Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes

by Mark F. Sohn

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. Shedding new light on Appalachia's food, history, and culture, Sohn offers over eighty classic recipes, as well as photographs, poetry, mail-order sources, information on Appalachian food festivals, a glossary of Appalachian and cooking terms, menus for holidays and seasons, and lists of the top Appalachian foods. Appalachian Home Cooking celebrates mountain food at its best.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Reference, History, Food

380 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jess˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was split into a cultural history of the Appalachian region followed by signature recipes. I thought the recipes looked really interesting and I plan to make a few of them for the holidays- especially the apple and black walnut cake, bourbon balls, and mountain dumplings. The chapter on moonshine was especially insightful as it covered the history of moonshine preparation/distribution. I also like the chapter about how church women were leading figures in the community and the driving force behind documenting and preserving history through recipes. The only fault I found was that it was repetitive at times, and the author had a personal goal to compare Appalachian food with fast food and convince us that homemade food was better. I don't disagree with this argument, but it wasn't introducing new information and took attention away from the culinary history of the region.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this from the library, but it is one I'm considering purchasing now. A good chunk of the book is dedicated to area history, as promised. I was able to try several recipes while I had the book. I look forward to making apple butter (and apple sauce) many more times. I appreciated how many of the soups and main dishes are so straightforward -- perhaps to be expected for a traditional food (i.e., something real people ate on a regular basis, not culinary experiments).

This book covers a variety of recipes: sauces, soups, meals, desserts, etc. I was pleased with each recipe I tried (well, except one, but that was my fault for trying too many substitutions instead of going to the grocery store).

Frequent use of a dutch oven (and/or cast iron skillet, but if you have a cast iron device with tall sides, it makes frying things much less stressful).

[Nita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Liked the recipes but was hard to read

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The truth is ... I will NEVER be finished with this cookbook! It has a place of honor in my kitchen and I know I will refer to it repeatedly.

[Honest Mabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

very poorly set up

If you have a print copy you could go through page by page highlighting ingredients since it’s set up more like a history book than a cookbook.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great many of the dishes mentioned in here, if not necessarily things I grew up eating, are things my dad and his family ate, since my grandparents moved from southeastern Kentucky to live in the southeastern corner of Indiana. There were a few things I hadn't heard of before; a few, like stack cakes and greasy beans I'd learned about from cooking and gardening sources; and some I have grown up eating or at least around: baking powder biscuits and sausage gravy, fried green tomatoes, of course fried chicken, corn bread, something like soup beans (although great northern beans were probably most common at our house), black walnuts, apple butter, and perhaps some things I'm not thinking of right now.

Thus far, I haven't told you much about the book, but it's quite an interesting read and I'm going to read through it again before I can absorb everything and fully appreciate it. It is probably a work of sociological interest and even more so for food history, but I have no grasp on these subject areas to tell you where it fits in or evaluate it for those purposes. One point of interest for me was a few pages on the relationships Appalachian cuisine has with southern cuisine and that of Great Britain (to which a number of residents, including some of my relatives, are connected through ancestry), especially as I also have an Irish cookbook out from the library. It is divided into two main sections, the first with all the food stories, and the second with the recipes. At this point I wouldn't give it five stars (maybe 4 1/2 if that were possible because the collection of recipes is kind of skimpy (I really want more), and I have some personal stylistic quibbles about the layout. But it still comes recommended for reading.

Note: Because I stayed up reading this book (a testament, I hope, to how engaging I found it), I'm writing this review at the tail end of my day, which may explain why it's not a great example of writing or arrangement. With any luck I'll think to revise it a bit later.

[raccoon reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent overview of, just as the title promises: history, culture, and recipes. It's funny, because there was a large chunk of things in there that definitely echo my own childhood eats in the foothills of Appalachia. But there were also lots of things that weren't in my childhood food memories. Which is exactly one of the points the author is making- that there is a unified theme but diversity in the foods of Appalachia. A very good book for those who take a keen interest in the foodways of this cultural swath of America or who grew up eating seasonally like I did. This would make a fine addition to my cookbook collection, but alas, I do not own this fine book, but only borrowed it (for much longer than I should have) from the library (sorry, Library, sincerely).

[Rebecca Tolley · Rating 3 out of 5]

read my review at my food blog: http://www.potlikkery.com/2006/07/chi...

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought back a lot of memories growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky.

[S Paynter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it for the most part, but the author needs to check his research. The Hatfield/McCoy feud took place in West Virginia and Kentucky, so Virginias governor would not have gotten involved.