Customer Reviews

Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes

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

 

 

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves creative and classic recipes. Southern Living over the years has published some fabulous recipes and this book contains the best of the best.

I have never made a recipe from any Southern Living book that didn't turn out wonderful. The recipes are appealing to a novice cook as well as a seasoned one. This is 30-years worth of tried and true greats.

If you are thinking about buying this book, go for it. It would make a great wedding or shower gift as well. Enjoy--I do.

I have been cooking for 30 years, but this cookbook inspires me to cook the recipes without hesitation. As the previous reviewer wrote, I also have never made a Southern Living recipe that didn't turn out great! My husband can hardly wait for me to make the French Onion Soup again (it was the best he had ever had). Last night the Chicken and Mushroom Marsala was absolutely delicious. I'll just work my way through the entire book. No other cookbook has inspired me so.

Be careful about lending out the book. I made the mistake of showing the cookbook to coworkers - now I am "allowed" to take the book home at night, but someone else always wants to borrow it to get the recipe for Black Walnut Cake or Mississippi Mud Pie, etc. Everyone comments that the ingredients are commonly available. Some recipes are simple, some require more time. But if you have a hankering for a certain dish, you know you can trust the Southern Living recipe!

This would be a great gift for a new cook (I can imagine no better way to build an instant reputation as a "great cook") or for the cookbook addict who adores great food.

p.s. I am not tied to the magazine or the publisher.

l like Southern Living because their recipes are accessible to people like me who have only moderate skill in the kitchen but who like to cook from scratch. Plus, the ingredients are easy to find in my local grocery, unlike a lot of the recipes from Bon Appetit or Gourmet. This "Best Of" cookbook is GREAT. It is the first cookbook I reach for on an ordinary weekday and for holidays and dinner parties too.

Some of the recipes are incredibly easy to make (Bibb Salad w/ Raspberry Maple Vinaigrette; Jalapeno Coleslaw) and taste fabulous. Others, like the Almond Braid, seem more complicated but turn out great and taste wonderful. This is because Southern Living creates their recipes from the point of view of the average cook in the average kitchen, so the instructions always make sense, use techniques and equipment I am already familiar with, and are easy to follow.

I have made many of the recipes in this cookbook and every one of them has tasted great and gotten rave reviews. My only complaint is that there are too few recipes. I highly recommend this book!

I was excited to see this product listed because I love the Southern Living Annual Recipes and assumed this would be a collection of the best recipes from each year. However, this was not the case. For example, a recipe for Sour Cream Poundcake, which was in one of the annual recipes books and had received one of the highest ratings ever, was not included in this cookbook. Instead, the cookbook was filled with what I would consider fairly generic recipies (i.e. Chex Mix, cheese straws, etc). What was more annoying, some of the items which were pictured in the introductory section and looked delicious (i.e. a pecan pie cake) were not even included in this book! I was generally disappointed and returned the item.

If what you are looking for is a delicious, show-stopping dessert, with no thought at all to calories, cholesterol, or fat content, you'll find loads of them here, starting with the scrumptious-looking cover photo of a Coconut Cream Cheese Poundcake. Those on diets of any kind may have a harder time finding appropriate recipes.

Southern Living has collected their best recipes from the past thirty years, including, apparently, quite a few from those blissful years in the 70's when the future seemed to stretch on forever and we felt no guilt about indulging our taste for lots of butter, eggs, and heavy cream. The recipes are all fantastic and relatively easy to prepare, and some, such as the Baked Spicy Beef Chimichangas have been updated to suggest spraying them with cooking spray and baking them, rather than deep frying, to lower the fat content, though the frying instructions are still included. None of the recipes, however, include any nutritional analysis.

What I find most surprising is the extent to which the baking recipes, especially, have not changed with the times. I had hoped the book would help me update some of my S.L. favorites by suggesting some options for reducing the fat and cholesterol while still remaining delicious. Alas, of the 25 recipes for cakes (excluding jelly rolls), nine still call for at least one full cup (one-half pound) of butter. Some also call for six eggs. No options are suggested, though there must be some which would not compromise the recipes too much! When one adds to this the fact that the microwave is seldom, if ever, mentioned and that none of the recipes seem to indicate whether something can be frozen or for how long, the cookbook feels a bit dated, not completely in tune with today's greater health-consciousness and S.L.'s older readership trying to be more conscientious about food preparation. Mary Whipple

I purchased this cookbook and didn't really look at it until later. It was relegated to the shelf with the other cookbooks. One day, I needed a recipe for something really Southern. I looked everywhere, including the Internet, to no avail for a suitable recipe. I found many classic comfort food recipes that were simpler than I remember. Every recipe I tried has been great. I won't give it an A+ for health though. This is the full fat, full egg, full sugar version. I will say this though, many healthier substitutes work well in this cookbook for like fat free dairy products, egg substitute, or whole wheat bread. I even tried Splenda in these recipes and you couldn't tell a difference between it and sugar.

If you're an average cook, be sure to buy this book because afterwards, you won't be! You'll be a master chef! The recipes are so very easy and you really don't have to worry about interpreting some strange cooking language like that in other cooking magazines. The editors make these recipes absolutely wonderful but easy too. I can't say enough good about them - just that I started with a couple and now I have over 30 Southern Living cookbooks and I use them all!

This is one of the best cookbooks I've ever owned. Everything I make is just amazing! I have made desserts, entrees and breads from this cookbook. Everything is delicious and the directions are perfect!

This purchase was one of the best deals EVER!!!! I paid only approx. $4.00 each for 6 of these books and they will make super gifts. The link is thru Amazon, entitle "turtle"......sorry, I can't remember the rest of the name. The books arrived in brand new condition and in speedy time.

A great collection of some of the best recipes from the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. These recipes are some of the favorites for those years and a great addition to my cookbook collection.