Beyond Grits and Gravy: The South's All-Time Favorite Recipes (Best of the Best Cookbook Series) Review

Posted by Juanita Avenue on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Jell-O is not an ingredient. It is, as the philosophers might say, a thing-in-itself, or sometimes a substrate for, say, canned fruit cocktail. But it is not an ingredient.

It may be that Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley have collected many of the South's current favorite recipes, But all-time? No way.

This book is a sad monument to the decayed state of Southern cuisine. Unfortunately, people probably really do eat Congealed Coca-Cola Cranberry Salad, made from orange Jell-O, Coke and Knox gelatine.

McKee and Moseley claim to have compiled 65 cookbooks, and this is supposed to encompass the best of the best from them. They work for a sort of assembly line called Best of the Best State Cookbooks, which is "preserving America's food heritage."

Indiscriminately and incompletely.

Although there are some classics here, like Red-eye Gravy, and some local specialties like French-fried Dill Pickles (which I never encountered outside Natchez), there is entirely too much frozen stuff and overdone standards, like a recipe for Succotash with nine -- count `em! 9 -- ingredients.

The pickles section is a pathetic four pages, without Chow Chow or Piccalilli.

A very uneven production, like a cake fallen on one side.

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Product Description:
Gwen and Barbara have combined their cooking instincts with years of research to compile these 400 classic southern dishes.You will treasure their recipes, learn from their time-saving suggestions and enhancements, and be amused by their personal stories that add a touch of southern charm.