1,001 Ways to Cook Southern: The Ultimate Treasury of Southern Classics

by Susan Hernandez Ray

From the experts at Southern Living comes the most comprehensive guide to Southern cooking ever published-the essential source to experience, prepare, and savor the New South cuisine as well as the region's beloved classics. This treasury of Southern cooking showcases recipes with entertaining commentary spotlighting the colorful cultural influences, Southernisms, fiery food debates, and the lighthearted side of Southern cooking. You'll also find helpful tips, menus for strictly Southern occasions, quick inspirations, and Taste of the South features highlighting just what gives a recipe its Southern accent. Discover what the Food staff considers to be their quintessential Southern ingredients, techniques, and equipment. Browse through these pages and find:
Over 1,000 tried-and-true favorite Southern recipes More than 150 full-color mouthwatering images Valuable cooking pointers throughout that make preparing Southern classics and updated favorites foolproof Recipe banners to help quickly identify types of recipes like family favorite, make ahead, for kids, and more Food Finds featuring some of the finest eateries the South has to offer, all of them recognized by the magazine's Food and Travel editors

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Southern

928 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sharon Siepel]

What I liked;
1. I counted at least 11 catfish recipes. Can't get more Southern than that.
2. Includes the secret to good Gumbo.
3. A whole page devoted to making the perfect mint julep.
4. Six pages committed to the making of grits.

What I disliked (really disliked):

A number of recipes included pre-packaged mixes. Let me give you some examples:

The recipe for Easy Three-Seed Pan Rolls calls for frozen bread rolls, egg whites, and seeds.

The recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cakes calls for angel food cake mix, cocoa, and sugar.

I do not consider these to be recipes, anymore than adding Nestle Quick to milk and sticking it in the microwave is the recipe for Great Hot Cocoa.

[Janet]

Southern Living touts this cookbook as "...the most comprehensive guide to Southern cooking ever published..." After reading through the book and making some of its recipes, I can vouch that it is pretty, darned comprehensive! The primary emphasis of 1001 Ways to Cook Southern is recipes--not photographs, travelogue essays or process instructions, although those diversions are also present within its pages. No, 1001 Ways to Cook Southern is a 900 page treasure trove of recipes for uncomplicated, good, Southern food.

Further, 1001 Ways to Cook Southern isn't a cookbook filled with "nouveau" recipes that put currently popular, but perhaps transient, spins on old favorites. Nor is it a fancy pants cookbook, filled with recipes that require a long list of ingredients not found in most grocery stores. Home cooks can genuinely rely on this cookbook for both every day and special occasion cooking, without taking on the added burden of a research project or wild goose chase before ever stepping into the kitchen. And the recpies are really good! My tasting committee, consisting of my husband and brothers, gave 1001 Ways to Cook Southern a BIG thumbs up.

There is a corollary between recipes found in 1001 Ways to Cook Southern and the recipes currently found on the web page Southern Living relies on to share its recipes. Cooks unfamiliar with Southern dishes and wanting to try a few things before committing to a cookbook have the opportunity to do so. However, those cooks ready for an encyclopedic standby should take a hard look at 1001 Ways to Cook Southern. I think it could easily become the kitchen workhorse, to which one's hand first reaches when cooking Southern, in many kitchens. It will in mine.

Note: I won an advance copy in a contest sponsored by Southern Living.

[Dona]

I really, really liked this cookbook. It's the kind of cookbook I would give my daughter when she settles into her own home. The recipes are clear, easy to follow, provide variety, and have the potential to become favorites. My recipe box is stuffed with Southern Living recipes I've collected over the years that are now solid family favorites.

There are recipes for Southern classics, such as Classic Fried Catfish and Front-Porch Fried Catfish. There are also new recipes for favorite foods - Cajun-Baked Catifish, Caribbean Catfish with Spicy Island Sweet Potatoes, South by Southwest Catfish With Guacamole Aioli, and Catfish Jezebel, to name a few.

My only complaint is the index, which has significant gaps in it. For example, how can a cookbook on Southern cooking not include a main heading entry for coconut, yet have two entries under "cucumbers"?!? If I was searching for Cream Cheese-Coconut-Pecan Pound Cake, Coconut-Macadamia Caramels, Lemon-Coconut Cake, New Ambrosia with Buttermilk-Coconut Dressing, Coconut Sheet Cake, Coconut Cream Cutard, or Coconut Milk Frosting (all of which are recipes in the book), I could not flip to the index and look for them under "coconut."

Even with the incomplete index I would still buy this cookbook and just make notes in the margins of the index. I also think with 1,001 recipes in this cookbook, you would be hard-pressed to not come up with some new favorites of your own!

[Janet]

Yes, I looked at every page and recipe and found a number to try. However, I feel Southern Living produces better books and cookbooks than this one. While the recipes were certainly fine, the book is a very large and thick volume hindering the "reading" of it. Many people read cookbooks and this one will not easily lend its self to that. Also there was a recipe for "Tabbs BBQ" which I was confused by. I have been to Tabbs in Greenville, MS and there was no clarification if this recipe is connected to the resturant, if it isn't it is an odd choice of name for the recipe. Overall I was disappointed in the book.

[Krista]

Oh My Lord! I think you could gain 5 lbs. just reading through these recipes and looking at the pictures! Also like the side note about pecans and pralines - Puh-KAHNS vs. PEE-cans and PRAH-leens vs. PRAY-leens. This would be a good "big cookbook" substitution for my Martha Stewart cookbook I rarely use.

[Lyndsey]

One of the best southern cookbooks. you could buy this and be done!

[BJ]

Loved this cookbook. Great stories, as well as great recipes. I checked this one out from the library, but I may have to buy my own copy.

[Dee Roll]

Excellent recipes easy to follow instructions with great illustrations