The Cracker Kitchen: A Cookbook in Celebration of Cornbread-Fed, Down Home Family Stories and Cuisine (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Pat Conroy (Introduction)
Key Phrases: flaky pie crust, teaspoon ground sea salt, cup sweet butter, One Little Bitty Baby, All Manner of Unclean Beast, Cold Days of Winter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Owens more than meets expectations, with every page filled with humor, short stories, notes on cultural peculiarities (like gopher turtles), not to mention 150 recipes divided into four seasons and 20 intermingling menus. Geography knows no barriers; a Texas sweet onion pie gets (grudgingly) high marks when married to Sister Jackson’s sausage cheese balls. Hunting season brings, for instance, fried cooter, baked armadillo, and venison, with parenthetical remarks such as, “Try not to run it to death before you kill it, or all the soaking in the world won’t help.” Yes, there are some foods designed for the more health-conscious and vegetarian-oriented; on the whole, though, calorie counters need not peruse these offerings. Owens’ lessons on being Cracker, delivered with a great ear for dialogue and a terrific sense of timing, cover everything from funerals (“truly all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell”) and Easter (“identified more with last-minute trips to K-Mart for matching hosiery than Maundy Thursday retreats to convents and the washing of feet”). The ending? Why, of course, to give thanks. A keepsake. --Barbara Jacobs

Product Description

Though our roots are in the Colonial South, we Crackers are essentially just another American fusion culture, and our table and our stories are constantly expanding -- nearly as fast as our waistlines. We aren't ashamed of either, and we're always delighted with the prospect of company: someone to feed and make laugh, to listen to our hundred thousand stories of food and family and our long American past.

Crackers, rednecks, hillbillies, and country boys have long been the brunt of many jokes, yet this old Southern culture is a rich and vibrant part of Amer-ican history. In The Cracker Kitchen, Janis Owens traces the root of the word Cracker back to its origins in Shakespeare's Elizabethan England -- when it meant braggart or big shot -- through its proliferation in America, where it became a derogatory term to describe poor and working-class Southerners. This compelling anthropological exploration peels back the historic misconceptions connected with the word to reveal a breed of proud, fiercely independent Americans with a deep love of their families, their country, their stories, and, most important, their food.

With 150 recipes from over twenty different seasonal menus, The Cracker Kitchen offers a full year's worth of eating and rejoicing: from spring's Easter Dinner -- which includes recipes for Easter Ham, Green Bean Bundles, and, of course, Cracklin' Cornbread -- to summer's Fish Frys, fall's Tailgate Parties, and winter's In Celebration of Soul, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Recounted in Owens's delightful and hilarious voice, the family legends accompanying each of these menus leap off the page. We meet Uncle Kelly, the Prince of the Funny Funeral Story, who has family and friends howling with laughter at otherwise solemn occasions. We spend a morning with Janis and her friends at a Christmas Cookie Brunch as they bake delectable gifts for everyone on their holiday lists. And Janis's own father donates his famous fundamentalist biscuit recipe; truly a foretaste of glory divine.

The Cracker Kitchen is a charming, irresistible celebration of family, storytelling, and good old-fashioned eating sure to appeal to anyone with an appreciation of Americana.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416594841
• ISBN-13: 978-1416594840
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jewish Crackers applaud THE CRACKER KITHEN, February 17, 2009

By	Bernard M. Schein "Bernie" (Beaufort, SC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a Lowcountry Jew, as alien to the typical New York Jew as a Jewish Cowboy bustin' broncos out West. I'm not a bookworm, but I didn't play football either. I can tell you all about grits, but I didn't know what a bagel was till I went "up North". I talk slow, but I talk a lot. See what I'm getting at here? Who the hell am I? I know now. Janis Owens told me in THE CRACKER KITCHEN. I'm a Jewish Cracker.
And everyone in my synagogue down here feels the same way. Why? They're Jewish Crackers too. We read a lot, but we like our grits cooked just the way Ms. Owens and her folks do. And since in our little community THE CRACKER KITCHEN has surpassed even the Old Testament (to say nothing of EXODUS) in popularity, our Oneg Shabbats are so downright mouth-watering and delicious, so divinely inspired by Ms. Owens' recipes, that Hell, even the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Presbyterians are showing up. In THE CRACKER KITCHEN Ms. Owens shows us all two things: who we are, and that the way to a man ( or woman's) heart is through his stomach, Cracker or not, as long as you're using her recipes.
Unlike so many books that come out of the South nowadays, Ms. Owens never condescends. She sees our cracker heritage for what it is, and loves us unconditionally. THE CRACKER KITCHEN transcends race, culture and class as Ms. Owens voice-- funny, arresting, disarmingly honest and bold--transcends modern Southern literature.
If you don't read this book, consider yourself stupid for life. This from a Jew. This also from a Cracker.
Thank you, Ms. Owens.
The Cracker Kitchen: A Cookbook in Celebration of Cornbread-Fed, Down Home Family Stories and CuisineThe Cracker Kitchen: A Cookbook in Celebration of Cornbread-Fed, Down Home Family Stories and Cuisine

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comfort Food Revival, April 14, 2009

By	Dawn McCain "book addict" (Pasadena, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have quite a selection of "soul" food, "country cooking" and "comfort food" cookbooks and this one rates up high on my list, right along with "Mama Dip's Kitchen" by Mildred Council and "Soul Food: Classic Cusine from the Deep South" by Shelia Ferguson. I have cooked numerous receipes from all and get nothing but compliments on any receipe that I choose to prepare either for family dinner or potluck suppers with friends and family. Living on the Gulf Coast in humid Texas, I have never found a biscuit receipe that worked well at our elevation and with our climate. The "Fundamentalist" Biscuit Receipe donated by the author's own father is so far the best that I have been able to find and prepare.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tested and tasted... an asset to my kitchen!, February 11, 2009

By	RainbowRider "Rainbow" (The Dirty South) - See all my reviews

I have recently procured a copy of this delightful new southern cookbook, and I can already say that on behalf of me and my family, the tasty recipes inside will make you the center of attention at any party or feast. Not to mention that with this cookbook not only do you get recipes for all sorts of courses, occasions, and seasons, but along with them you have funny stories and the author's memories revisited. The Cracker Kitchen makes for a good read as well as a yummy one!