Best Kept Secrets of the South's Best Cooks: Family Secrets & Test Kitchen Tips Revealed Plus Over 350 Recipes [Hardcover]

Editors of Southern Living Magazine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Southern Living magazine is America's trusted source for definitive Southern recipes for home cooks. It's read by over 16 million people as the heart of Southern life, especially as it relates to foods, hospitality, and gracious entertaining. Only the highest-rated recipes make it into the homes of devoted readers across the country.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Oxmoor House (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848728149
• ISBN-13: 978-0848728144
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good, Possibly the Best Southern Cookbook, June 24, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Kept Secrets of the South's Best Cooks: Family Secrets & Test Kitchen Tips Revealed Plus Over 350 Recipes (Hardcover)

When I first pick up a cookbook on Southern foods, I immediately look in the index for Grits. The first entry under grits in this book is called Hot Brown with Fried Cheese Grits. Now you're not only talking grits, but fried as well. How can you get more Southern than that? And the more I looked at this recipe the sooner I had to try it. It was wonderful. The recipe called for it to be used as a bread replacement in an open faced turkey sandwich. Unfortunately the fried cheese grits by themselves were all eaten before the turkey could get put on them. Oh well, I'll just do another batch.

I'm actually from the Atchafalaya (Pronounced chaf-a-lie - I know, I know, but that's the truth.) Basin, so Crawfish Etouffee was a big thing when I was a kid. Now most crawfish are being imported from China rather than the Atchafalaya swamps. They of course aren't as good, how could they possibly be, but they'll do. Just remember to do as the book says and don't boil them too much.

The editors comment that there seems to be no regional or even generally agreed upon recipe for fried oysters. So the editors whipped up a bunch of different ones and say that the one in the book is the best they found. It certainly has some different stuff in it. I haven't tried it yet, tomorrow night. The thing I'd add is use small size oysters rather than the giant ones you can get now a days. They get crisp rather than having the soft insides like the larger ones.

That's enough writing. I tried a few other recipes, most worked out very, very well. (One we didn't like, but I think that one was my fault, I changed a couple of things.) This is a good Southern cookbook, possibly even the best.

3.0 out of 5 stars medium well info, November 12, 2010

By 

Christina E. Roberts "Christina" (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Kept Secrets of the South's Best Cooks: Family Secrets & Test Kitchen Tips Revealed Plus Over 350 Recipes (Hardcover)

I am enjoying the cookbook very well. There are a few hints that are somewhat new to me. The recipe that I purchased the book for, did not work well for me, not the recipe's fault, it just was not a success at my house. Very good cooking instructions.