When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers

What a gem of a book! I’ve long been a fan of America’s Test Kitchen, and this is my favorite of their books. In an introductory essay, Morgan Bolling, the editor, writes poignantly about the history of southern food and her personal connection to its unifying power. Her and Toni-Tipton Martin weave together personal stories throughout the book, making the reader feel connected to each recipe. You will love this book if you are interested in learning more about southern food, if you want to celebrate a profound group of women, or if you just want some tasty and timeless southern recipes!

It’s big, has great stories, and the recipes are good, solid recipes. I’ve been carrying it around since I got it. I love this cookbook. Flip, flip, read, read, dream, dream.

Everything, recipes, story telling, illustrations. Buy it, you will be so happy you did.

Anticipated loving this book. Sadly, not so much. Those who designed this hefty tome need to be forced to stay after school and write 500 times on blackboard: Form Follows Function. Too many of the 536 pages have shamefully low readability and legibility scores caused by repetitive violations of practically every known principle of typography, e.g., overuse and misuse of reverse type; inattention to point size/line length ratios; typeface blunders; blurred text from ink soaking into porous paper stock. The latter is especially aggravating on tinted pages where text ink colors lack sufficient contrast with matching tone of underlying 'ink wash' on paper. This sounds cynical, but might choice of tiny, pale type be intentional for back-of-book chart with recipe calorie counts for single servings? Does publisher hope these don't jump off the page:1630 calories and 132 grams of fat in one helping of Fried Whole Branzino with Grits; 1357 calories in Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Green Tomato Sandwich; or 1101 calories laced with 107 grams of fat in Churros with Mexican Chocolate Sauce. A dozen recipes contain 900 or more calories in a single serving. Yes, in case you wonder, my ophthalmologist examined my eyes three weeks ago, and my vision, without reading glasses, is exceptional.

Unfortunately, my copy arrived a bit damaged due to improper packaging so I’m currently waiting for the replacement. However, briefly skimmed through and am thoroughly impressed/in love with this cookbook. Have been very excited for this publication and am not disappointed!