A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South Book

A beautiful book, featuring hundreds of classic recipes, that captures the essence of Southern foodways.

In the tradition of The Junior League Centennial Cookbook, The Black Family Reunion Cookbook, and the regional and community cookbooks that are treasured by millions of home cooks, A Gracious Plenty is an exuberant celebration of the food and culinary traditions that define the character of the American South.

The more than 400 recipes--culled from community cookbooks representing a diversity of geographical and social influences--are only the first layer in this richly textured work. Throughout the book, evocative essays recall the distinctive food myths and stories of the South. Among the contributors, B. B. King remembers his sharecropping family; Roy Blount, Jr., talks of his mother's giblet and red-eye gravies; Edna Lewis praises dandelion greens and poke "sallet"; and Shelby Foote tells of buying hot tamales from a street vendor. These, and dozens of other meal memories, are testaments to the importance of family, community, and the gracious plenty of food in the South. Index.

* illustrated with black-and-white-photographs throughouttext printed in two colors