Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories offers 200 recipes to savor, along with history, stories, tips, vintage snapshots, and mouthwatering full-color photos, but prepare to pause to bake up a tempting Southern treat. Baking in the American South is longtime food writer Anne Byrn's attempt to answer the question, "What makes Southern baking so special?"
Byrn (A New Take on Cake; Skillet Love) credits the book's recipes and insightful tips to cooks and bakers from 14 Southern states, including well-known names (Laura Bush's cowboy cookies), quietly renowned local figures (yeast rolls from a West Tennessee school cook named Charlie Moore), and widely known family recipes ("tea cakes like grandma made," which Byrn notes were "the emblematic food of the Great Migration"). Pies, "plain and fancy"; cakes, plus "frostings and flourishes"; puddings, pancakes, cookies, and a bountiful assortment of breads earn this cookbook a definitive status.
Anecdotes and insights accompany every recipe, but the collection suggests that Southerners might be satisfied living by bread alone. Cornbread, "the South's first daily bread" can be sweet or savory, crispy or fluffy, depending on the types of cornmeal, buttermilk, or pans used. Sugar? Opinions vary! Readers will find versions from President Jimmy Carter's White House chef Henry Haller and historian Shelby Foote. Roughly 20 biscuits illustrate how dough might be beaten, "docked," dropped, or morphed into shortbread or dumplings. Among her many thoughtful observations, Byrn credits the "unparalleled flavor" of Southern yeast breads to patience and overnight refrigeration. Home chefs will treasure this cookbook and appreciate Byrn's entertaining stories while their delicious regional fare bakes. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.