Southern Living, No Tate Like Home

About the Author

Food writer Kelly Alexander grew up in a boisterous Southern-Jewish family in Atlanta, Georgia.

She is co-author of the New York Times bestselling cookbook Smokin’ with Myron Mixon (Ballantine, 2011) and author of the critically acclaimed Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate (Gotham, 2008).

Her magazine work, which has covered everything from obsessive collectors of Fiestaware to the cross-cultural significance of brisket, earned her a James Beard Foundation journalism award. She was a senior editor at Saveur and editor at Food & Wine and Boston magazines. Her writing also has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Gourmet, New York magazine, Real Simple, Newsweek, Slate, and Travel + Leisure, among others.

Alexander teaches food writing and narrative nonfiction writing at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and can be heard chronicling food customs on The State of Things, which airs on North Carolina Public Radio and NPR stations across the country. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, two sons, a dachshund, a calico cat, and a box turtle.

Acknowledgments

In putting together No Taste Like Home, I have been inspired by some of the best minds and tomes on the subject of Southern food. These are writers who apply scholarship and enthusiasm to the history, lore, customs, and ceremonies behind what we eat, and these are the works I’ve not only liberally consulted but also heartily recommend as useful and exciting additions to any cookbook collection:

Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris

Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History by John Egerton

Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie by Bill Neal

Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country by Lolis Eric Elie

Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses by Robb Walsh

Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux: A Cajun/Creole Family Album Cookbook by Marcelle Bienvenu

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen by Paul Prudhomme

I would also like to acknowledge two of my forebears in the world of food writing. The late R.W. Apple, Jr., was uncommonly kind and generous. And then there’s Colman Andrews, my friend and mentor, whose exhaustive, scholarly, and often wryly humorous words on food inspire me most of all. In my opinion, no serious food enthusiast should be without these titles: Apple’s Europe: An Uncommon Guide and Apple’s America: The Discriminating Traveler’s Guide to 40 Great Cities in the United States and Canada by R.W. Apple, Jr; and The Country Cooking of Ireland, The Country Cooking of Italy, Catalan Cuisine, and Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food by Colman Andrews.

It has been my great good luck to have worked with the Southern Living/Oxmoor House team on this book, and I would like to thank my editor, Nichole Aksamit, for her uncommon devotion to telling good stories about Southern food and her commitment to getting all of the attendant details exactly right. Her team, including copy editor Norma Butterworth-McKittrick and the inestimable Oxmoor House test kitchen and photo and design professionals, went above and beyond to make this a beautiful, historically accurate, and utterly precise cookbook.

I would like to thank my agent, Michael Psaltis, for encouraging me to write this book in a way that applies literary convention to food traditions and recipes, and my research team: expert celebrity wrangler Janet Elbetri and the great Dallas-based food reporter Carol Shih (you’ll see her name in the cookbook aisles some day in the future, I’m sure of it).

Finally, I would like to thank my family—my husband, Andrew, and my sons, Louis and Dylan—whose love and support makes it all possible.

—Kelly Alexander

All page numbers refer to the print version. Erin Adams: 233; Gio Alma: 296 (top left); Ralph Anderson: 149 (top), 164 (top right), 257 (top center); Cedric Angeles: 71 (right) 72 (top right) 74 (top center), 78, 160 (top left); B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center: 210 (center); Bobby Badger: 120 (top left); Iain Bagwell: 42 inset, 89 bottom, 119 bottom, 257 top left; Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum: 57 (inset); Kristin Barlowe: 242 (top left); Biltmore House: 192 (top); Birmingham Botanical Gardens: 11 (center); Justin Fox Burks: 234 (top left); Joshua Carpenter: 159 (top right); Mary Margaret Chambliss: 74 (top left); Van Chaplin: 56, 156 (top), 291 (top right); Gary Clark: 34 (top left), 61 (inset), 72 (top left), 106 (top left) 115 (center), 206, 218 (top left), 237 (top right), 264 (right); John Currence: 66 (inset); Cyclorama: 23 (inset); Jennifer Davick: 19, 43 inset, 72 center, 86 top left, 102 inset, 103 inset, 128 bottom right, 143 inset, 172 bottom, 193, 246 top left, 250, 254, 268, 279, 295 inset, 302; Donna D’Errico: 44 (inset); Joseph De Sciose: 204; Peter Frank Edwards/Redux Pictures: 186 (top left), 256; Everett Collection: 252 (top left), 270 (top left); Marcie Cohen Ferris: 182 (top left); Ben Fink Photography: 292 (top left); Squire Fox: 262 (top right), 263; Jim Franco: 187 inset, 287; Andrew Geiger: 111 (top center); Heidi Geldhauser: 20 (top left) Georgia Department of Economic Development: 10; Chris Granger: 82 (top left); David Hanson: 36 (top right and middle); Michael Hanson: 76 (top right), 209 (top center) 210 (top left), 212 (top left); Russ Harrington: 54 (top left), 248 (top left); David Hillegas: 11 (top left); Beth Hontzas: 167 (inset); Jody Horton: 116 (top center and right), 148; Chris Howard: 100 (top left); Cary Jobe: 110, 112 (top right); Jeff Katz Photography: 308 (top left); John Kernick: 134, 151 (inset), 154, 170 (top left); Sarah Kerver: 115 (bottom left); Angela Kinsey: 92 (inset); Ryan Kurtz: 7 (top left), 207 (top right); Thien La: 174 (top left); Lilly’s Restaurant: 226 (top left); Becky Luigart-Stayner: 31, 68 inset, 69, 111 top right, 133, 135 inset, 186 bottom right, 217, 267, 289 bottom, 290; Kevin Mann: 205 (top right); Greg Martin: 198 (top left); Dean Maupin: 190 (inset); Meg McKinney: 288; Andrew Meade/Chica Worldwide: 304 (top left); Art Meripol: 6 (bottom center and right), 7 (top center), 12 (top left and right), 14-15, 18, 46 (top left), 70, 71 (top left), 73, 75 (bottom left, center and right), 76 (top center), 77 (top left and right), 88 (top and bottom), 99 (inset), 108 (top left), 112 (top left), 113, 116 (top left), 117 (bottom left), 118, 129, 158, 164 (top left), 165 (bottom center) 196, 207 (top center), 208, 209 (top right), 210 (top right), 211 (bottom), 212 (top right), 214, 238 (top left), 251 (top right), 260 (top), 265, 294 (top); Miami Design District: 294 (bottom); Gregory Miller: 30 (bottom right); Dorothy O’Connor: 28 (top left); John O’Hagan: 209 (top left); Michael Ochs Archives: 230; Jackson Riley Parker/DIY Network: 300 (top left); Allan Rokach: 262 (left); Chris Rogers: 11 (top right), 59 (bottom), 71 (top center), 78, 98, 160 (top center), 162 (top center), 258 (top left and right), 284 (top left); John Russo: 140 (top left); Mark Sandlin: 115 (bottom right) Blake Sims: 106 (top); Allison V. Smith: 124 (top left); Laurie Smith: 136 (top left); Owen Stayner: 220 (left); Frank Stitt: 52 (inset); Scott Suchman: 2, 7 (top right), 257 (top right), 259, 264 (top center) 266 (top left); David Swanson/San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau: 1114 (inset); Matthew Sweet: 38 (inset); Daniel Taylor: 112, 122, 127, 130, 145, 146; John Martin Taylor: 282 (top left); Eugenia Uhl: 71 (right), 74 (top right) Stacey Van Berkel: 160 (top right), 161, 173 (top right); Jason Wallis: 162 (top left); Charles Walton: 153 (top right); John Warner Photography: 194 (top left); Scott Wiseman: 299 (top right); Ann-Marie Wyatt: 62 (top left)

All other photos provided by Southern Living and/or Oxmoor House.

Richard Blais recipe adapted from Try This at Home: Recipes from My Head to Your Plate by Richard Blais (Clarkson Potter, 2013).

Bobby Deen recipe adapted from From Mama’s Table to Mine: Everybody’s Favorite Comfort Foods at 350 Calories or Less by Bobby Deen and Melissa Clark (Ballantine, 2013).

John T. Edge recipe adapted from The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook (University of Georgia Press, 2010).

Kevin Gillespie recipe adapted from Fire in My Belly: Real Cooking by Kevin Gillespie with David Joachim (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2012).

Marcie Cohen Ferris recipe adapted from Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris (UNC Press, 2010).

Eva Longoria recipe adapted from Eva’s Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends (Clarkson Potter, 2011).

Loretta Lynn recipe adapted from You’re Cookin’ It Country: My Favorite Recipes and Memories (Thomas Nelson Inc., 2004).

Myron Mixon recipe adapted from Smokin’ with Myron Mixon: Recipes Made Simple, from the Winningest Man in Barbecue by Myron Mixon and Kelly Alexander (Ballantine Books, 2011).

Andrea Reusing recipe adapted from Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes by Andrea Reusing (Clarkson Potter, 2011).

Mo’Nique recipe from Skinny Cooks Can’t be Trusted by Mo’Nique with Sherri McGee McCovey. Copyright © 2006 by Mo’Nique and Sherri McGee McCovey. Adapted and reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Robb Walsh recipe adapted from Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses (Chronicle Books, 2002).

Susan Rebecca White recipe adapted from A Place at the Table: A Novel (Touchstone, 2013).

Trisha Yearwood recipe adapted from Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share with Family and Friends by Trisha Yearwood (Clarkson Potter, 2010).

All other recipes previously published by Southern Living and/or Oxmoor House or newly submitted by their credited authors for use in this book. All recipes tested by Southern Living and/or Oxmoor House test kitchens.

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No Taste Like Home

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