Customer Reviews

The Southern Cook's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Old-Fashioned Southern Cooking

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a 59 year old male in search of receipes that will yeild the memories of my childhood in Alabama. I have found it in the
Southern Cook's Handbook. This cook book is the answer to "how did they do that?". I thought I knew how to bake a ham, but then I tried the step-by-step guide to baking a ham, and boy what a difference it made. The spiral cut ham I baked for Easter was tender, moist, and flovoralbe. I tried the corn bread step-by step instructions and the corn bread turned out terrific( I didn't think my corn bread could get any better, but it did). This is a cookbook that will be used and past around. Thank you Courtney Tayor.

As a chef and food writer deeply interested in Southern cooking, I turn to this book first, again and again. It's easy to wax eloquently about this cuisine, or even write songs about it, but the fact is, traditional American cuisine suffers from a lot of bad writing. Not so with The Southern Cook's Handbook. The book is superbly organized and very well written. Recipes, with commentary, are clear, and they work. The authors succeed in their efforts to organize the book first with basics (choosing equipment and seasonal produce) then an important section on methods (making stock, gravy, etc.) before giving us the recipes, also well organized as to type. This is by far the best book to buy in a crowded field.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

Recently received my copy of the Southern Cook's Handbook, and I am delighted to recommend it to anyone interested in Southern home cooking. Not only excellent recipes, but a step-by-step guide to the methods of southern cooking as well. I have quite a collection of cookbooks, but I can see that I will be referring to this one quite frequently. Even after 40 years of marriage, I have gained new ideas after reading this book. Last night I made the creamy chicken salad, and we loved it! I will definitely be ordering more to give as wedding presents!

This book covers all the basics that I grew up with, from mom's meatloaf, to the real secret to great cornbread. It is full of useful information regarding techniques used in the south and to some extent the southwest (I grew up in Texas and this is the food we ate) The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is the lack of pictures.

This is one of the best cookbooks that I have had the opportunity to review. It actually tells you all the things that you need to know.

As a Southern cook for over 40 years, this books gives you easy receipes that produce really true Southern dishes.

I have a large collection of cookbooks (over 200). I have at least twenty Southern and soul food cookbooks. This cookbook is my go-to cookbook for Southern country cooking. I live in the Deep South, and was raised here by transplanted "northerners" and was never taught how to cook Southern food. This cookbook is SO descriptive in the recipes and tells you what you will see as you are cooking them. I am not a vegetable eater, but my husband is and I made perfect pole beans having never tasted or cooked them before! I love, love, love this cookbook. It doesn't have any pictures inside or pictures of old biddies on the cover, but the recipes are dead on!

A must have cookbook for anyone who's interested in learning to cook Southern food. The methods section of this book takes you step-by-step though making the all the staples, such as cornbread, gravies, biscuits, etc. and you'll find recipes for many of the favorite Southern dishes.

I've tried a lot of the recipes in this book and they have all worked out great.

I'm sitting here at my desk paging through my signed copy of this book, and making a list of people I need to order one for! It really is a text no Southern cook (or enthusiastic cook from anywhere) should be without. The layout is great, the "step-by-step" sidebars are truly helpful, and Taylor/Travis have left out no signature down-South dish, from aspic to whiskey sauce (the latter is a MUST to pour over a warm slice of classic bread pudding, page 259). Now, "convenience" cooks take note: this isn't a "semi-homemade" or qwik-n-EZ book---rather, it takes you through the processes and techniques in some detail. But the rich tradition of regional Southern cooking deserves no less. Right now the book is open to page 265, "Brownies", and I scribbled this handwritten note: "Delicious and fudgy, but trouble to make!" Trouble, yes, but once you make 'em, the boxed mixes will never satisfy you. Another aspect of this work that I really appreciate: the recipes are NOT given cutesy names like "Aunt Fanny's Famous Fried Chicken" or "Uncle Tubby's Best-Ever BBQ Sauce"---nope, the authors call each dish exactly what it is, which sure makes everything easy to find in the index. Two butter-and-flour-covered thumbs up from this Southern-chef-wannabe!

I made the Red Velvet Cake for Christmas and my in-laws were so thrilled. It was the best I have ever eaten. Also we made the Hand-Tossed Buttermilk Biscuits and they were so fun and easy to make and delicious! This book is excellent and well worth the money for those that love Southern food.

Southerners pour so much heart and soul into their food that sometimes they forget to measure. They are notorious for attempting to teach their offspring recipes while using vague terms like, a pinch of this, or a dab of that, or "til the dough feels right"(Thanks Mama!). Sometimes passed down recipes list ingredients without telling us exactly how to prepare the dish or maybe the author really didn't want everyone knowing their "secret". Courtney Taylor's The Southern Cook's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Old-Fashioned Southern Cooking clears up these fuzzy areas for you. Not only will you have some scrumptious tried and true recipes, you will also learn some basic old fashioned skills that will help you apply today's tools and methods to all of your old recipes.

If you haven't prepared this type of food in a long time and you need to brush up on your skills, this book is for you. If you have never made a biscuit from scratch but would like to know how, this book is for you too. This is a must have cookbook for anyone who loves southern cuisine.

I highly suggest that Courtney Taylor's The Southern Cook's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Old-Fashioned Southern Cooking be added to your shelf. Do your female family members a favor and order them copies as well. They will need it to translate your secretly coded index cards that make sense to you, but not to them.