Checked out a new cookbook recently, read through it and promptly returned it.
Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family by Christy Jordan has beautiful pictures of macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, corn bread and pie on the cover...that should have tipped me off to what was inside. Now I'm all for Southern cooking, home cooking and comfort foods in moderation but the recipes in this book frightened me away from trying any of them. No substitutions were suggested if you are alarmed by using 2 cups of mayonnaise in a recipe or a half a cup of corn syrup in your dessert. Two of the recipes in this book need a pound of sugar each!
Not only would I not make any of these recipes "That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family" I'd be alarmed I'd serve up a family member a heart attack with their plate of high sodium, high sugar and high fat.
Grossest cookbook I've read recently. Interested in Southern cooking and comfort foods there are far better cookbooks out there that combine traditional cooking with a responsible diet.
Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family by Christy Jordan has beautiful pictures of macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, corn bread and pie on the cover...that should have tipped me off to what was inside. Now I'm all for Southern cooking, home cooking and comfort foods in moderation but the recipes in this book frightened me away from trying any of them. No substitutions were suggested if you are alarmed by using 2 cups of mayonnaise in a recipe or a half a cup of corn syrup in your dessert. Two of the recipes in this book need a pound of sugar each!
Not only would I not make any of these recipes "That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family" I'd be alarmed I'd serve up a family member a heart attack with their plate of high sodium, high sugar and high fat.
Grossest cookbook I've read recently. Interested in Southern cooking and comfort foods there are far better cookbooks out there that combine traditional cooking with a responsible diet.
2 comments:
I find it difficult to be both open to culinary traditions as practiced wherever they might be practiced, and critical of a book as published that lays out practices as practiced. I suppose it's one thing to discuss whether or not one finds a book useful, for one's own taste and table, just as it's another thing to lay forth judgement on a type of cuisine vs. another. The Latins said it best, I suppose: De gustibus non est disputandum. At the same time, and maybe it's the closet anthropologist in me, but I don't mind having a sampling of as many authentic recipes of cuisines I do enjoy. Sometimes, I like to enjoy the difference in textures and flavors that butter and sugar bring instead of canola and splenda. Nonetheless, Shannon, you remind me to purge some of the far too many cookbooks I've got in my library that do nothing but collect kitchen grease!
I love comments and I enjoyed reading yours Ryan. Let me know if you do any southern cooking, recipes from this book or not. I have a fantastic spicy grits recipe if you are interested, not low fat but yummy. And good luck with the cookbook weeding.
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