From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The fourth installment in Tillery's African-American Heritage Cookbook series (At Freedom's Table, A Taste of Freedom), is similar in tone and style: each is really two books in one, a collection of regional recipes as well as a detailed examination of a particular facet of African-American history. In this volume, Tillery focuses on Atlanta's African-American educational institutions: Morehouse, Spelman, Morris Brown and others. The historical information and accompanying photos are engaging in and of themselves, with detailed information about prominent alumni such as Spike Lee and Julian Bond, as well as less well-known graduates. But the recipes are what really set the book apart. The compilation of over 230 soups, appetizers, drinks, sides and main dishes is a sterling collection of Southern staples with a twist. Mustard Greens with Smoked Turkey, Pickled Black-Eyed Pea Dip and Honeyed Sweet Potato Chips-an ingenious combination of ground honey-roasted peanuts and thinly sliced sweet potatoes seasoned and baked-are just a few of the recipes begging for a turn in the kitchen. One of the hallmarks of southern cooking, and soul food in particular, is regional ingredients used to their fullest potential. Tillery's book couldn't exemplify that rule better: fresh peaches, for example, are used to give a piña colada a Southern kick, as an addition to salsa and as a sweetener in a mustard sauce for chicken wings. Even those who consider themselves well-versed in southern cooking will learn a thing or two from Tillery's book, which deserves space on the shelf of any cook who's serious about American cooking.
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From the Publisher
With her acclaimed African-American Heritage Cookbooks, Carolyn Quick Tillery has become the premier chronicler of the stories, traditions, and triumphs of our nation's great African-American academic institutions. The books in this series--
The African-American Heritage Cookbook (about the Tuskegee Institute),
A Taste of Freedom (about the Hampton Institute), and
Celebrating our Equality (about Howard University)--are sumptuous feasts that combine the ingredients of personal and collective history with archival photographs and hundreds of traditional and modern recipes. The results are as inspiring as they are mouthwatering--must-haves for home and school libraries as much as for kitchens.
Southern Homecoming Traditions, the fourth book in this series, focuses on the food and history of one of America's most influential institutions, the Atlanta University Center, an affiliation of six schools--Morehouse, Spelman, and Morris Brown Colleges, Morehouse School of Medicine, Interdenominational Theological Center, and Clark-Atlanta University--that constitute the largest, historically black educational complex in the world. For more than a century, these schools gathered in one place the best and brightest of black America, including many of our nation's greatest Civil Rights leaders, artists and writers.
That place also brought us a memorable cuisine that evokes all the tastes and flavors of home. From traditional dishes that are making a welcome comeback (Chicken and Waffles), to modern dishes and drinks (Jamaican Chicken, Georgia Peach Champagne Punch), to "forgotten soul foods" that are in danger of being lost forever (Smoked Turkey Neck and Collard Greens, "Chitlins" and Hog Maws), these recipes capture the aromas and emotions of the black experience, past and present.
A melting pot of recipes, stories, songs, and photographs, Southern Homecoming Traditions illuminates the whole of Atlanta's African-American experience from the Civil War to the present day. Enhanced by inspiring African proverbs ("Teach a woman and you teach a nation") and touching remembrances, this is both a sumptuous cookbook and a joyous living history of black America's ever-continuing influence on American cuisine and culture.
Carolyn Quick Tillery's African-American Heritage Cookbooks are more than just cookbooks. They entertain readers while enticing them to learn more about African American history and the struggle for freedom and equality.
