Give the Gift of ‘When Southern Women Cook’

If you only gift one book this holiday season, make it When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes. Coming in at 536 pages, this book with a foreward by Toni Tipton-Martin and edited by Morgan Bolling might be the new bible of Southern cooking. And with contributions from 70 women writers, it’s a first-of-its-kind cookbook that explores the intersection of food and women’s empowerment.

Recipes across 14 chapters were researched and tested by America’s Test Kitchen and shine a light on the origins of these Southern dishes, the women who contributed to them and the culture and circumstances that inspired them.

Cornbread alone gets about 12 pages to discuss everything from hoecakes to spoonbread (and the Virginia housewife credited with first creating it) and whether or not sugar belongs in this Southern staple. Biscuits garner the same extensive treatment and then there’s the recipe for Dollywood Cinnamon Bread, the real attraction of this Tennessee theme park. There’s a story about the women behind Aunt Jemima with a recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes a la Edna Lewis, a country ham primer and a Savory Benne Wafer recipe that’s going to be added to my Christmas cookie list this year.

You’ll read about Texas women shrimpers—and get a recipe for Pickled Shrimp dating to the 1770s—the origins of Appalachian Killed Salad, the comfort of pairing rice and beans, New Orleans Yakamein lady, the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail, fried chicken—from North Carolina Dipped to Nashville Hot—civil rights advocate Zephyr Wright and her Shrimp Curry, the female agents who brought canning into communities and the time-honored tradition of Appalachian gingerbread.

Tipton-Martin writes in the foreward that this book grew out of women’s frustrations about the ways Southern women are still portrayed and a desire to tell their story through food. When Southern Women Cook also goes beyond what we traditionally think of as Southern food and highlights the global flavors that blend so deliciously with those of the South.

Bolling writes in the introduction: “While it does have its fair share of recipes for fried chicken (we’ve included eight) and biscuits (also eight), it has so much more than that. The stories in this book show that food can be a lens through which to learn about our shared history, to pay homage to those who came before us, and to help build a better, tastier future.”

I know I’ll be making the Dollywood Cinnamon Bread, Southern Cheese Straws, Savory Benne Wafers and Appalachian Gingerbread in the days leading up to Christmas. Pair a tin of one of these with this book, and you’ve got the perfect gift to help spread a bit of Southern feminist cheer.