Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking

by Joseph E. Dabney and Joseph Earl Dabney

Book Overview

Winner of the James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year Award Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine is a scrumptious slice of Smoky Mountain and Blue Ridge hill country foodlore handed down from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, and the Cherokee Nation. In addition to generous helpings of folklore, the text highlights and embraces the art of Appalachian cuisine from pioneer days to the present, providing insights that will fascinate...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581820046
• ISBN13: 9781581820041
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Length: 493 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

All I can say is this book is AWESOME. You must get it. I have never seen such quality, and old time cooking, and history wrapped up in one cookbook like this. I wish there were more books like this one. If we don't write down the knowledge these people had, and how they survived, and lived...we are making a tragic mistake. I cannot wait to start making some of the food listed from their recipes! I just saw this book last night at a bookstore in town. Don't hesitate to get this book, you won't be sorry.

A Gem of a Book

Great recipies and great stories. Truly reflects the relatinship between food, culture and the heritage of the region. Even if I do not want to make a particular dish, I enjoy reading about its local historical importance. I read this book to imerse myself in the "feeling" of the region. I have about 200 cookbooks, but this is one of my favorities -- I sent it to my cousin in West Virginia so that she can better understand the background of her neighbors. To summarize: I just love this book.

Recording the Past

One of my true regrets in life is that I did not write down the treasured "old timey" way of doing things before my grandparents passed away. Things like making homemade apple butter and planting by the signs are now, sadly, a thing of the past. I want to thank the author for recording these things from others in my grandparent's generation. I am truly indebted.

Lovely country -- true country! -- recipes & folklore

Years ago I lived in Virginia, and this cookbook brings back a lot of memories of something rooted to the land. It's about the people, the hills, and the lifestyle -- all intertwined inseparably from the food. There's something rich going on here -- and I don't mean in dollars. The author's done a fine job. The recipes presented are not abundant (the first recipe doesn't appear until page 103), but they are as "American" as you can imagine, if not exactly contemporary. Included are country recipes with names that will intrigue many of us now: elderberry wine, pot likker dumplings, Cherokee hominy, Blue Ridge fried corn, cherrylog scuppernong pie, sorghum taffy, and mule ears. I don't know how many of these recipes I'll make, but boy do I love reading this book!