The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great American Cooks [Hardcover]

First, in this book, both authors are professional restaurant chefs who both grew up eating southern cuisine and who specialize in cooking it. In the Villas' book, neither are professional chefs. This means that there is just a bit more fussiness about the methods and ingredients in the Lewis / Peacock recipes. One example is that while both pair of authors endorse homemade mayonnaise, Lewis and Peacock go an additional step by recommending and giving a recipe for homemade baking powder, especially for use in making biscuits. Skeptics, please note, I have made biscuits with my White Lily flour and homemade baking powder, and the homemade stuff does make a difference in eliminating the faint metallic aluminum taste in the stuff from Clabber Girl or Count Rumsfield.

Second, in this book, the two authors are originally from two very different parts of the south. Edna Lewis was raised in rural Virginia and Scott Peacock grew up in Alabama. Both now work in urban Georgia. The Villas' are native of low country North Carolina. Therefore, this book is much stronger in discussing regional differences between, for example, the peanut oil cooking Alabama and the lard cooking Virginia. While the Villas' book deals with some regional issues, such as the dispute over the source of Brunswick stew, it is largely oriented around the cuisine of a single North Carolina low country household and extended family.

Third, in the Lewis / Peacock book, the authors are not mother and son, so there is no chronic family sniping over who is the better cook. Peacock defers to the older Lewis, but they clearly approach the task as equals.

The upshot of all these differences is that our Lewis / Peacock book is at the same time more true to its rural, old South roots while presenting these traditions with a very professional interpretation. A perfect example of this is the interpretation of fried chicken in the two books. Jimmy Villas says his mother's fried chicken has gotten great response from the likes of Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, and Paul Bocuse, yet it is obviously the kind of recipe which would be done in a 20th century home, using Crisco and an electric fry pan. On the other hand, the Lewis / Peacock recipe is clearly more rustic and one which would suit a large restaurant with its hotel pans and walk-in refrigerators. It uses lard, and both a brining and an overnight marinade in buttermilk before breading and frying.

I believe this means that if you want to learn a lot about classic southern cooking techniques, our Lewis / Peacock recipe is the preferred volume. This dedication to true traditional methods even extends to stock making, where a smoked pork stock is as important an ingredient to southern vegetable and soup cooking as a good veal stock is to French soup making. Another illuminating Peacock basic is his methods for making chicken stock, one yielding poached chicken meat and one yielding a very fast stock from scraps. Another great traditional recipe is for cooked dressing for things such as cole slaw. I have not seen this in any other modern book, while it is a staple preparation in books by James Beard, for example.

While the Lewis / Peacock book has a lot of well-known southern dishes, it also has many which are totally unfamiliar to us northerners. One of my favorite discoveries is 'Caveach', a cold fish salad which the authors speculate was named from a corruption of the Spanish 'escabeche', especially as the dish is prepared by marinading white fish in an acidic dressing. Another very nice discovery is skillet scallions, an exquisitely simple way of fattening up spring onions with butter. The variety of recipes for several common southern vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, greens, and cabbage is a testament to the very vegetarian diet and long growing season.

If I were looking for a dish for a classic southern recipe and I had these two books from which to choose, I would start with the Lewis / Peacock book. I have made several dishes from this book and all had methods which were very simple to follow and all of which give superior results. This even includes the recipes for preserves and pickles, as the professional chefs are more likely to have a far greater well of professional experience from which to draw than the talented amateur Villas clan.

Be warned that this book does not deal at all with barbecue, grilling, Creole specialities or Cajun cuisine. For that, you will have to consult specialists in those fields. On the other hand, there are many little gems that are rapidly becoming better known to Americans at large through cable and PBS food shows. My finding a classic southern recipe for a 'BLT' salad makes me think that Alton Brown is really nothing more than a closet southern cook who tried to turn this salad into a Tuscan panzanella salad on his 'Good Eats' show about tomatoes. He would have been more honest and truer to his Georgia roots to confess that the salad was as American as his Weber grill.

This is an excellent interpretation of traditional southern American cuisine as seen by two very accomplished professional chefs. Not every dish is famous and some are the authors' own creations; however, all are true to their roots, and none are more complicated than they have to be.

A highly recommended source for home cooks and students of southern American cuisine.