Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Bountiful Harvests, Creative Cooks, and Comforting Foods of the American Heartland [Hardcover]

Judith Fertig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

The food of the Midwest is the flavor of America itself, a marriage of tradition and innovation, comfort and creativity, abundence and thrift. in Prairie Home Cooking, Judith Fertig serves up a warmhearted invitation to savor the best flavors of America's breadbasket.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If Ma and Pa Ingalls had expanded their Little House enough to welcome overnight guests, Judith M. Fertig's Prairie Home Cooking would be the cookbook most often featured on the bed and breakfast menu. There'd be a basket of Tom's Northern Plains Rhubarb Muffins, to be sure. And probably a St. Louis Gooey Butter Coffee Cake for those who just can't decide. Then Featherweight Whole Wheat Pancakes with Chokecherry Syrup, or Gingerbread Waffles with Pear Sauce, followed by a Hungarian Omelette, Tomato and Zucchini Scrambled Eggs, Herbed Sausage Patties, Swedish Potato Sausages, a side of fried Goetta, and coffee. And that, by golly, is only breakfast.

Once you get over to the Amish Frolic, you'll find Orange-Mint Thresher's Drink, Firehouse Tomatoes, Pickled Beets, Baked Macaroni and Cheddar, Scalloped Peaches-and-Cream Corn, Buttermilk-Oatmeal Bread, New Prague Meatloaf, Norwegian Potato Doughnuts, and Old-fashioned Chocolate Cakes with Boiled Frosting. And then there's supper to think about next.

Take the better part of Europe, heavy on the North and the Central, tip it up on one end, and sprinkle liberally across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska, let sit for 100 years of proud cooking, and 400 of the recipes that remain will be found in Prairie Home Cooking.

Anyone connected to a farm somewhere along the line will find this book comforting. Anyone with an abundant backyard garden will love this book for its relishes and canned goods. Anyone who ever wondered about the Midwest is in for a thorough education. And eating is only part of it. Fertig fills her pages with wonderful detail about the places and the people that have made up the American Midwest ever since the first plow broke through prairie sod.--Schuyler Ingle --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Fertig (Pure Prairie and Que Queens) uses her native knowledge of the heartland (and parts of Canada) and its cultural patchwork to create dishes that go beyond the dreaded Campbell soup casseroles without losing that essential ingredientAcomfort. For reliable, filling recipes that make great leftovers, this is the ticket. Hearty appetites will appreciate Polish Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup or Wisconsin Cheddar Beer Soup. For spicier fare there's Santa Fe Trail Smothered Steak. The book's strong point is the sinful, filling food category, which includes Baked Macaroni and Cheddar and Golden Nugget Custard. The breakfast section (St. Louis Gooey Coffee Cake, Gingerbread Waffles with Pear Sauce) appeals any time of day. Cooks will learn that Church Supper Chicken and Wild Rice Hot Dish, more than a casserole, is a Minnesotan potluck rite of passage. Tucked into every nook of this exhaustive collection are what may be the best treats of allAoriginal jellies and sides (Raspberries and Red Currants in Honeysuckle Jelly) that conjure up stops at roadside country stands. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 538 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558321446
• ISBN-13: 978-1558321441
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cookbook author Judith Fertig grew up in the Midwest, went to college and cooking school in Europe, and now lives in Kansas City. Her cookbooks reflect her love of bread, baking, barbecue, and the fabulous foods of the Heartland.

You can read some of her cookbooks like novels--the fabulously photographed Heartland, the award-winning and James Beard Awards-nominated Prairie Home Cooking, the encylopedic All-American Desserts, and Prairie Home Breads.

Others reflect her ongoing reign as a tiara-totin' BBQ Queen, along with co-author and co-queen Karen Adler, from BBQ Bash, 300 Big & Bold Barbecue Recipes, and Weeknight Grilling to 25 Essentials Planking and 25 Essentials Grilling Fish. Do you know the 4 BBQ Queen Waves for when you're famous for barbecue??? (Here are a few hints: Wiping the windshield, screwing in a lightbulb, fluttering the air. . . .)

And some of her cookbooks just make you want to get in that kitchen and stir up something new--with one-bowl, no-knead bread in 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads or with your "electric assisant" in The Artisan Bread Machine.

Check out her blog at http://www.alfrescofoodandlifestyle.blogspot.com/ for even more recipes, photos, and a peek into her kitchen.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another hit from my favorite culinary icon!, November 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Bountiful Harvests, Creative Cooks, and Comforting Foods of the American Heartland (America Cooks) (Paperback)

As a fellow native of Kansas City, I see Ms. Fertig's work everywhere- in newspapers, in bookstores, and on television. And like other Midwesterners, I admire her efforts to give our regional cooking the status it deserves. This book eliminates any doubts about the quality of Midwestern cooking. It has been a huge success locally, and the nationwide attention it is receiving is equally justified. Ms. Fertig mixes ethnic dishes such as Bratwurst with Caramelized Onion and Apples with modern classics like Vegetable Garden Pot Roast to yield a truly well-rounded image of the Midwestern culinary tradition. For those skeptics out there, one bite of the heavenly Blue Cheese and Toasted Pecan Spread will convert you! I've had the pleasure of attending some of Ms. Fertig's cooking classes, and her penchant for humor and storytelling are clearly reflected in her book. I strongly recommend it for any avid cooks who wish to get in touch with their roots. This is the epitome comfort food.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT CULINARY TOUR OF THE MIDWEST AND MORE!, October 25, 1999

By 

karen adler (Kansas City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Bountiful Harvests, Creative Cooks, and Comforting Foods of the American Heartland (Hardcover)

This is a lovingly researched and written work about heartlandcookery. I attended a reception for the author of this book and tasted several outstanding recipes including: Church Supper Chicken and Wild Rice Hot Dish, Sour Cream and Onion Kuchen, Winter Garden Vegetable Salad, and Sour Cream Raisin Bars. These were as good as anything my grandmother used to make, which is high praise. I've had great results and compliments on some of the recipes that I have made:Blue Cheese and Toasted Pecan Spread and the Smoked Goat Cheese on Field Greens salad. The German Cheese Tart is one of the prettiest and best-tasting desserts I've ever made! I've also enjoyed reading the text of the book, too. I think the author's recipes and instructions are clear and have found nothing in error. I highly recommend this book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book about "fly-over country"!!, October 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Bountiful Harvests, Creative Cooks, and Comforting Foods of the American Heartland (Hardcover)

What a wonderful cookbook about a part of our country that is dismissed by others on either coast as not worthy to consider writing about. Ms.Fertig's delightful stories, recipes, and resources make this book a gem. I have tried many of the recipes, among them - Hearty sausage and kale soup, wild mushroom pot pies, braided cheddar ale bread - and found them easy to follow and, what's more, Delicious!! I have purchased 5 of the hard-cover books for Christmas presents for my friends and nieces.