Customer Reviews

Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are so many Southern cookbooks out now, but this one is a keeper. Some of the books available are written either by those who haven't 'walked the walk' or who have tried updating or otherwise modifying the food we grew up with and loved.

No so Ms. Lundy. She gives us the real thing, take it or leave it, with recipes from her own cooking experience. No, not all of these recipes are 'health food' in today's atmosphere of cooking-political correctness. However, these recipes need no apology. As Julia Child has always said, eat everything wisely and in moderation and you won't go wrong. I'd classify much of this book as comfort food, and besides, stress is killing more of our baby-boomer generation than food ever could!

Interspersed with her recipes are delightful recollections, many of well known personalities.

Buy this book and enjoy her writing as well as her recipes!

I'm from Eastern Kentucky, and this book contains authentic Kentucky recipes. Accept no substitute. The biscuit recipe alone ("Earlene's") is worth the price of the book.

I am a cookbook collector and this book is in my frequently used section. I highly recommend this cookbook.

Since I am a transplanted Southern girl myself and enjoy some really good down home cooking once in awhile, I must say this is a must have cookbook!
The Louisville Suburban Social Club's Fish recipe (well, it's a SECRET recipe so it's close) is wonderful. I grew up on that tasty breaded fish!
Try some of the desserts and serve them to friends but step back to avoid being trampled .

This cookbook is an absolute delight to read and to use. I grew up on this food in Louisville, KY. My Dad was a city boy and a firefighter and my Mom was a country girl. We lived on a combination of firehouse/country food and there is no more delicious combination of cuisine. Like a prior reviewer, the excerpt about the Cozy Theatre and the Suburban Fish Fry brought back some powerful memories. That fish was the best I have ever had. Ronni Lundy's book is the epitome of real regional food.

This is the best book on southern cooking I've ever found. It doesn't need the first part of the title. "The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens",is however,quite appropriate. These are the foods I grew up with and have missed for years. Thanks to Ronni Lundy's book I've found them again.

Ronni Lundy knows southern comfort foods and like any good southerner has a story that goes with it. Her creamed corn, biscuits, pies, and well any dish in this book are wonderful because it is the honest to goodness recipe handed down from generation to generation. I really like her writing style as she shares some good meals and profiles compassionate people. This book will make your mouth water and wish that you were sitting at her table.

My family has southern roots so we occasionally cook southern dishes that my mother prepared.However, my mother has passed-on and now and then, I find myself saying,"Gee, I wish I could ask Mom how she did that."
This cookbook has solved that problem. I have glanced at many so-called southern cookbooks and ended up being disappointed with their recipes.
This cookbook is the "real deal". Lundy knows the towns and the people my family came from.Her chili-bun recipe is dead-on for a recipe my husband and his family raved about for years after the restaurant closed. I have found other recipes here that were similar.
The real surprise is that not only are her recipes familiar ,they are very good in quality.Her crab cakes, while not native to area, are just plain excellent.I trust her recipes as much as I trust Julie Childs.
I have given away 4 copies of this cookbook to delighted family members. My own copy is dog-eared and stained from use.This is a "keeper".It won't gather dust on the shelf.

I have been using this cookbook for over 3 years and am returning to add my own 5 star review! This book brings back what home cooking should really be all about; food that tastes like it did "back home," wholesome and delicious, but simple to prepare, as well as inexpensive.

Some of my favorites are the Real Cornbread (you have to make it in cast iron!), the Honest Fried Chicken-it tastes just like my mom's with that nice golden-brown crisp skin and the tender moist meat inside; the Clay-pot Chicken (the meat practically falls off the bone); the Beef Stew recipe on page 126 is also excellent (I have made it using apple cider instead of wine, which also produces a delicious silky stew); the cobbler recipe on page 291 is another hit. I recently made it with rhubarb and it was fantastic (made with almost any fruit you prefer, it is a perfect dessert to serve after the stew). The Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream tastes just like the kind my grandparents used to make for us back on their farm (the custard is not cooked and uses raw eggs just as theirs did, which not only saves you time, but results in that old time ice cream flavor and texture that is almost impossible to describe. You just have to try it to find out).

Ronni Lundy has assembled a fine collection of recipes with accompanying lore and notes by some of Country Music's giants that is worth the asking price. I find myself reaching for this cookbook more often than most of the other ones I have accumulated.

In one volume, this book contains about 90% of the knowledge necessary to become a great American home cook. It's readable, (mostly) practical, and the recipe selection has a strange way of touching off memories in those who sit down to eat a meal. It's useful not only to beginners or the completely clueless, it's also a valuable reference to the jaded kitchen veteran. The recipes are southern and time-tested. The book is well over a decade old, there are no hipster "foody" gimmicks: it's not what your imaginary FoodTV southern grandma would make, it's what your great-grandma actually did make (and probably a little more). I don't collect cookbooks. In fact, I keep three, though I've read dozens. This one has earned a permanent fixture.