Kiln to Kitchen: Favorite Recipes from Beloved North Carolina Potters

by Jean Anderson

Jean Anderson's new cookbook deliciously brings together two of her lifelong passions—great food and North Carolina pottery. Fans of both will celebrate. While always meant for one another, pottery and cooking are enjoying a new romance—many potters have introduced designs, glazes, and techniques that make pottery more versatile, while others continue making the traditional pie plates, casseroles, jugs, and mugs that made the state's pottery famous. Potters now routinely tuck recipes into everything from stoneware angel-food cake pans to salt-glazed bean pots, and Anderson has selected a treasury of 76 favorite recipes contributed by the twenty-four gifted North Carolina potters featured in this book.

Following an introduction to the North Carolina pottery traditions and general instructions for cooking in clay, Anderson sets off on three tours, pinpointed on maps, that wind through the state's prime pottery regions—the Greater Triangle, Seagrove-Asheboro, and the Catawba Valley/Mountains. She profiles the featured potters, sharing their captivating backstories and favorite, fully tested recipes. How about trying Ben Owen's persimmon pudding, Mark Hewitt's South African beef bobotie, or Siglinda Scarpa's Italian fruit tart, to name just a few of the dishes that span the South and the globe. Beautiful photographs of recipes in their clay vessels will urge you to dig in.

Genres: Cookbooks

192 pages, Hardcover

Published September 9, 2019

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really excited to get a hold of this book! I own several of Ms. Anderson’s other cookbooks and have enjoyed them tremendously. Also, the idea of cooking in pottery is intriguing to me! Obviously, all recipes can be cooked in other cookware if you don’t have pottery.

Ms. Anderson first starts us off with her Introduction in giving us information on North Carolina’s Pottery community. She then gives us a Pottery Primer with defining pottery, giving us useful information on glaze types, and a Q & A on cooking in clay. She then gives us some information on Ingredients used in the recipes.

Each recipe chapter has a specific Potter with information on their company and contact info. Then we get that particular Potter’s chosen recipes. I have to admit, I was in recipe heaven when I opened up this book. A wide variety of recipes are included and not overly complicated ingredients or directions.

Just a small sample of the recipes I have marked to try:

Pollo Arrosto Ripienom (Roast Chicken Italian Style)
Tagliatelle alla Novarese with Portabella Mushrooms
Summer Squash and Roasted Tomato Pie
My Father’s Baked Beans
Apple-Pecan Crisp
Sweet Potato Bread with Walnuts and Dried Cranberries
Grilled Corn Grits
Butternut Squash Parmesan
Lyn’s Couldn’t Be Easier Tomato Pie
Bobotie

At the end of this fantastic cookbook, Ms. Anderson has a handy Address Book - An Alphabetical List of Potters with Contact Information. If you’re in the North Carolina area it’s a wonderful resource.

Then finally she ends the book with a Sources guide to Where to Buy Unusual Ingredients that are in the recipes in the book.

Overall this was a fantastic book, interesting and unique with tons of delicious recipes to try. I would love to have seen more photos of the finished recipes, especially inside the beautiful pottery containers. The recipe photos that were included in the book were delicious looking and I loved the various pottery dishes that were shown. It was a beautiful, well-made cookbook and I would definitely recommend it!  

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treasure of a book. The recipes in this book are simple hearty one pot meals with every day ingredients that most people keep on hand. I also enjoyed reading about the various pots used to cook these meals. A very charming book which I know I will be using in the coming weeks to make a few dishes.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very elegant book with some beautiful pottery, complementing the recipes that are served in them. The recipes are provided by a number of potters/potteries centred in North Carolina.
The recipes are very easy to follow and look amazing in there settings - beautiful photography . I would have like that all the recipes in the book had photos. unfortunately a lot missed out. Despite that, it is a lovely book with nice recipes and nice life stories that accompany them.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have many beautiful pieces of pottery that I had never thought to actually cook in. They were for show only. BUT, Jean Anderson has inspired me to prepare dishes designed to be served in my favorite bowls and accent their beauty while showing off my improved cooking skills. I've tried about half the recipes in this book. They received rave results from my friends and family. I have collected cookbooks for many years. This one has earned a place of honor on my kitchen shelves!

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories that go with each recipe make this book charming but more photos are needed. This is a book about local potters with very few pictures of their work. The pictures that are included are gorgeous! The recipes that included a picture of that recipe in the potter's dish had me no only wanting to make the recipe but to buy the dish it was baked in.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. Not only has it some info on pottery (such as glazes), but it contains a great variety of recipes, from Bobotie to pecan pie and a lot in between. If one loves pottery and cooking, I would highly recommend this book.

[Avis Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

In theory, this was a promising idea, but it needs a lot more pictures of pots. They get a tiny amount of space compared to the recipes