Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches
Author: Joyce Whit
When Joyce White moved to New York City from Alabama, she left small-town life behind and landed ajob as a food editor at a major women's magazine. Weekends, however, found her visiting churches in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvestant, looking for a taste of home. Food has long been a part of the spiritual life of African-American churches, and what she found there, along with what she missed from home, was the comforting blend of cooking and fellowship that feeds both the body and soul.
In this warm and joyful collection, White offers more than 150 recipes for the foods that worshipers look forward to after services, and she captures the spirit of these sociable meals with warm, conversational and occasionally poignant reflections from African-American churchgoers around the United States.
"We don't just come to church service and leave," says a retired nurse who directs hospitality for a large church in Los Angeles. "Many of us stay here half the day. That way we get a chance to rub shoulders and see what is going on or going wrong with each other."
From delicious renditions of classics such as Sugar-Crusted Biscuits to updated favorites such as Black Beans with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, as well as special fare for entertaining and Kwaanza, the pages of Soul Food are alive with the spirit and love of African-American churches -- and the terrific food to be found there.
Florence Fabricant
The pages of Soul Food are filled with grainy black-and-white snapshots of church suppers and women in aprons tending big pots of greens on the stove. It is not the first African-American cookbook to wander down this memory lane. But unlike many such books, this one is written with an alluring combination of personal attachment and keen observation. With Soul Food, [Joyce White] has captured the legacy of home-style African-American cooking in big city settings and little backwoods congregations...This is a book about loving to cook, eat and share honest food.
Jonell Nash
Church suppers — the comforting blend of traditional dishes and warm fellowship that truly feed our spirits — fill this cookbook by Joyce White. From John Wesley A.M.E. Church in Detroit to Mount Bethel Baptist in Gulfport, Mississippi, White presents our houses of worship and details glorious occasions for breaking bread. The photographs and recipes for heritage dishes such as Chicken Creole and Angel Biscuits will make you want to shout!
New York Daily News
Praise the Lord and pass the cornbread! That's what happens in African-American churches all over our country and now — Rejoice! Oh, rejoice!
Kansas City Star
A tribute to the bodily, as well as the spiritual, sustenance of the African-American church, Soul Food is a culinary tribute to congregations across the country.
Publishers Weekly
Intended to please a congregation of palates, these church-supper recipes possess a simplicity that suits the accompanying stories about their contributors. After sending forth a call for Sunday favorites to churchgoing folk in cities big and small, White, a freelance food writer, received scores of letters from Harlem and Tyler, Tex., and Biloxi, Miss., and Detroit. The responses embrace a range of dishes suitable for kettles, warming trays and big-handled spoons: Pineapple Cornbread; Fried Green Okra; Baked Chicken and Gravy; Salmon Croquettes; Love-Glazed (pineapple juice and brown sugar) Ham; Hush Puppies. Paprika is fairly ubiquitous; a cup of ketchup features in both Barbecued Shrimp and Neat Meatloaf. In the narratives accompanying these 150 recipes, the cooks are presented as busy, generous, hard-working and religiously devoted. One is "a poet, Sunday school teacher, legal secretary and meeting planner." Of another White wonders how she "has time to cook, considering the wide array of church activities and community projects that she is involved in." The book is more notable for its cultural trimmings than for its recipes. Some readers may find themselves longing for the company of just one lazy sinner with a booty of Italian sausage. (Feb.)
Books about: The Fat Elimination and Detox Program or Tomato Cookbook
Penguin Companion to Food
Author: Alan Davidson
Renowned food expert and cookbook writer Alan Davidson, along with more than fifty specialists from all over the world, packs this fascinating volume with more than 2,600 entries on every type of food-from plant and dairy products, meats, poultry, and nuts to seafoods, cereals, and exotic foods. They examine famous dishes from around the world, from cassoulet to sonofabitch stew, and include more than 140 entries on national and regional cuisines-even edibles from Antarctica. Handsomely illustrated and augmented with information on food preservation, food science, and more, this extraordinary book is an essential resource for anyone with a serious interest in the central place of food in human life.
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