HOPPIN' JOHN'S LOWCOUNTRY COOKING: Recipes from Charleston and the Carolina Coastal Plain

by John Martin Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 1992

As Carolina lowcountry native and Charleston cookbook-store owner Taylor indicates in his introduction, the cooking of his native region has been sophisticated since earliest settlement, blessed by an abundance of fish and game (especially birds) and a year-round growing season, and enriched by a world of cultural traditions: Recipes gathered here include ""awendaw"" hominy (grits) cornbread derived from Native Americans; a gumbo that came to South Carolina with the slave trade before Louisiana was settled; a carrot-and-orange salad with ""a North African feel"" that Taylor attributes to the Sephardic Jews in Charleston; a hasenpfeffer from the area's 18th-century German farm community; some rice breads from the 19th-century carolina rice culture; and versions of the collard greens, squirrel burgoo, biscuits, and other dishes well known throughout the South. Many of these dishes, have turned up in other recent stories southern cookbooks, but Taylor's historical background and his expert observations (for example, that southern biscuits should be made with soft southern flour) and his local concentration--make this of major interest for serious followers of American regional cooking.

Pub Date: March 16, 1992

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992

Categories: NONFICTION