years. However, the part of the book covering Southern recipes is truly great, and is alone worth any reasonable purchase price. The coverage is comprehensive and the recipes are truly traditionial. I have several hundred cookbooks, some fair, some good, and some excellent; this is one at the very top of the list. Egerton's other cookbook with the title Side Orders is also excellent.

As a newcomer to the South, I enjoy the thorough discussions in this book tracing origins and influences of and on many foods. Mr. Egerton has done a fine job with a difficult project, even if some of the restaurants recommended have closed. I like to be an informed eater and cook and this book has my ticket punched!

I am not an expert on cooking, so all the receipts (recipes) really don't interest me that much. The history portion is fascinating. I have a book written about the history of the western county of North Carolina where I was born and raised. In this book there is a copy of the 1860 census. At that time only male landowners were counted. Also a large number of Cherokee Indians lived in the county. Roughly 1600 white males are listed with maybe 10 to 15 who owned slaves. 4 or 5 men owned most of the slaves. I am now fast approaching my 70th birthday. I can recall speaking to only one black person from birth to the time I graduated from what was then Western Carolina College. So I do not feel that I represent the rich landowners with lots of slaves who did all the work including cooking.However, the food mentioned in Egerton's book very accurately represents the diet of most mountain people. There are two eating places mentioned that are located where I grew up. They are the Jarrett House and I think High Hampton. I never had a meal at either location because I could not afford the price. My family grew most of their own food and they also cooked it. The idea of wealth and fine dining was foreign to me.

Just ok

I bought this for my husband for his birthday last month, and he couldn't put it down. He absolutely loved learning about the history of Southern food (seeing as how we're more or less Southern), and I'm looking forward to reading the book as well when I can find the time. The recipes in the book seem really good too, but we haven't prepared anything yet. Overall a satisfied customer!