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  4. 10 Cookbooks Every Southerner Should Own

10 Cookbooks Every Southerner Should Own

Hannah Hayes
By Hannah Hayes
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
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Charleston Receipts by the Junior League of Charleston
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn
In the South, cookbooks are considered just as high an art form as our literature. So much more than recipes, cookbooks communicate our culture in tactile terms and humanize the stories passed down in them. They help us understand our sense of place and home. To name just 10 books from the South that do all those things and more (like help us learn the alchemy behind pimiento cheese) is challenging, but if pressed to pick a few for those beginning their cookbook collection or those wanting to complete it, these books would be worthy additions.
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The Gift of Southern Cooking

The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock
Credit: Amazon

by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock

While each of these author’s contributions stand alone, it’s in their friendship that they take on the natural Southern repose of dialogue. It’s in their back and forth between their differences and similarities, Lewis’ Virginia roots in a small farming community founded by freed slaves and Peacock’s Alabama upbringing, that a more complete picture of Southern cooking comes into focus.

Buy It: $20.33; amazon.com

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The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook

The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

Edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge

Drawing upon the tradition of spiral bound community cookbooks from Junior Leagues and civic groups across the South, the Southern Foodways Alliance applied the concept to the greater South by employing their favorite chefs and writers to contribute recipes from cornbread to tomatoe pie and gumbo z’herbes. They illustrate the microregions of cooking traditions and how they come together like patchwork quilt.

Buy It: $18.67; amazon.com

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Real Cajun

Real Cajun Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Donald Link

While many came to understand Cajun cooking from prototypical celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme and his famous blackened redfish, Chef Donald Link (Herbsaint, Peche, Cochon) gives readers a deeper sense of Cajun cooking traditions and ingredients from his both enigmatic and rustic homeland.

Buy It: $20.30; amazon.com

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Southern Cakes

Southern Cakes Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Nancie McDermott

Nancie McDermott’s approachable, joyful, and intensely thoughtful demeanor comes through in recipes that are equally sweet and educational. This is an essential for any Southern baker who wants to know more behind the true histories and techniques behind Lane, Red Velvet, and Coconut cakes.

Buy It: $12.06; amazon.com

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Seasoned in the South

Seasoned in the South Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Bill Smith

From the chef of one of the most important restaurants in the South, Bill Smith and Crook’s Corner, an unassuming cafe in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, helped give Southern food status with national critics and rise to the shrimp and grits phenomenon.

Buy It: $12.67; amazon.com

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The B.T.C Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook

The B.T.C Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Alexe Van Beuren and Dixie Grimes

Although Alexe Van Beuren, Dixie Grimes and Kagan Coughlin started the B.T.C. Grocery in 2010, the revived business feels like an intrinsic part of Water Valley, Mississippi. The gathering spot has become known for its Tex-Mex pimento cheese, take-home casseroles, and hand-pulled chicken salad.

Buy It: $10.88; amazon.com

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Root to Leaf

Root to Leaf Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Steven Satterfield

Southerners know that the true beauty of our region’s food lies not in the fryer but in the fields, gardens, and groves. James Beard Award-winning Chef Steven Satterfield of Miller Union in Atlanta gives readers a comprehensive guide to cooking with Southern produce through a seasonal lens.

Buy It: $29.17; amazon.com

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Pick a Pickle

Pick a Pickle Cookbook
Credit: Amazon

By Hugh Acheson

This flash card-like, fold-out booklet of canning and pickling recipes is the kind of construction we wish we saw more of in publishing. With heavy-duty, near-waterproof pages, you won’t be afraid to actually reference one of its recipes while you’re boiling up a brine for bread and butter pickles. Hugh Acheson’s duality of reverence and inventiveness for this ancient culinary art is apparent from his recipes for classic chow chow to carrot and cabbage kimchi.

Buy It: $8.16; amazon.com

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Charleston Receipts

Charleston Receipts by the Junior League of Charleston
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn

By the Junior League of Charleston

The oldest Junior League community cookbook still in print, Charleston Receipts is the foundation for all spiral bound collections.

Buy It: $18.46; amazon.com

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Heritage

Heritage by Sean Brock
Credit: Courtesy Artisan Books

By Sean Brock

More than recipes, Chef Sean Brock dives into the histories, legacies, stories, and anecdotes that have not only helped shape him into one of the most important voices in Southern culture but also how many voices have brought Southern cooking as a whole to the exciting place it is today. The stunning photography will make you see even the most humble of Southern ingredients in a new, captivating light.

Buy It: $26.34; amazon.com

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    1 of 10 The Gift of Southern Cooking
    2 of 10 The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook
    3 of 10 Real Cajun
    4 of 10 Southern Cakes
    5 of 10 Seasoned in the South
    6 of 10 The B.T.C Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook
    7 of 10 Root to Leaf
    8 of 10 Pick a Pickle
    9 of 10 Charleston Receipts
    10 of 10 Heritage

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