Irresistible History of Southern Food: Four Centuries of Black-Eyed Peas, Collard Greens & Whole Hog Barbecue (American Palate)

Irresistible History of Southern Food: Four Centuries of Black-Eyed Peas, Collard Greens & Whole Hog Barbecue (American Palate) by McDaniel, Rick. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781609491932.

Fried chicken, rice and gravy, sweet potatoes, collard greens and spoon bread - all good old fashioned, down-home southern foods, right? Wrong. The fried chicken and collard greens are African, the rice is from Madagascar, the sweet potatoes came to Virginia from the Peruvian Andes via Spain, and the spoon bread is a marriage of Native American corn with the French soufflé technique thought up by skilled African American cooks. Food historian Rick McDaniel takes 150 of the Souths best-loved and most delicious recipes and tells how to make them and the history behind them. From fried chicken to gumbo to Robert E. Lee Cake, its a history lesson that will make your mouth water. What southerners today consider traditional southern cooking was really one of the worlds first international cuisines, a mélange of European, Native American and African foods and influences brought together to form one of the worlds most unique and recognizable cuisines.