Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook: A Celebration of Traditional Southern Dishes that Made Miss Mary Bobo's--An American Legend [Hardcover]

Pat Mitchamore (Author), Lynne Tolley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

This collection of over 300 recipes is a celebration of the traditional southern cooking that made this Lynchburg, Tennessee boarding house a legend. Many recipes use Jack Daniel's whiskey. Illustrated and indexed.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558533141
• ISBN-13: 978-1558533141
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood Revisited, July 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook: A Celebration of Traditional Southern Dishes that Made Miss Mary Bobo's--An American Legend (Hardcover)

Earlier write-ups about Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook intrigued me so I added it to my collection. Reading through it brought back memories of dishes I hadn't thought about -- much less made -- since my Georgia childhood. Then I started preparing them! I could swear that Miss Mary and my mother must have been bosom buddies, maybe even swapped recipes over a pitcher of homemade lemonade. From Southern Iced Tea to Sweet Deviled Eggs and Country Sausage and Gravy on Baking Powder Biscuits and from REAL Cream of Tomato Soup to Best Fruit Salad, the tastes of rich (read lots of cream and butter!)Southern food once again overwhelmed me. Not that every dish was cholesterol-laden -- try the sweet-sour mouth-tingling pleasure of Fresh Tomato Hash or vinegary Garden Fresh Cucumber Salad, for example. The breads are terrific -- and the main yeast one, Country Loaf Bread, adapted easily to the bread machine, producing a light, tasty, "mile-high" loaf. Fresh Zucchini Bread makes great toast and Our Favorite Raisin Bread, lightly glazed, was perfect with Cheese Soup and that wonderful fruit salad. The sauced Boarding House Meat Loaf pleased everyone, as did Our Famous Pork Ribs, Salmon Loaf, Southern Fried Catfish (AND Chicken, of course)and such beloved side dishes as Yankee Limas, Macaroni and Cheese, Southern Corn Pie and Creole Grits (even my grits-despising Minnesota-bred husband had seconds, Summer Squash Casserole and Our Best Baked Beans. Have only started to re-visit the delights of Southern desserts, sampling Old South Butter Cups and Fresh Strawberry Pie -- more to come! Obviously we can't continue at this rate with daily excursions into this wealth of memories and calories, but I plan to highlight at least one dinner a week with such! With thanks from a Southern California gal with happily-renewed memories of an earlier time and place!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next best thing to eating at the Miss Mary Bobo's, March 11, 2003

By 

Tammy Roehrick (Saint Cloud, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook: A Celebration of Traditional Southern Dishes that Made Miss Mary Bobo's--An American Legend (Hardcover)

I have actually had the opportunity to visit Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House. The only problem I had was that I visited in August and the first available time for a reservation was in December. Everyone in Lynchburg had nothing but wonderful things to say about the Boarding House and the food that is served there. So the next best thing to being able to eat there was to buy Miss Bobo's cookbook. The dish that my family and friends like the best is the Tenderloin Tips. I serve the beef up with a big heap of mashed potatoes and there is total silence because everyone is just enjoying the flavor of the food. I am ordering a copy for a dear friend of mine who is a true southern belle. I cannot wait to present her with her very own copy. The recipes are very easy to follow and you do not have to be a gourmet chef to use any of them. Another neat thing about this cookbook is the wonderful stories and pictures that are included. Miss Bobo had a very interesting life with many interesting visitors. Any American history buff of the 1880's to 1980's would really enjoy reading just the stories.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Miss Mary Shills for Jack Daniels?, October 23, 2001

By 

J Keistler "[e-mail]" (Lake Jackson, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook: A Celebration of Traditional Southern Dishes that Made Miss Mary Bobo's--An American Legend (Hardcover)

Like other reviewers, I've heard of this establishment for many years, but have never been there. I purchased this book based on the other reviews and ratings.

This is a beautifully written book, profusely illustrated with photographs and personal accounts of locals and boarders. In addition, the recipes are written in a very clear and easy-to-follow style for the less experienced. Most of these recipes exist in one form or another in other books of mine, but some of the seasoning combinations are unique. I've always felt that good home cooking has that indefinable ingredient, some call it love, that raises ordinary ingredients to art.

However, I must agree with a prior reviewer about putting Jack Daniels in so many of the recipes. From what I've read, Miss Mary didn't drink or use booze in her cooking. So why put it in here? I feel Jack Daniels hurt its credibility, and the credibility of the book, by doing this. They couldn't be selling many extra bottles of whiskey by pushing it in these recipes.

I don't know whether this restaurant has made or lost money since its takeover by Jack Daniels. Certainly, the distillery has performed a public service by maintaining this traditional establishment. For that, I'm appreciative.

This book will make a good gift for someone, particularly someone who's a whiskey fan. I have enjoyed it myself, with the above caveat.