The fifth volume in this popular series from the Southern Foodways Alliance spans the food cultures of the South. Cornbread Nation 5, lovingly edited by accomplished food writer Fred W. Sauceman, celebrates food and the ways in which it forges unexpected relationships between people and places. In this collection of more than seventy essays and poems, we read about the food that provides nourishment as well as a sense of community and shared history.
Essays examine Nashville’s obsession with hot chicken and the South’s passion for congealed foods. There are stories of green tomatoes frying over a campfire in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee and tea cakes baking for Easter in Louisiana. In a chapter on immigrant cooking, writers visit the Mississippi Delta where a Chinese family fries pork rinds in a wok and a Lebanese restaurant serves baklava alongside coconut cream pie. Alan Deutschman, a self-described “Jewish Yankee,” chronicles his search for the perfect country ham. Barbara Kingsolver extols on the joys of eating sustainably. Sara Roahen writes a veritable love letter to the venerable New Orleans Sazerac. Kevin Young delights with his “Ode to Chicken,” and Donna Tartt treats us to what else but bourbon. Cornbread Nation 5 is a feast for the eyes, and if you’re not hungry or thirsty when you pick up this book, you will be when you put it down.
Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. A Friends Fund Publication.
Contributions by: Marcie Ferris, Edna Lewis, Jennifer Justus, Scott Peacock, Martha Stamps, Molly O'Neill, Dan Huntley, Marilyn Kallet, Kevin Young, John Shelton Reed, Alan Deutschman, Carroll Leggett, Pete Daniel, Rheta Johnson, Beth Fennelly, Kathleen Purvis, Robb Walsh, Jessica B. Harris, Roy Blount, Ben Barker, John Martin Taylor, Julia Reed, Amy Evans, John T. Edge, Sara Camp Milam, Martha Foose, Brett Anderson, Crescent Dragonwagon, Sara Roahen, Fred W. Sauceman, John Kessler, Fred Thompson, Elizabeth Alexander, Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Carr, Anthony Cavender, Charles C. Doyle, David Ramsey, Kara Carden, Katherine Whitworth, Jeffrey Gettleman, Garland Strother, Jack Neely, Chuck Shuford, Sarah Anne Loudin Thomas, Marianne Worthington, Kathryn Eastburn, Neely Barnwell Dykshorn, Lucretia Bingham, Susan Shelton, Lee Walburn, Salley Shannon, Michelle Healy, Sylvia Woods, Tore C. Olsson, Anne Martin, Joan Nathan, Mei Chin, George Motz, Corby Kummer, Andrew Huse, John S. Forrester, Robert St. John, Bill Archer, Devon Brenner, Donna Tartt, Francine Maroukian, John Simpkins, Ari Weinzwieg
